Category Archives: Coaches

Coaches, State of the team

Players: Macdonald and ‘right coaches’ bring ‘urgency’

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Amid the hullabaloo by some overly nostalgic fans about Mike Macdonald’s rearranging of the VMAC, his players seem to get it. They know Pete Carroll’s missing hoop and the temporarily blank walls are a metaphor for a clean slate, a new beginning.

They also know the expectations are much higher now and being delivered in a more defined, exacting way than Carroll and his staff were doing over the last few years.

It’s all as it should be, and the smart ones – players and fans – understand that. The players who don’t won’t be around very long. And that’s as it should be, too.

The core leaders of this defense – Leonard Williams, Uchenna Nwosu and Julian Love – sound bought in.

Continue reading Players: Macdonald and ‘right coaches’ bring ‘urgency’ →
Coaches, Free agency, The roster

Macdonald: ‘We want to set the standard in Seattle’

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In Pete Carroll’s last
season in Seattle, his
platitudes and vague
descriptors about what needed to be fixed on the defense had worn super thin and it was so obvious that he really had no idea how he was going to fix the weakest part of his team after years of failing.

That’s why it is so refreshing to hear Mike Macdonald
quietly but confidently talk about how elite his defense is going to be. He outlines it so clearly that you can just see it happening — and not taking long either.

Whether he is talking about how expectations lead to Super Bowl wins, about his motto of Chasing Edges or about “building a wall up the middle” of his defense, he sounds assured that all of these things will happen.

His resume supports his words, which is why he evokes such confidence from so much of the fan base – a huge turnaround from the last couple years of the fading Carroll era.

Here are some of the encouraging things Macdonald said at the NFL owners meetings in Orlando this week, as reported by Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic and John Boyle of Seahawks.com.

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Coaches

Hawks are following Dan Quinn’s hiring trends; will it work for them?

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The Seahawks might not have hired Dan Quinn as their coach, but John Schneider and Mike Macdonald sure took a couple of pages out of his coaching manual as they selected Macdonald’s coordinators.

The obvious tie is new DC Aden Durde, who worked for Quinn in Atlanta from 2018 to 2020. He now becomes the first British-born defensive coordinator in NFL history, and Macdonald surely is counting on his teaching abilities to help fix Seattle’s front seven. More on him later.

The more intriguing – and significant — hire is OC Ryan Grubb, who oversaw UW’s high-octane offense the past two years. There is a crazy Quinn-UW-Alabama triangle going on with this move.

The Hawks have to hope it works out better for them than it did for Quinn’s Falcons a few years ago or for most of the teams over the past 20-25 years that have tried to elevate a college play caller with no prior NFL experience.

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Coaches

Mike Macdonald: ‘We’re gonna win a lot of football games’

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“We’re gonna be here for a long time, and we’re gonna win a lot of football games.” — Mike Macdonald to execs and staff welcoming him at VMAC

When it came down to conference title game weekend, John Schneider was pretty much guaranteed of getting one of his top two options to become the Seahawks’ next coach.

When Ben Johnson decided to stay in Detroit, Baltimore defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald immediately became the favorite – even though he had yet to speak with Schneider. It happened fast: Two interviews in two days yielded a six-year contract to become the eighth full-time coach in Seahawks history.

Continue reading Mike Macdonald: ‘We’re gonna win a lot of football games’ →
Coaches

Schneider’s top choice for coach is probably still in the playoffs

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The Seahawks are now one of just two teams left without coaches for 2024, and some fans and analysts are wondering what is taking so long.

First, they need to understand the NFL rules around hiring a coach: Conference title game coaches could not interview this week, and teams have to interview at least two minority candidates in person as part of their process.

The Hawks have two minority candidates remaining. Las Vegas DC Patrick Graham reportedly met with John Schneider on Tuesday, and Carolina DC Ejiro Evero was set to interview with Schneider today.

Meanwhile, it seems pretty clear that Schneider still wants to talk to at least one coach from the four remaining playoff teams. Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson is the obvious one, and Baltimore DC Mike Macdonald could be on Seattle’s radar as well.

