Mark Schlereth on How Mike Macdonald Has Led The Seahawks to Become ELITE | #SeattleSports

Mark Schlereth on How Mike Macdonald Has Led The Seahawks to Become ELITE | #SeattleSports

on the call for a Seahawks game and and you know Dave and I leading into this game were looking at that Jacksonville team coming off a win against the the Chiefs and going you know hey this team’s four- one and this is not this is not Jacksonville of old. This is a this is somebody to be contended with and then we watch Trevor Lawrence who had been sacked six total times in five games get sacked seven times in this game. Was that was that more about what they didn’t do well or more about a dominant Dline from the Seahawks? Well, I think I think it’s amazing when you look at, you know, what you had in the back end because I think Julian Love is as good as any safety in the foot in the game. I think that Devin Witherspoon is it might be the best nickel in all of football. That guy is a football playing little Jesse. Uh Reek Woolen was out and you know, I mean, say what you want about Reek, but he’s athletic. He’s long, you know, he can run. So to come in there with three DBs out and to be able to absolutely control the line of scrimmage, I thought that was exceptional. Um, and when you start kind of moving guys around, you had a great rotation with a bunch of B um um with a bunch of, you know, guys that came off the bench like MafI and all those guys. Like I thought I thought they were great. And then they kept putting uh Leonard Williams and um and Demarcus Lawrence on the same side and running games. I just thought they did I think Mike McDonald did a really good job of attacking protections, attacking uh you know their offense in general. And and I thought like Trevor Lawrence, you know, pressure will do that to a lot of quarterbacks, but I thought Trevor Lawrence um had his biggest regression um just his inconsistent play, his inconsistent. He was just inconsistent. AC with his accuracy. Um it was a dominant performance by that defense of Seattle and it was kind of fun to watch that. Yeah, it’s funny Mark. It seems like um right after they have a blow up. I mean it’s a it’s a quick fix for Mike McDonald and you know he’s very decisive about you knows exactly what went wrong. Tell tell us about you had a chance to talk to him before the game right? Yeah. Yeah. Just what were your impressions? Yeah. just no nonsense. Like, you know, you you love a coach that and man, if I suck, I want you to let me know that I suck, right? And one of the things he was just like, listen, we we were awful. Awful. Day one, like I’ve got to be better coaching. I’ll take that. But you can’t bust day one cover four principles. You You can’t like we’ve been I don’t care who you are, and I don’t care if you’re a backup or not. You can’t bust day one principles. You can’t let the the lack of understanding or execution from the neck up cost you a ball game. And then the other thing he talked about was the poor tackling. He said, “I’ve never seen us tackled, you know, like you don’t you don’t run up on a guy and throw yourself at the guy’s ankles.” Yeah. That’s never been taught here. That’s that will never be taught here. And he said, “And if you do that, you’re not going to play for me.” He goes, “It’s either going to be you or me. Either you’re going to get cut or I’m going to get fired, and I’m not getting fired for that.” Like, I’m I’m going to take matters into my own hands. And I love I love coaches that don’t mess around with stuff like that. I love I love it when you just say, “Hey, man. This is where we’re at. This is what I need from you. This is where you’re not good enough.” Like, we’re all adults here. And you know, we say it all the time in in Denver here, you know, in our room, in our offensive line meeting room, get good or get going. You either do it or we’re going to find somebody that can. And I love the nononsense approach. And, you know, I really enjoyed I really enjoyed my time um meeting with Clint Kubak and meeting with Sam Darnold, who I have a ton of respect for, Ernest Jones, and and obviously Mike McDonald. Um he was he was incredible. Hey Mark, what’s your what’s your take on Byron Murphy? He’s a guy that I had a lot of questions after last year. He had a half a sack in the in the whole season last year and I know the interior. You don’t produce a ton of stats. He’s got four and a half sacks so far this year leading the team. I’m just curious what what you saw from him in this game. Yeah, I thought he played exceptionally hard. I thought he did a good job of countering things. Um but I just thought the whole plan the whole rush plan was well executed. Whether it was, you know, walking up to get your one-on- ons, you know, walking linebackers up to get your one-on- ons, the games, they