Huard: Seattle Seahawks seemed ‘enamored’ with Mike Macdonald

Jan 31, 2024, 10:55 AM | Updated: 4:59 pm

Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald Baltimore Ravens DC...

Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald during a game on Dec. 10, 2023. (Todd Olszewski/Getty Images)

(Todd Olszewski/Getty Images)

Staff report

Just hours before news broke that the Seattle Seahawks will make Mike Macdonald their new head coach, Brock Huard spoke about how it was becoming clear the team was zeroing in on the Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator.

Seattle Seahawks hire Mike Macdonald as head coach

Unlike other candidates to succeed Pete Carroll in Seattle, the Seahawks didn’t get a chance to talk to Macdonald for the first time until this week. But once the Ravens were eliminated from the playoffs Sunday, things looked to be moving quickly with a reported first interview Tuesday in Baltimore and Macdonald said to be in Seattle on Wednesday morning for a second.

It seems patience paid off, with the move happening three weeks to the day that previous head coach Pete Carroll was removed from the role after 14 seasons, with six other NFL teams having named new head coaches in the interim. Only the Washington Commanders’ job remains open in the league.

“I think they were enamored with him all the way through this process,” Huard said Wednesday morning of Macdonald on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “… It sure strikes me that if you’re impressed with somebody in his hometown like they were in Baltimore, that you now want to fly him across the country five-plus hours to get him in your hometown, to get him in front of your family, in front of your people to cross those T’s, dot those I’s and make him the next head coach of your Seattle Seahawks.”

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Macdonald’s Ravens were No. 1 in the NFL in points allowed, takeaways and sacks. The second-year Baltimore defensive coordinator helped make life extremely difficult for opposing offenses, and Baltimore allowed just 17 points in its AFC Championship loss to Kansas City on Sunday. The Ravens also allowed only 10 points in a divisional round win over Houston.

Though both are defensive-minded coaches, Huard expects some stark differences with the 36-year-old Macdonald coming in to replace the 72-year-old Carroll.

“I think there are many characteristics that are on the opposite side of the spectrum from a Coach Carroll: The details, the equipping schematically, all of the things that had been so critical for him over the course of his career,” Huard said.

Macdonald and Carroll also have “very different” personalities, Huard said. That means there will be some key things to monitor now that it appears Macdonald, who has never been a head coach before at any level, is the man in Seattle.

“How he’s going to handle the press conference, how he’s going to handle the team meeting, how he’s going to handle all that comes with being a head coach,” Huard said.

Listen to the full segment in Wednesday’s edition of Blue 88 from Brock and Salk in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post.