Why new Seahawks coach Macdonald is excited about defensive front

May 4, 2024, 7:09 PM | Updated: May 5, 2024, 2:41 pm

Dre'Mont Jones of the Seattle Seahawks sacks Bengals QB Joe Burrow in 2023. (Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

(Michael Hickey/Getty Images)

Seattle Sports

The Seattle Seahawks made an appropriate choice for their first draft pick with Mike Macdonald as head coach, selecting a talented defensive tackle for the former Baltimore Ravens and University of Michigan D-coordinator.

How Seahawks showed ‘really good’ strategy by picking Murphy over Fautanu

The choice of Texas’ Byron Murphy II doesn’t just fill a position of need for Seattle, however. The new Seahawks coach believes it helps solidify a particular area of strength for his team.

“I’m really excited about our front, especially our D-line,” Macdonald said Thursday when he and Seahawks general manager/president of football operations John Schneider joined Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob.

As Macdonald went down the list, it became easy to understand why he would be.

Along with Murphy, who the team has said it considered the best defensive prospect in this year’s draft class, Seattle has veteran Jarran Reed, last year’s key offseason signing Dre’Mont Jones and recent free agency addition Jonathan Hankins as key defensive linemen going into the 2024 season.

“J-Reed is a stalwart in there, being a leader for the team – third down, pass rush LEO (weak-side defensive end),” Macdonald said. “Shoot, Hank was a great acquisition (to) man the A-gap for us. Dre’Mont I feel like is gonna have a great year, I think we have a cool role for him. And then you add a guy like Murph to the whole equation, it’s gonna be fun to see how that works out rep-wise and how we can move him.”

Macdonald’s defenses with the Ravens were among the best in football the past two seasons, and yet he said there’s something this Seahawks defensive front offers that he didn’t necessarily have during his coordinator days.

“One thing that’s really neat about who we have and how we’re structured is there’s position flexibility,” Macdonald said, “where that might not have been the case in rosters that I’ve worked with in the past. It’s going to be a fun process, man, seeing who works well with who and how we call the games, maybe some different personnel groups that you haven’t seen from us in the past. It’s time to experiment and see who’s good at what and see how it clicks, so it’s going to be really fun.”

Listen to the full Wyman and Bob conversation with Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald and general manager/president of football operations John Schneider in the podcast at this link, or either the video or audio player near the top of this post.