ran a lot of games, man. And they they executed him exceptionally well and really got edges on the offensive line. I thought he did that, chased down, I think at one point he was chasing down Trevor Lawrence, caught him on the edge. So, yeah, like all those things, playing exceptionally hard. And listen, man, I I will tell you they got embarrassed and I guarantee you um they got their ass chewed after that game. Yes. I promise you. And to their credit, and we’ve all had games like that, guy. I mean, every one of us that’s played this game has, you know, played a game where you hope they burn the tape and nobody ever sees it because it’s an embarrassment. like and I’ve had I’ve had a few of those games um where I’m just like, man, that was as embarrassing an out, you know, a an outing as I’ve ever had. And you got to wear it. You got to go in there like a man and take it. You got to be, you know, you you got to be able to take the criticism and then you got to be able to take the correction and you got to go out there and and and actually execute. And I thought I thought minus that the one touchdown drive early where they gave up the honey hole shot down the sideline. Um you know they gave up uh what was the other one? Was it a bubble screen and go like they had a couple of mistakes in coverage that that they gave up. Um and after that I thought they were spot on with pretty much everything they did. Yeah. Yeah. And I thought on both of those plays, Mark, um that doesn’t happen if you have Spoon and Love out there. And and I really I mean I I think that that you know, we were talking about it earlier that there’s a reason why guys are backups, you know? I mean they’re they’re good players, you know, in spots and they can play special teams, but it’s you know, you’re you’re going up against the ones and that’s that’s the that’s the reason why, right? Yeah. I I think part of that too, Dave, is when you play a lot, man, you learn how to communicate. And you know, and when you play together and you play a lot, man, everybody seems to be on the same page. And I think when you watch Love play, Love is just that guy to me that totally understands what he sees and is instant in reaction. And like that’s the difference between being a really good player and being a marginal player is guys who don’t have a ton of speed, don’t run really well, don’t jump over boxes. Those guys who recognize it and instantly react can make plays. And I’m not saying that Love isn’t a great athlete. He’s an exceptional athlete, but you can just see him on film, man. He recognizes what’s going on and instantly reacts whether he’s in the passing game or in the run game. and then his ability to communicate with everybody else. And I think you see some of that in Kobe Bryant as well. You know, a coverage guy that came in and played nickel as a rookie and you start to see him make some of the same reactions on that back end at safety. I think he’s a guy that has a lot of potential to be really good in this league as well. You you said you had a chance to sit down with Sam Darnold. You obviously watched him play. He he’s got me convinced now. I mean, he’s he’s in the top five of just about every statistical category for for quarterbacks at this point. And I know for you that doesn’t mean a ton, but just you what did your eyes tell you? What did your ears tell you when you talked to him? Man, I’ve been a Sam Darnold fan. I’m so proud of him. Um, you know, it’s so easy to just kind of roll over and when the league just kind of basically takes a dump on you, you know, and it’s it’s easy to lose your confidence and lose your way. And, you know, I’ve told you guys, man, he made a choice to go to San Francisco and learn how to play NFL style football. And then, you know, he goes from there to Minnesota and he puts up an unbelievable season and then people are like, “Yeah, but the last two games, you know, and then he’s being able to bring that, you know, bring that to Seattle.” And I thought one of the big things that, you know, that talking to Mike McDonald, he said, “My number one thing was, man, I wanted a dude.” Like, and you know what? I don’t know exactly how to define that. You just know it when you see it. Um, you got at that position especially, man, you got to have a guy that people believe in, that people want to rally around, that people want to play for. And I I just think he’s been he’s been so good. And to me, his story is so good. And there’s several of those. Like Baker Mayfield, he’s got this unbelievable story where he’s getting booted out of organization after organization. Same thing with Sam Darnold, you know, the this booted out of one organization to the next, like to the next, like you you put up to MVP caliber statistics in Minnesota and they say, “Yeah, we’d rather go with a