Tag Archives: Mike Macdonald

#SEAvsJAX, Injury report

Hawks still at 80%, but Macdonald should have winning plan vs. Jags

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One of these days, the Seahawks might field a full team – and we’ll see just how powerful they really are. For now, like so many teams around the league, they have to be content playing with about 80% of their top players – their battered secondary and pass rush still not full strength.

That was not quite enough against Tampa Bay last Sunday, but trust Mike Macdonald to have learned from that defensive meltdown (370 passing yards, 38 points allowed). Even if the Hawks are again without Devon Witherspoon and Julian Love, Macdonald likely will put his defense in position against Trevor Lawrence and the Jags in Jacksonville.

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#TBvsSEA

Darnold still working on ‘clutch gene’ even as he proves to be the new franchise QB

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Shortly after the Seahawks signed Sam Darnold, former Seattle quarterback Matt Hasselbeck said the one thing Darnold needed to develop to lock himself in as a franchise QB is a “clutch gene.”

“I think the thing that he’s going to have to prove is kind of that clutch gene, making those plays that need to be made in playoff games or big games,” Hasselbeck told Seattle Sports 710 AM in March. “That’s gonna be the next step for him to be in that rare air of consistency as a franchise quarterback.”

Well, Darnold still needs to work on finishing in the clutch, but through five games he has more than shown he is Seattle’s new franchise QB.

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The roster, Trades

Woolen trade has always seemed likely

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It’s not a big surprise the Seahawks are possibly entertaining trade offers for Riq Woolen.

We have talked about this since last December and pushed for it to happen before the draft. They might have traded him then if they had more cornerback options, which they do now thanks to Josh Jobe, Derion Kendrick and Shaq Griffin.

Jobe and Kendrick have both been stellar in their chances over the first part of the season, while Woolen was a big factor in their Week 1 loss to the 49ers and committed three fouls against Arizona. He is just really inconsistent, and Mike Macdonald does not tolerate guys who make lots of mistakes.

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#SEAvsARI

Because the good outweighed the bad & ugly, the Hawks are 3-1

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The Seahawks should have beaten Arizona by two touchdowns on Thursday. Instead, they needed Sam Darnold, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and more special teams magic to win 23-20 on the final play and get to 3-1 this season.

That gave the Hawks a pair of crazy 8s: Eight straight wins over Arizona and eight straight road wins.

The Hawks would have won long before the last play — if Tyrice Knight had not knocked the ball loose on Coby Bryant’s interception return, if Kenneth Walker III had not thrown a football at a Cardinal for a 15-yard taunting penalty, if Riq Woolen had not committed three penalties, if the offensive line could have asserted itself for a game-sealing four-minute drill.

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#SEAvsARI, State of the team

Hawks ‘knocking on the door’ of becoming a contender

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As the Seahawks prepare for a big division game against Arizona on Thursday night, they are “knocking on the door” of becoming a complete team.

They have scored 75 points over the past two weeks, second only to Detroit’s 90 – but more than Baltimore (71), Buffalo (61) and surprising Indianapolis (70). The Hawks are still middling in most of the subjective power rankings, but they have the No. 1 team in the league, based on DVOA.

Special teams have been huge in bolstering that point total. The Hawks have the best special teams in the league (by DVOA), having scored in consecutive games and also blocked a kick vs. the Saints to set up another quick TD.

The defense ranks fifth – thanks to stellar play by the top three defensive linemen and by corners Josh Jobe and Derion Kendrick.  

The offense ranks sixth, thanks to Sam Darnold and Jaxon Smith-Njigba. Darnold said the offense is “knocking on the door of becoming what we want to be.” Once that happens, the Hawks will be a complete team and true contender.

The NFC West is the best division in the league, with nine wins among the four teams. So the pressure is on the Hawks to beat Arizona on Thursday and keep up with the undefeated 49ers, who have been winning with Mac Jones at QB (but also just lost Nick Bosa for the season).

Let’s look at the contributions of each of the three squads that have made the Hawks one of the league’s best teams over the past couple of weeks.

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#NOvsSEA

Can Kubiak and Co. keep it going now?

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A year ago at this time, Klint Kubiak had turned the Saints into the surprise of the NFL – leading an offense that had scored 91 points in the first two games.

He did not have nearly the same fortuitous start with his Seattle crew, but the Seahawks finally seemed to find their stride in the second half at Pittsburgh. Now, as Kubiak’s old team comes to town, we will see whether they can put together a full game.

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#SEAvsPIT, X's & O's

The real offense needs to show up in Pittsburgh

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One of the most head-scratching things about the Seahawks’ loss to the 49ers in Week 1 was Klint Kubiak veering away from the formations we saw so much in the preseason, which had enabled a strong running game.

It led to a lot of failed early downs, which led to too many third-down failures and resulted in just 13 points off a 38-22 deficit in time of possession. While Kubiak kept his run-pass balance to a good ratio (26-23), he ran a lot of 11 personnel and the fewest play-action snaps in the league in Week 1 (just two). And Sam Darnold’s reads continually led to Jaxon Smith-Njigba, so the Hawks had a very one-dimensional offense.

They cannot do any of that in Week 2 at Pittsburgh if they are going to avoid an 0-2 start, a hole that typically means just an 11% chance of making the playoffs.

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#SFvsSEA, X's & O's

What happened to Kubiak’s offense?

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The Seahawks promised a new offense under Klint Kubiak — one focused on running the ball and misdirecting defenses to create a much more productive unit than Mike Macdonald’s team had with Ryan Grubb last season.

It all looked good in the preseason as the Hawks ran the ball with gusto. But that all disappeared in the 17-13 opening loss to the 49ers as Kubiak’s offense looked a lot more like Grubb’s than the one that was promised this year.

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On the air, Preseason, The roster

Charbonnet should start over Walker

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The Seahawks have been plowing through the preseason, ramping up a running game that they plan to make the focal point of their offense in 2025. And it is looking more and more like the guy leading that ground attack – at least in the season opener vs. the 49ers — should and probably will be Zach Charbonnet.

Mike Macdonald seems frustrated that Kenneth Walker III (sore foot) has not been available, and he seemed to drop a huge hint that Charbs is probably the Week 1 starter when he said of Walker: “At some point, you’ve gotta do it on the field so you feel confident to go out there and execute at a high level and play your best football. So that’s something that we’re working through. He’s doing the best he can, and we’re doing the best we can as a coaching staff. We’ve just gotta work together on this thing as it unfolds.”

The way it is unfolding is for Charbonnet to be the main ballcarrier and Walker to potentially be the changeup – a home run back on a snap count.

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Preseason

‘Our style of football’: Can Kubiak’s offense hit the ground running?

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“It was our style of football” – Sam Darnold after a 268-yard rushing game in a 33-16 win over Kansas City

When Klint Kubiak arrived in New Orleans last year, he created a surprising early-season juggernaut that probably would have continued in similar style if the Saints’ top offensive players had not started dropping like flies.

That surely is one of the things that drew Mike Macdonald to Kubiak, who is from one of the NFL’s legacy coaching trees.

The Saints scored 91 points and ran for 370 yards in the first two games of 2024. He now has brought his versatile scheme and run-first philosophy to Macdonald’s Seahawks – and the preseason returns forecast a similar explosion for Seattle out of the gate in three weeks.

Seattle’s 33-16 win over Kansas City on Friday showed the very best of Kubiak’s offense. The Hawks followed up a 170-yard rushing performance against Las Vegas with 268 yards vs. the Chiefs.

As Sam Darnold said after his Seahawks debut, “It was our style of football.”

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