Head Coach Mike Macdonald Discusses Preparing For Week 1 vs. The 49ers | Seattle Seahawks

Head Coach Mike Macdonald Discusses Preparing For Week 1 vs. The 49ers | Seattle Seahawks

All right, we got everybody. Good to see everyone. Hope you had a good weekend. I hate to disappoint you, but there’s no injury report today. We’ll uh we’ll let you know accordingly on Wednesday. So, hope you respect that. But uh good work today, guys. We’re back in the building uh locked in. Really good day and day off tomorrow and we’re kind of in normal uh uh inseason cadence at this point. Has anything changed for you with uh MBS going down to the 49ers? Uh Does it change anything on offense for you guys? Officially, it changes everything. We’re going to change all the calls. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, he’s a really smart player. He’s probably going to give him information. That stuff happens all the time. You just Some things you can take into account, some things you just got to you got to call it and call it and haul it. What was the couple of guys you got last week that um Kendrick and Sat what have kind of been your early impressions of that couple? They’ve done a a great job. Uh got more reps today. Uh so picking picking things up. It’s going to take him a minute to to you know figure out all the small details and stuff, but the guys going out there competing, playing fast. Uh great guys to be around. So happy they’re here. Is Kendrick an option to play inside? Uh both. Yeah. Do you already know who your punt returner is going to be this weekend or is that something you’re figuring out this week? Uh, we’ll we’ll kind of let everybody know on Sunday, Mike, as a process driven, aware coach, when you look back where you’re at now, this training camp, and how do you think you where you at in your process? How do you feel about the whole process as you get ready for week one? Yeah, it’s a it’s I I think there’s a there’s a interesting balance of uh being really proud of the work that we’ve done and the growth we’ve had on our team that we felt like we had and and there’s a balance of a sense of urgency to to keep going and understanding that we’re not there yet. We’ll never be there, you know, if if we if we do it the right way, but uh feel like the guys are in a have great spirit. Um really proud of like the connection we’ve built with within our team. But, uh, this it’s one of those things where you’re we’re always going to be chasing. You know, it’s just it’s kind of like the the joy is in the process and in the journey. Uh, you know, the destination will take care of itself. If Walker is pacing now, practicing, is he on track of where you’d like your regular season lead back to? Yeah. Everything going according to plan right now. So, you said there’s only so many coverages and so many fronts the defense can play. Uh, so what separates one defensive play caller from another? That’s a good just outed myself. I pleaded the fifth. Uh it’s Look, I I don’t I don’t know. I mean, I’ve I’ve been around great play callers on on those staffs and I think what’s interesting is the guys have different styles. Uh I think as a play caller, you do have to learn your style of like what you’re trying to create and I think that’s really important. Obviously, you’re taking advantage of the guys like that give you a great best chance to make a play and let them do things that they do well. Uh, again, there’s a spectrum to this thing. I mean, you can try to be in the perfect call all the time, which is probably not the way to go. You can you can be in one call the whole game. That’s probably not the way to go either. It’s always going to be some sort of blend, and I think that’s based off of just your personal philosophy and and sticking to it, you know, and making sure that your process kind of follows that so you’re not all over the place. But, um, it’s an interesting question. And I probably need to think about it more honestly. Um I know what works for us is just trying to get our guys in position to make to have success consistently with however that comes to life. Like you got several rookies who are going to have prominent roles right off the bat. How do you feel like they’ve approached this getting ready for their first season like? Well, they’ve done a great job so far. And I think I think the next, you know, uh, challenge to them is getting in an inseason routine and cadence that they can uh, grab a hold of and and and kind of make it theirs. Everybody’s routine is different throughout the week. Uh, you got to kind of figure out what’s what works for you. And that’s our vets have been awesome with it. Our coaches are great helping them out as best we can, but ultimately they have to figure out what works for those guys. It’s a long season and but if you take it day by day kind of period by period and stack those things you know you’ll get to week 13 14 and it’s just it should just be another week for you. Where do you feel like Tori is at physically but just mentally in terms of like the time he missed all the reps he missed mentally? Yeah. Uh Tori Tori’s done a great job. He’s um he’s on it. Um feel like he’s in a great spot mentally. You know hasn’t had a lot of game experience yet. So, you know, my my recommendation to him is go out and do all the things that you’re doing in practice. Uh, but he he’s on it. Does a great job. As a as a play caller, is there something unique about the relationship you have to have with your green dot guy? Yeah, it’s I think so. Um, I’ve had as as a play caller, I’ve had a guy that just wants me to tell him to call and shut up and then there’s been green dot guys that don’t want me to shut up and just tell them all the things. So, I like the guys that I get to talk to a lot. Um, but again, it’s I think yeah, I think I think you got to have a feel for what what they can handle, how they see the game. It’s important to meet throughout the week and trying to get on