rookie that hurt his knee and never played last year.” Like, like, you know, and and say, “All right, well, let me move on and figure out a place for me um that where I can excel.” And and it’s really cool to watch it. It’s really cool to see, you know, a guy like Cooper Cup come in there and what he has meant to Smith and Jigba, what he’s meant to Sam Darnold, you know, the fact that he goes to all the quarterback meetings as well. Like it’s it’s it’s pretty cool stuff. What’s going on right now? Hey, um you know, I don’t know what kind of you said, you know, all about the impression that you got from Mike McDonald, but one of the things about him, you said he’s very decisive. like he doesn’t sit on his hands and it’s not like that we’re coming up on the trade deadline here but um he he just seems like the kind of guy that he’s going to get it right because last year halfway through it was like okay we don’t have the right linebackers so I’m going to fire one and I’m going to trade one and you know and I I feel like maybe a little bit of that in in the the defensive back field. Um, what do you think that that defense needs the most after seeing them over the weekend and and, you know, studying them all week? Yeah. Where do you think is is a position that they’re likely to on the defense, you know, get make a trade? Yeah, I would I would look like at your cornerback on the outside. Um I you like the one thing about Mike McDonald that that strikes me is a guy wants I don’t care that you run super fast. I want football players, you know, and so um I get a guy like Reek Woolen that you know I think played his best football as a rookie and um I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s on the market at some point like um big tall cat, very athletically gifted. Yeah. Don’t you think that would attract a a lot of, you know, trade partners that Oh, yeah. Yeah. They’re going to fall in love with the measurables. Yeah. I think one thing about NFL, you know, football and organizations, if if you think the egos are big in the locker room, walk upstairs to the coach’s office. Like, I never met a coach that didn’t think he could fix somebody or, you know, or heal somebody or or coach somebody up. And I’m not saying that Reek needs fixing, but you know, I watched I watched several games and, you know, I watched I really tried to look at everything and I was like, it always feels like he’s playing seven on seven to me. And um I like I I don’t know like I wouldn’t be surprised if they made a move there. Um, I’m not saying that they will, but that wouldn’t shock me to get another kind of kind of a just more of a like like a hardnose kind of guy that that that will play some physical press, you know, and jam people and and, you know, on the outside. I I wouldn’t that wouldn’t surprise me. Hey, Mark, what was your your feeling about the O line and and more specifically the the rushing attack because you look at their numbers where they rank. This is a top five scoring offense. This is a top five passing offense. They’re the 24th ranked rushing offense. They didn’t they didn’t run the ball particularly well in this game. It’s the one area of the of the offense that just hasn’t found any consistency. Is that more about the backs, the scheme, the line? What what what does what do your eyes tell you? It’s probably a little bit of everything, but I I think the thing you got to take away is 26 carries. What they average like less than three yards a carry. Mhm. But you still found a way to get 26 carries. And you know what that did for you? That created situations on first and 10 to hit some shot plays on that defense where those guys are playing the run and you get some one-on-one opportunities with Smith and Jigba and you get a over route, you know, and all of a sudden you got big plays down the football field, chunk yardage plays, and those things equate to points. And so, you know, I know they didn’t play exceptionally well or they didn’t have a lot of yards per carry. Um, part of that was Jacksonville is pretty good up front. Like their their front four is pretty good. And, um, Hamilton inside and um, Eric Armstead, I mean, those guys are really good at defending the run and the two defensive ends are really good at at, you know, at at just controlling line of scrimmage. So, the fact that you still got 26 attempts, um, I think that’s big. I think the other thing is it’s a new system and learning how to play together and learning how to run tracks and, you know, entry points for the backs and staying on a track um, is like that’s something that has to be coached and has to be worked on and you have to trust and believe in that. And so I think all that stuff is a work in progress. But the fact that you’re still getting 26 carries and they’re still having to defend it and that