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Coaches

Young offensive coach coming to boost ‘stagnant’ Hawks?

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“If you’re stagnant in this league, you’re behind.” – John Schneider

John Schneider thought the Seahawks had gotten “stagnant” under Pete Carroll and he clearly is looking for an innovative coach who is on the cutting edge of today’s NFL. That leads us to believe he wants a young offensive mind in charge, as so many successful teams have acquired in recent years.

Five of the last six Super Bowls have been won by teams led by former offensive coordinators: Andy Reid (twice), Sean McVay, Bruce Arians, Doug Pederson.

Young OCs turned coaches have led their teams to the Super Bowl and lost: Zac Taylor in Cincinnati, Nick Sirianni in Philadelphia, Kyle Shanahan in San Francisco.

Schneider sure seems to want a guy like that.

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Coaches

Jody Allen makes the right call; now it’s Schneider’s turn

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Kudos to Jody Allen for doing what she needed to do and moving on from Pete Carroll.

As hard as it surely was to do, Allen clearly saw what needed to be done and actually had the guts to do it despite Carroll’s self-described attempts to change her mind (“I didn’t back off for an instant”). That is great leadership by Allen to make a needed change.

This move does not take away from the fact that Carroll is the best coach in Seahawks history — the only one to win a Super Bowl, the one with the most wins, the one with the longest tenure. It was a great run, especially the 2012-16 seasons when the Legion of Boom was in its prime.

It does not take away from the fact that he is a great person, well respected by nearly all of his former players and coaches.

But all things end — always. That is life. And, for the Seahawks to return to contention, it was time for this move to happen, as we wrote yesterday.

Continue reading Jody Allen makes the right call; now it’s Schneider’s turn →
Coaches, X's & O's

Hurtt has plans to improve defense

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Pete Carroll apparently has given recently promoted DC Clint Hurtt carte blanche to remake Seattle’s defense in Vic Fangio’s image – and it certainly sounds like Hurtt knows what he needs to do.

Among his revelations in his first appearance as DC, Hurtt said the Seahawks are at least partly changing their scheme from Carroll’s long-favored Cover 3, they will be more aggressive in both the pass rush and coverage, and Jamal Adams will be used closer to the line of scrimmage (as we all know he should be). Hurtt also expects new/old sidekick Sean “Doc” Desai to help with quick in-game adjustments.

The result should be fewer D-linemen dropping, fewer open zones, more man, more blitzing, more turnovers — and better defense.

A look at what is changing and what Hurtt said about the changes:

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CHAWK LINES, Coaches
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The Seahawks answered the prayers of many fans by firing Ken Norton Jr.

Mike Dugar of The Athletic broke down all of the defense’s key stats during Norton’s tenure (decent vs. the run, terrible vs. the pass) and surmised that Norton and Pete Carroll may not have been aligned on how Seattle should play defense.

Here’s another reason Norton was let go: The Seahawks set a franchise low with 18 takeaways in 2021 (with an extra game, to boot).

So who will replace him? Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times says it looks like Carroll wants to be more aggressive. The known candidates are Denver DC Ed Donatell and Chicago DC Sean Desai (who both have ties to just fired Denver coach Vic Fangio), plus Seattle DL coach Clint Hurtt and Dallas pass defense coordinator Joe Whitt Jr., who worked under former Seattle DC Dan Quinn in Atlanta and Dallas.

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Coaches, State of the team

People want ‘clarity’ on Carroll & Schneider, but we already have it

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Some fans inexplicably were
expecting a big announcement from the Seahawks by the end of this week, after the season wrap meeting involving Jody Allen, Pete Carroll and John Schneider. But why would the franchise make an announcement that things are … staying the same?

It already was clear that Carroll and Schneider were not going anywhere. They both said it themselves as the season ended. Apparently, though, plenty of fans who want wholesale change think they are owed an explanation for why Allen is keeping Carroll and Schneider.

Continue reading People want ‘clarity’ on Carroll & Schneider, but we already have it →