Leonard Williams: Macdonald’s authenticity set tone for Seahawks’ success

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald is best known for being the mastermind behind the NFL’s top-ranked scoring defense.

Stacy Rost: Making sense of the Sam Darnold discourse

But as HBO’s “Hard Knocks” cameras have highlighted, the 39-year-old Macdonald also has a level of authenticity that’s helped him connect with players and build a tight-knit culture.

Three-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Leonard Williams expounded on that during a recent appearance on “The Richard Sherman Podcast,” explaining how Macdonald’s “humility and vulnerability” were what “really made me start loving him and respecting him as a man, not just as a coach.”

In particular, Williams recounted a team meeting ahead of Seattle’s 2025 Super Bowl-winning season.

“He pretty much in front of the whole team just was like, hey man, I feel like I’ve gotta work on this, this and this. I wasn’t good enough at this last year and I’ve gotta get better at talking to the team. I’ve gotta get better at being comfortable in front of the team meeting room and being a better leader and all this other stuff,” Williams recalled.

“And I think in a way, it kind of made everyone in the room kind of relax their shoulders and not be so uptight, because you’re kind of like, OK, the head man is willing to critique himself and trying to get better and finding ways to get better.”

Williams said that set a tone that permeated throughout the building – from the coaching staff to the players.

“When you hear them coach us, you know it’s not personal,” Williams said. “If you hear something from the coaches, you know that they’re equally trying to get better (and are) trying to find a solution to the problem, not the person. It’s never a personal attack.

“And I think in a way, it made everyone in the building more vulnerable and it brought everyone’s guard down.”

Williams said that also extended to player-to-player interactions.

“If somebody on the offensive side was doing something wrong that the defense thought they could do better, you know, I’ll go up to (left guard) Grey Zabel and give him some advice, and he’d do the same, vice versa,” Williams said.

“And I think you just started seeing it stack over time – just this vulnerability that everyone had on the team of being connected and no egos and let’s put the mission over everything.”

Seattle Seahawks news and more

• Seahawks place rookie Bud Clark, OL Mason Richman on IR; sign 3 players
• Brock on Seahawks: Stock up, stock down after 2nd preseason game
• What stood out in Seattle Seahawks’ preseason loss to Titans

Related

Stacy Rost: Making sense of the Sam Darnold discourseSeahawks on ‘Hard Knocks’: Highlights from episode 4Seahawks place rookie Bud Clark, OL Mason Richman on IR; sign 3 playersSoundgarden reunites to play halftime of Seahawks’ season openerSeahawks waive RB who may head back to college footballWyman’s takeaways from Seahawks’ 2nd preseason game