How Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald just sent a message to the team

Like any new head coach, Mike Macdonald is busy shaping the Seattle Seahawks in his vision.

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Macdonald hasn’t had many interactions with the media yet, but Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy think they’re beginning to get a sense of the culture Seattle’s first-year coach is instilling.

“He has to set the tone all offseason,” Stacy Rost said Monday. “So what is the tone? Both you and I listened to cuts from Mike Macdonald (press conferences). It seems like he’s not afraid to be kind of critical – not mean, just a little critical, a little honest, a little blunt.”

Rost and her co-host, former NFL wide receiver Michael Bumpus, pointed to Macdonald’s comments about first-round pick Byron Murphy II during a press conference this past Saturday at the team’s rookie minicamp.

“Need him to get in a little bit better shape so he can get through a whole practice and fly around like we expect him to,” Macdonald said at the presser. “But he understands that, just like the rest of these guys. It’s so hard to stay in elite shape the way the calendar’s set up, so he’ll get there, but we’ll be pushing him in the meantime.”

ESPN.com Seahawks reporter Brady Henderson joined Bump and Stacy on Monday and offered his opinion on Macdonald’s comments.

“That strikes me as a new coach trying to come in and set the tone,” Henderson said. “… If he’s offering those kind of semi-critical comments about the very high-profile players, then everybody else on the roster has to know that nobody is immune from that. So I think you there is a lot of intentionality in what Mike Macdonald says, I would imagine, especially knowing as a first-time head coach how much his words are going to be under the microscope. And so I think there was some meaning behind those words, for sure.”

Bumpus agreed and emphasized the importance of Macdonald setting the tone from the start.

“He’s making it his,” Bumpus said. “And how do you do that? You’re honest with these guys. And you can be honest about successes and failures without being disrespectful, and I think that’s what he’s doing. When you get into the meeting rooms, now you go a bit harder on guys if you feel like they can handle it. But everything we heard from Byron Murphy too is that he can handle it and he appreciates that. … I like the approach. I think that it’s still light there (at Seahawks headquarters), but it’s also still a different kind of light. He’s making it his, and that’s extremely important.”

Bumpus also pointed out that Macdonald’s track record should give him respect and attention from Seahawks players. Macdonald had a success-filled two-year run as the defensive coordinator in Baltimore, where he oversaw a 2023 Ravens defense that became the first in NFL history to lead the league in points allowed per game (16.5), sacks (60) and takeaways (31). Macdonald’s defense held Seattle to a season-low 151 yards and just 3.2 yards per play in Baltimore’s 37-3 rout of the Seahawks last year.

“He coached a defense that whooped that you-know-what last year,” Bumpus said. “He’s like, ‘Look guys, you have offensive weapons. Geno (Smith) is the man. He’s a Pro Bowler. On the outside, you have some weapons. The run game was good. And we shut you all down.’ So he has the respect of this group as soon as he walks through the through the door.”

Listen to the full conversation from Monday’s Bump and Stacy in the podcast at this link or in the player near the top of this post. Bump and Stacy airs live from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.

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