Witherspoon’s lack of awareness of the fact that Seattle had earned itself a playoff spot wasn’t poor planning or leadership by head coach Mike Macdonald and his coaching staff, or a fault of Witherspoon. It’s just the latest example of Macdonald’s philosophy of truly going 1-0 every week and knowing the rest will follow.

Since Week 1, and even before then, during the offseason, Macdonald, in any given press conference or media availability, when given the chance, would talk about the “process” and how he wanted the Seahawks to stick to that process in order to become the team they wanted to become and achieve their ultimate goal.

Heading into Week 17, in what is a must-win game if Seattle wants to have a shot at clinching home-field advantage, Macdonald’s ideology and mindset haven’t shifted.

“No, I haven’t talked about it once,” he said when asked if he’s talked to the team about what is up for grabs in the final two weeks of the season. “The only thing I’ve told him is we made the playoffs.”

The players have taken to Macdonald’s teachings, expressing the same sentiment when asked about making the Pro Bowl. On the honor, Witherspoon who was named to his third Pro Bowl in as many seasons, said, “It doesn’t really cross my mind. The only thing that’s on our mind is to win, to go 1-0 every week. Whatever accomplishments come with that, we appreciate it, but we’re looking at the bigger picture.”

He added, “It means a lot. When you put in a lot of work and there’s a lot of things that go into this, the playoffs are something you should want to get to.”

Jaxon Smith-Njigba is a Pro Bowler for the second season in a row, and he and Witherspoon, who were in the same draft class, will be playing in their first-ever playoff game.

“Definitely proud of our team, just getting there,” Smith-Njigba said. “Something that I’ve kept my eye on in the offseason and just really wanted to be in this situation. So, I’m super grateful and I don’t want to waste any opportunities.”

Macdonald, who became the first head coach in franchise history to start their career with back-to-back winning seasons, has his team in the playoffs in his second season.

“It’s like, it’s great,” Macdonald said. “Yeah. I mean, we got our goals. We want to win games. We want to make the playoffs. In order to make our next goal, we have to win this game. So that’s where we’re at. I think same thing with the Pro Bowl. It’s cool. It’s great. Years from now, we’ll look back and we’ll love this team and we’ll love the process and the whole thing, but we got to go make it come to life right now. We can’t be sitting around telling how sweet we are to everybody.”