Lefko: Seahawks hired Mike Macdonald for a moment like this

Mike Macdonald was brought here to restore greatness to the Seattle Seahawks and reclaim a supremacy that over the last decade had been usurped by the Rams and 49ers

BY MIKE LEFKO

Jan 13, 2026, 4:18 PM

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Seattle Seahawks Mike Macdonald head coach...

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - OCTOBER 20: Head coach Mike Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks reacts against the Houston Texans at Lumen Field on October 20, 2025 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

(Photo by Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Two seasons in, Mike Macdonald’s tenure as head coach is an unquestioned success for the Seattle Seahawks.

Now, the real judgement begins.

Macdonald was brought here to restore greatness to Seattle, to reclaim a supremacy that over the last decade had been usurped by the Rams and 49ers – in a large part due to the playoff-savvy of Rams coach Sean McVay and 49ers coach Kyle Shanahan.

Seahawks-49ers: Game time and TV details set for playoff matchup

The crucible of the playoffs forges two types of coaches: ones whose decision-making cost their teams, and ones who elevate themselves to lift Super Bowl dreams around them. Those personas were on display during the opening weekend of the NFL playoffs, showcasing just how costly or rewarding coaching decisions can be when a season is on the line.

Libraries worth of virtual ink have been spilled over Matt LaFleur’s playoff miscues since he became the Packers head coach, with the 21-3 blown lead to the Bears just the latest entry into his rapidly growing anthology of cheese-related atrocities. Compare that to the coach on the other sideline that night, Chicago’s first-year head coach Ben Johnson. Watch this postgame speech from the Bears’ win over the Packers and it will be easy to tell why they were able to score 25 points in the fourth quarter and overcome that 18-point deficit.

The playoffs are a different animal than the regular season. With the entire season boiled down to one win-or-go-home game, there is scant room, if any, for coaching missteps. Stubbornness is often the biggest culprit. Mike Tomlin’s refusal to change has led to seven straight playoff losses for Pittsburgh. On the other side of the state of Pennsylvania, the temperamental Nick Sirianni did nothing while his Eagles offense sputtered for the final two months of the season before being put to rest by the 49ers. It was a nice reminder for Eagles fans of their 2023 season, when they started 10-1 and then lost six of seven to end the year, including a first-round playoff loss.

When it comes to playoff success, the model of consistency among active head coaches (non-Chiefs category) lies in the Seahawks’ opponent this week. The ultimate goal hasn’t been there, and his Super Bowl coaching decisions have been prone to plenty of criticism, but it’s hard to argue against what Kyle Shanahan has done in the NFC playoffs since becoming the 49ers head coach in 2017. San Francisco is 4-0 in the divisional round since Shanahan took over. That includes the 2021-22 season when the No. 6-seed 49ers went into Green Bay and knocked off the top-seeded Packers.

Mike Macdonald was brought to Seattle to put a stop to all of that. We don’t know yet what kind of coach he will be in the postseason, but we do have a good window into what the Seahawks are likely to be in his playoff debut because teams embody the traits of their coaches throughout the year. The Bears had piled up comeback wins all season, the 49ers had overcome injury adversity to be in position in Week 18 to win the No. 1 seed, the Eagles had floundered, and so on and so forth. A team’s postseason identity isn’t usually a surprise; it simply becomes more obvious with such a small sample size.

There is much about the Seahawks’ identity that usually plays well in the postseason. They are detail-oriented, which has resulted in the best special teams unit in the league. They are physical and relentless on defense. And they have channeled the “next man up” mentality to overcome the injuries that cycled through much of the season.

Second-team All-Pro defensive tackle Leonard Williams summed up the impact Macdonald has had on the identity of their team after the Seahawks won in San Francisco to claim the No. 1 seed in the NFC.

“Once we got past the small growing pains, I think people were all bought in on what he says,” Williams said. “We believe in him, we trust him, he always puts us in the right positions as a team.”

The 49ers await on Saturday, and a potential rematch against the Rams looms in the NFC Championship. You couldn’t script a better moment for Mike Macdonald to show why he was brought to Seattle.