It’s been roughly 16 months since Mike Macdonald took over as the Seattle Seahawks’ head coach.

Since then, the franchise has seen plenty of change.

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An infusion of young talent. A new defensive scheme. Midseason defensive personnel changes. An offensive coaching staff shakeup. And of course, the blockbuster Geno Smith and DK Metcalf trades.

From a big-picture perspective, how is the roster and team-building approach coming along on each side of the ball? And what are reasonable expectations for the 2025 season?

NFL Network’s Gregg Rosenthal was posed those questions during an appearance last week on Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy.

‘High expectations’ on defense

The Seahawks’ defense is on the rise.

After some initial growing pains last year, the unit underwent a dramatic midseason turnaround. Spurred by a midseason trade for linebacker Ernest Jones IV – along with other personnel changes, a return to health from several key players and a growing sense of trust in Macdonald’s cutting-edge scheme – the Seahawks’ defense evolved into one of the league’s best units over the final nine weeks.

Between Weeks 10 and 18, Seattle ranked fifth in scoring defense (18.4 points per game), tied for third in actual scoring defense (17.5 points per game, excluding opponents’ non-offensive scores), fifth in defensive EPA and fourth in total defense (304.8 yards per game).

The Seahawks then returned every defensive starter from the second half of last season. They also added four-time Pro Bowl defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence in free agency and ultra-versatile safety Nick Emmanwori in the second round of the NFL Draft.

“I think the approach on defense is obvious,” Rosenthal said. “It’s clear. It’s deep. It’s flexible. You saw the vision of it down the stretch last year. And that’s the thing that makes me the most excited about the Seahawks this year.

“They have a baseline of going into a second year with a really creative, good defensive coach and a good defensive roster that you can have high expectations.”

‘We’ll see’ on offense

It’s a much different story on offense.

After a disappointing 2024 campaign, the Seahawks hit the reset button. They let go of offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and replaced him with Klint Kubiak. They brought in longtime NFL assistants John Benton and Rick Dennison.

And in a pair of blockbuster moves, Seattle traded away Smith and Metcalf.

The Seahawks replaced them with quarterback Sam Darnold and wide receivers Cooper Kupp and Marquez Valdes-Scantling.

And they hammered the offense hard in the NFL Draft, spending nine of their 11 picks on that side of the ball. Among their additions were guard Grey Zabel in the first round, tight end Elijah Arroyo in the second round and wide receiver Tory Horton in the fifth round.

Seattle will have at least four new starters on offense, along with a brand-new system.

“It’s a lot of new talent trying to cohere together,” Rosenthal said. “And that’s where, even though I like the draft plenty, I think it’s fair to wonder, how is this going to go?

“From the outside, it’s not pure optimism, because you are asking a lot of people that were not on the Seahawks last year to come together and make a cohesive group. So we’ll see on that front.”

Listen to the full conversation with NFL Network’s Gregg Rosenthal at this link or in the audio player near the top of this story. Tune in to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.

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