gives you the opportunity to go over the top in some play action situations and take some shots on first down when you’re not getting pass rush. I think that’s one of the reasons that you guys lead the league in in passing or Sam Darnold lead the league in uh yards per attempt. Yeah. You know that that’s interesting. you you’ve been the the one guy that said that to us that you know it’s it’s all about the attempts you know more than than anything else that they’re sticking with it. And then you know the other thing Mark that that jumped out was it kind of reminded me of my first broadcast was 2017 when Jacksonville was starting to amass all of these first round draft choices you know and you know they had Jaylen Ramsay and Unique and Gway and you know but that’s a team that’s just loaded. I mean, you have two number one overall picks, Trevor Lawrence and u I’m blanking on the the defensive end, but then Trayvon Walker. Yes, Walker. And then, you know, you you’ve got a bunch of, you know, second pick with uh with Hunter. And I’m curious about him, Travis Hunter, what what you thought about him and, you know, where he should sort of settle. But I don’t know. It just seems like a a good team that I think is pretty well coached. But they’ve got a ton of talent and uh but yeah, seriously, what about what about Travis Hunter? What do you what do you see in him? Yeah, you know, I mean, he’s still he’s still kind of figuring it out and I know when he got there, um they they thought he was very raw from a route running standpoint and he’s he’s growing. Um he’s an exceptional, you know, dynamic athlete and I think there probably if you go through and dig through all the film like I have, there’s probably five or six deep touchdowns they’ve missed where the ball’s never even gotten pushed to him. And so, you know, they’re trying to get that done. I think, you know, I think their biggest issue truly, and it was the biggest issue on Sunday, is the inconsistent nature of their quarterback. um you know, he reverts back to bad habits that he developed over the course of five years with bad coaching. And so to tie your feet together to your mechanics and to to be efficient in doing that, you know, that’s a work in progress for Trevor Lawrence. And you know, and he readily admits it. He’s like, “Hey man, I’m you know, I’m still working through this stuff.” and you know all the things that he had to do um coming up through the Jacksonville Jaguars and and he just really wasn’t coached in a lot of that stuff mechanically and so when you do get pressure like he got against Seattle you’re going to revert to poor mechanics to poor foot energy and um and inaccurate throws and there were so many times where receivers digging one off the you know off the blades of the grass or you know going up for a fingertip catch and to get yards after catch. You know, to have yards that that yak yardage, you have to communicate defensive leverage with ball placement accurately putting the ball where it needs to be to avoid a tackle so you can spin in that direction and get extra yardage. And there was not one opportunity that I remember where Trevor put the ball in a place where a receiver could spin to that ball either inside or outside leverage and get away from a defender and get an extra four or five yards. He was, you know, the receivers were going up and making a fingertip catch, coming down and getting instantly tackled because of the inaccuracy of the ball placement. And that was that was a consistent kind of um just a consistent thought process or consistent, you know, happening over the course of that game. Mark, as always, we appreciate you, my friend. Have a great rest of your week and we’ll do it again next week. All right, let’s work on that Canada thing. You guys are close. Yes, definitely. Let me know. Let me know what we come up with. Let’s get that stirred up a little bit. Yeah. Let’s follow Mark’s Twitter and more importantly, see how many Canadians attack him on there. Oh, like you said, they’re they’re too nice, eh? Yeah. He says, “Come get a taste, Mark.” Thanks, man. Thanks, buddy. There you go. There’s Mark Scharth with us each and every week.

Mark Schlereth joins Dave Wyman & Bob Stelton to discuss the Seahawks win over the Jaguars which he was on the TV call for.

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0:00 – Seahawks overcoming defensive injuries
1:51 – Mike Macdonald’s coaching style & adjustments
4:01 – Byron Murphy and the pass rush plan
5:01 – Seahawks defensive improvement
6:01 – Impact of injuries on defense
7:45 – Sam Darnold’s career turnaround
10:03 – What the Seahawks defensive can add to improve
12:15 – Run game struggles & how to improve
14:43 – How good are the Jaguars? + Trevor Lawrence concerns

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