It's a long season and it's only been one game, but right now it's not a wild idea to believe that Pete Carroll was the guy holding these Seattle Seahawks back. His replacement Mike Macdonald had a brilliant NFL debut as a head coach and his team's total defensive dominance in their Week 1 win over the Denver Broncos have given his odds to win the league's Coach of the Year award a big boost.
According to the latest odds at Draft Kings Sportsbook, Macdonald is now tied with Chicago Bears head coach Matt Eberflus for the second-best odds to win the award at +850. Los Angeles Chargers head coach Jim Harbaugh is the favorite at +750.
Seattle got strong performances at all three levels and across the board, with not a single defensive player earning a Pro Football Focus grade lower than 53.4. Four players were graded 80.0 or higher and and nine came in at 74.0 or better. While it's a small sample size, most advanced stats like DVOA and success rate suggest this is an elite defense.
On the field that's translated to a radically different product than we'd grown used to early in the season under Carroll. The Seahawks' tackling was exceptional, their coverage was tight and their pressure game was intense. There was literally nothing not to like on this side of the ball, which is a pretty remarkable accomplishment for a coach in his first (real) day on the job. The longer he keeps this up, expectations are rightfully going to get pretty high for this team.
