Chris Petersen: 3 things Seahawks’ Macdonald has going for him

New Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is entering his first season as a head coach at any level.

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As legendary former Boise State and UW Huskies coach Chris Petersen can attest, that brings plenty of challenges.

“Being that first-time head coach, it’s so hard,” Petersen said last week during an appearance on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk. “It’s like being a first-time parent. You think you know, you watch it, people tell you what to do, you read books, you’re around it.

“And then once you’re thrown into it, you’re like, ‘What is going on here? How do I make sense of it?’ You go through it and in a couple of years you’re gonna look back and you’re like, ‘Wow, how did we do that?'”

The 37-year-old Macdonald also has the added challenge of being the youngest head coach in the NFL. In addition, he’s following in the footsteps of Pete Carroll, the most successful head coach in Seahawks franchise history.

However, as Macdonald embarks on his first season as an NFL head coach, Petersen thinks he has three things going in his favor.

1. ‘He’s extremely, extremely smart.’

Macdonald has quickly developed a reputation as one of the brightest defensive minds in the NFL. As the Ravens’ defensive coordinator for the past two years, he showcased a cutting-edge scheme that confused opposing offenses and helped Baltimore’s defense become the envy of the league. Last season, the Ravens were the first defense in NFL history to lead the league in points allowed, takeaways and sacks.

“He’s extremely, extremely smart,” Petersen said. “I’ve had a chance to talk to him a couple of different times and you can tell. I think of him as laying in the weeds and he’s just listening and taking it all in – and sometimes doesn’t say a whole lot and he just processes and digests it. And then when he does say something, it’s usually really well thought out.”

2. ‘He’s well trained.’

Macdonald spent the entire past decade under the tutelage of the Harbaugh brothers, who are two of the more highly regarded coaches in all of football.

For nine of the previous 10 seasons, Macdonald was a coach or defensive coordinator on Ravens head coach John Harbaugh’s staff. The lone exception was the 2021 season, when he was the defensive coordinator for the Michigan Wolverines under Jim Harbaugh.

Both Harbaughs have a long track record of winning. John Harbaugh has guided Baltimore to 11 playoff appearances and a Super Bowl title in his 16 seasons at the helm. Jim Harbaugh took the San Francisco 49ers to a Super Bowl, won a national championship at Michigan last year and is now the head coach of the Los Angeles Chargers.

“He’s well trained,” Petersen said. “I think being around the Harbaugh brothers, those guys know how to win football games. And I think both those Harbaughs are much different in their styles, but the common thread if they know how to win. And so he’s seen that.”

3. With Seattle Seahawks, he’s in a successful organization.

Macdonald joined a Seahawks franchise that’s plenty familiar with success. Seattle has reached the playoffs in 10 of the past 14 seasons, winning two NFC titles and a Super Bowl during that span. While the entirety of that 14-year run came under Carroll, it also came under general manager John Schneider, who remains in his position.

“That’s a pretty, as we know, successful organization,” Petersen said. “And half of it kind of left with Pete moving on, but John’s (still) there and that system of evaluating players and how they’ve done things. And so the blend of Mike’s vision and John’s vision I think is going to be a really cool thing.

“What I think is hard is when they blow up the entire organization, bring in a new GM, new president, all these type of things, and say, ‘OK, what are we creating here?’ Sometimes you need to do that, but that’s a much heavier lift than what they have going on over there in Renton with the Seahawks, in my opinion.”

Listen to the full conversation with Chris Petersen at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Brock and Salk weekdays from 6 to 10 a.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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