What Stood Out: New Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald joins Bump & Stacy
Feb 1, 2024, 2:25 PM
Thursday was a very busy day for the Seattle Seahawks, as Mike Macdonald was officially introduced as the franchise’s next head coach.
Key takeaways from Mike Macdonald’s 1st Seattle Seahawks press conference
Shortly after his introductory press conference, Macdonald joined Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy at Seahawks headquarters for an exclusive interview.
Macdonald said the Seahawks have a “great culture” already in place.
“I don’t think you fix what’s not broken,” he said. “I’m interested to hear more from the players and the people in the building as we get moving. But our culture is built on respect. We wanna stay cutting edge. We’re going to use a term around here called ‘chasing edges.’ There’s going to be a sense of urgency with what we’re doing. We’re going to work extremely hard, we’re going to be relentless in the pursuit of it.”
Macdonald said he personally will be “relentless,” and that will be on display in a few different ways. But more than anything, Macdonald wants the Seahawks to remain a positive franchise.
“It’s gonna be a positive environment,” Macdonald said. “We want people to be excited to come to work, and we want to be a positive influence on the community, as well. I’m interested to learn more about what that will look like. And the stuff that we will want to move with, we’ll move forward with it, and we will tweak some things along the way.”
Macdonald comes from a defensive background having been the defensive coordinator in Baltimore the last two years, but he inherits a Seahawks offense that has some intriguing weapons.
“We’ve got some guys who can do a lot of different things. I think we have a diverse skill set from going going against the offense,” Macdonald said. ” … Again, it’s the same mentality we have on defense: How do we get these guys doing what they do really well, and put them in those spots and then try and dictate terms as an offense? And how we’re doing that, I don’t know the answer to that. But that’s going to be the driving force of all the decisions that we make from here for as long as we’re here.”
Macdonald at 36 years old is the youngest head coach in the NFL. He’s had a fast rise from assistant to head coach, but it hasn’t all gone smoothly. He pointed to the 2022 season as one of the biggest and most important learning experiences he’s had.
The File: Who is new Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald?
“We got off to a slow start in Baltimore my first year coordinating since I came back. It really tested the why and the how we’re doing things,” Macdonald said. “And instead of pointing fingers at folks, we all took accountability of what our roles were and we really challenged each other to, ‘Hey, let’s figure out a solution together to this thing.'”
Macdonald said he’s not sure what the Seahawks’ biggest challenge is, but he’s going to lean on the coaching staff he ultimately puts in place.
“If you’re with the people that you trust, and you stick together, and you’re trying to find you’re solution-oriented, I don’t know how long it’s going to take, but we’ll find the solutions and we’ll be able to move forward,” he said.
Check out Macdonald’s full interview with Bump and Stacy at this link or in the video player near the top of this story.
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