the same page. Probably not the same quite the same as an offensive play caller or the quarterback, but uh it’s probably the closest equivalent that you’d get to, you know, forging that relationship and spending that time together. Where’s Ernest on the spectrum of Definitely the more doesn’t mind me talking to him. Sometimes I’ll talk to him on the sideline. He gives me the look to shut up and that’s when I shut up. You and both talked pretty early on in his time here. How you guys kind of see the click right away. How have you seen that relationship between you two grow the way you see football? Well, he’s s he’s just uh he’s such an alpha. He’s just has such poise about him. He’s kind of unshakable. Um, I just I just really I just respect the heck out of the guy. Just he’s so tough, understands the game. Um, to come in in the middle of the season, I know, you know, similar schemes and language and things like that. So, probably accelerated the learning curve a little bit, but that’s not easy. You’re coming to a new building, going across the country, and there’s a lot of stuff going on. And for him to play as well as he did, feeling the way he did, uh, meant a lot for our football team. And I think the guys recognize that. And uh I know our coaches and myself did too. He had an offseason procedure I think on his knee. Does he look better physically now since then? Well, I think if you ask him, he’s saying that this is the best he’s felt. So that’s great. It’s great for us, great for him. You guys are currently two and a half point underdogs. That’s only the third time that’s happened for a week one home opener at the Seahawks in the last 40 years. Uh how do you decide when 40? Yeah. Okay. How do you decide when to use that information with the team and when to just ignore it? I think you’re just I mean, look, our you know how we roll at this point. It’s we got to focus on us going out and playing Seahawk football from the the first snap to the last. That’s really is our focus. If you try making it too complicated, you you get all out of whack. Uh at some point, yeah, you there’s things to have motivation material, bulletin board material, things like that. uh probably keep it in house when and we use it, but I think you can tell it just it’s just kind of like whatever to us right now. With putting Chris Haynes on fire last week, how do you feel about your guard depth kind of in general? Well, I mean, yeah, it’s you’re we’re with one less guard. So, that’s that’s the way we feel. But, uh we got some young guys ready to go step in if uh somebody couldn’t find their helmet and uh and then we’ll go from there. But, you know, possibly like Olu is probably the next guy in the game. You know, Jaylen would go to guard is the plan right now. Big picture question on your offense tonight. There’s so many pieces coordinator six maybe six new starters from last season. How do you feel like all the new pieces? Well, it’s interesting. I I know I don’t think that we see it as new. It’s just it’s just us since April. It’s like or really since we hired Clint. So, we’ve had just as much time to kind of get on the same page as everybody else. Everybody else has uh moving parts up to this point. You know, I understand that we have probably more than most, but uh yeah, I mean, we have no other option but to be really good. So, that’s what we’re going to try to do. And but we’re I don’t think we’re really spending any time thinking, okay, we’re new. How’s this thing going to come together? It’s like we’ve had, you know, we’ve had all this all these months up to this point to come together as a football team and as an offense. And uh it’s a long season, too. You’re going to have another four to five months of growing and evolving uh as the season starts to declare. So, uh that’s what we’re counting on. What’s the first thing you look at after practice or after a game on on film? Where do you go first? Well, after practice, I just we just watch it straight through and then we watch the one-on- ones. Um, all the concept stuff after. Um, me personally, I’m looking for like more than one. It’s like what deserves uh a defensive meeting talking point. It’s probably more than one position group that’s affected. Uh, normally that’s some sort of structural thing or just making sure we’re playing something the same way. Uh everything else we get on the same page with the position coaches and they can handle it within their group. But that’s normally my rule of thumb of whether or not you know it needs to be talked about. Uh after a game I I just I like to as a head coach I like to watch it straight through not like fa one phase at a time. It’s just what I prefer as a game unfolds. From the spring to now, what have you like what you seen from Jackson in this new off man? He’s he’s so decisive with with how he with how he operates. I mean, uh, he he runs everything. He’s he’s on his stuff. Um, great attitude, phenomenal attitude, great work ethic. Uh, he’s just he’s there every day. Same guy every day, and, uh, nothing more you can ask of him. I’m really excited for him. With the bulletin board material, how often do you go to that? Is that a relatively rare technique? It’s every every once in a while. I mean, I think for who we are, you start just you start thinking about not what we need to do. It’s just sometime again, there’s times for it, but that’s just that’s our philosophy here. Not there’s not right there’s not a right wrong or right way or a wrong way. It’s just this is the way that we we choose to approach it. Thank you everybody. Okay. All right. Thanks y’all.

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald spoke to media on Monday afternoon about beginning the first regular season game-week of 2025, finalizing the results of position battles, how the rookies are approaching their first game and more at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.

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