The Seattle Seahawks have a lot of promising young players on their roster. Byron Murphy, Devon Witherspoon, Riq Woolen, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Ken Walker are among the many rising stars on this team. However, at least at the outset of the 2024 NFL season, the biggest story for this franchise is a different young core contributor who just joined the team.
That's rookie head coach Mike Macdonald, who has more than lived up to the offseason hype that had named him the best candidate in this past coaching cycle. While it's still early in the season, Macdonald currently has the Seahawks playing far more disciplined and focused football than they had the last several years under former head coach Pete Carroll and people are noticing, especially the most plugged-in among us.
Here's ESPN Seahawks beat reporter Brady Henderson on the Brock & Salk Show talking about about all the ways in which Seattle is far better-coached right now than they were in the latter years under the previous regime.
ESPN on Mike Macdonald vs. Pete Carroll
"I kind of wonder if this season is going to be something of an indictment on how poorly-coached they were the last few seasons because of how much better-coached they are this year or at least appear to be, it's only three games against three lesser opponents. But, the one thing that stands out is that in all three of those games - they've been very good at situational football. We're talking red zone, goal line, sudden change, two minutes. They've been very good at specific situations, which I think is the mark of a well-prepared, well-coached team and you just didn't see that out of this team the last few seasons."
Truth hurts, but it will set you free. Seahawks fans should feel free to use it to appreciate everything that Pete Carroll accomplished and have nothing but fond feelings for that era of Seattle football. Fans can also recognize that Carroll's approach to the game had grown stale schematically and that his teams were often sloppy and ill-prepared for their most-challenging opponents. Also, that there were far better defensive playcallers out there around the league. It looks like general manager John Schneider managed to pick the very best of them - and one hell of a motivational/culture coach to boot, as well.
Seahawks in great hands with Mike Macdonald
You can see the difference Macdonald is making all over the place, from the way they have improved at tackling - another massive difference between Carroll's tenure and this one - to the way DK Metcalf is conducting himself both on the field and with the media, to the team's 180-degree turn on their fourth-and-short philosophy. It hasn't been perfect, but so far there's literally nothing not to like about Macdonald's work.
Most of all Macdonald will be judged based on how his team performs against the NFC West's other two hot young head coaches - Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan - who made a regular habit of beating up on Pete Carroll's teams the last few years. Macdonald has yet to face either one, with his first test to come in two short weeks against Shanahan's San Francisco 49ers.
Bottom line, it's still far too early to tell how this 2024 season will go, let alone the next several years under Macdonald's direction. However, that mostly-blurry future is beginning to look awfully bright.
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