‘Everything You Want in a Head Coach’: Seahawks Eager to Earn Mike Macdonald Historic Super Bowl Win
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Winning 24 regular season games in his first two seasons at the helm for the Seattle Seahawks, Mike Macdonald has carved out one of the most successful runs to open a head coaching career in NFL history.
Though Macdonald didn’t quite match former 49ers coach George Seifert, who won a whopping 28 games in his first two seasons, and came up just short of Jim Harbaugh and Chuck Knox, who each won 26 games to open their head coaching careers in the league, he has left a historic mark in a myriad of ways. Trailing only Seifert, his Seahawks have won 14 road games dating back to the start of the 2024 season, while he became the first coach in franchise history to produce double-digit wins in his first two seasons.
But when Seattle takes the field to face New England on Sunday for Super Bowl LX, unbeknownst to many of his own players, the 38-year-old Macdonald has a prime opportunity to carve out a unique piece of history all to himself as the first head coach in NFL history who calls defensive plays for his team to win the Lombardi Trophy in 60 tries.
“That’s crazy. I never knew he was the first defensive [play calling] coach that could possibly win this game,” Seahawks cornerback Riq Woolen said on Wednesday. “I feel like defense win championships and when you have a coach like that who nails the plays and he can help the offense out by looking at the other team's defense and stuff like that, it goes a long way.”
Looking back over the decades spanning since the first Super Bowl when the Packers defeated the Chiefs in 1967, several coaches who called plays on defense at various points in their tenures as head coaches won the big game. Among those, long-time Patriots coach Bill Belichick captured six titles with Hall of Fame quarterback Tom Brady leading the way in the NFL’s most dominant dynasty.
But while he still had some involvement and carried weight on scheme-related decisions, Belichick had a defensive coordinator who called the plays for most of his illustrious tenure in New England, including during all six seasons that culminated with a Super Bowl title. In three seasons where he did resume play calling duties (2000, 2010, 2011), his team advanced to the Super Bowl once, losing to Eli Manning and the giant-slaying Giants for a second time in four years.
Overall, only 10 of the previous 30 Super Bowls have been won by defensive-minded head coaches. And with even Belichick delegating to a coordinator while racking up enough rings for both of his hands, none of them carried full play calling responsibilities as Macdonald does for the Seahawks, a factoid that he downplayed speaking with the media on Tuesday.
“I just want us to win the game,” Macdonald said, sticking with his usual team-first philosophy.
While Macdonald may not be interested in acknowledging such a historic feat on an individual level, however, the same cannot be said for the players who comprise the bodacious No. 1 ranked scoring defense he has built and schemed up in Seattle.
With Macdonald calling the shots, after several years of declining performance on the defensive side of the football, the Seahawks took a solid first step improving to 11th in points allowed in the coach’s first season, finishing with 10 wins and falling just short of a playoff berth. Bringing back nearly every major contributor from that group while adding veteran defensive end Demarcus Lawrence in free agency and dynamic safety Nick Emmanwori in the 2025 NFL Draft, the “Darkside” defense came into existence in 2025, holding opponents to 17.2 points per game with a top-three run defense and a top-10 pass defense.
Playing a major role in Seattle winning a franchise-record 14 regular season games, capturing an NFC West title for the first time since 2020, and advancing to the Super Bowl for the fourth time in team history, a star-studded defense featuring the right blend of battle-tested veterans like Lawrence and exciting youngsters like Emmanwori oozes with talent. But as All-Pro cornerback Devon Witherspoon noted on Wednesday, having the pieces to the puzzle serves as only part of the equation, and having a coach who can put all of those pieces together correctly is a must-have to maximize on that talent.
"I think it's the way he game plans, man. The way he studies teams, the way he presents out the game plan to us,” Witherspoon explained, commending Macdonald for being able to handle play calling duties with all of his other responsibilities as head coach. “It's literally everything you want in a head coach. He kind of does everything for us. It would mean everything to win this game, especially for him and our vets. I mean you can't ask for much more than that. When you got guys like that who can call plays, who can put you in the right position, then you got the players who can go out there and make the scheme happen. You can't ask for nothing more than that.”
To Macdonald’s credit, the coach who Witherspoon happily called “nerdy” early on his first season has excelled at seamlessly assembling the puzzle for the Seahawks, helping bring everything to life with a disruptive, versatile, and violent defense that leaves quarterbacks and offensive coordinators awake at night.
When asked what set Macdonald apart from other head coaches, especially the few defensive-minded ones who actually call plays across the league, one central theme emerged. Players hammered home his attention - if not his obsession - to nailing everything down to the finest of fine details.
Among his several mantras that he brought with him upon arrival in Seattle, Macdonald has always expressed the desire to “chase edges.” And that isn’t simply about seeking innovation calling plays or installing new schemes, either. It’s a mindset that has permeated throughout the organization, whether in the scouting department leading up to the draft, the personnel department trying out free agents during the season, or general manager John Schneider working the phones prior to the midseason trade deadline.
Chasing edges also shows up on the practice field and in meeting rooms, as Macdonald and his staff meticulously craft a blueprint to attack opposing offenses each week, making subtle adjustments as necessary. That work ethic and desire to coach to a certain standard has a contagious effect on the locker room, bringing out the best in every cog of the Seahawks’ defensive machine from the pass rush up front to the coverage on the back end and everything in between.
“His attention to detail and his hard work is a big part of how well we play and how we practice throughout the week,” Woolen said. “He's gonna have a set of plays and then he may add on to a call or he may take this call away and stuff like that throughout the week. He has a great process going in, making sure we hone in to this play or that play and we just find a solution to what we can best play against every offense.”
Now in his third season with the Seahawks, few players owe more to Macdonald for their career trajectory than linebacker Drake Thomas. After suffering a significant knee injury, he endured an arduous rehab and returned facing plenty of uncertainty with a new coaching staff that wasn’t overly familiar with him.
But after impressing on special teams for most of his sophomore season, Macdonald rewarded Thomas with a handful of snaps as a nickel sub-package linebacker, earning the former North Carolina State star invaluable regular season experience. He built off of that opportunity by leaping over Tyrice Knight on the depth chart early this season, taking over as a starter in Week 4 and not looking back, eclipsing 90 tackles with 3.5 sacks, six pass breakups, and an interception.
Reflecting on what Macdonald and other members of the defensive coaching staff have meant to him, Thomas looked like he could’ve strapped on a helmet and pads a few days early while sitting down at his assigned table during Wednesday’s media scrum, providing another example of how players will run through a wall for their coach.
"He had a vision from the moment he stepped in the building and they brought it to life,” Thomas said. “How they come to work every single day and the way they coach us. So really want to work to try and get him that first [Super Bowl] win as a defensive play caller. And we're going to go out there, we're going to be ready to go.”
Safety Coby Bryant, who Macdonald became a strong advocate for early in his first season as the defensive back converted to a new position after playing cornerback in his first two seasons, also has the utmost respect for his head coach because he doesn’t try to be someone that he’s not. If he has an issue with a player, he doesn’t shy away from tough conversations.
When a player earns an opportunity, as Bryant learned supplanting an injured Rayshawn Jenkins and ultimately staying in the starting lineup last season, they will see the field the Seahawks. There’s no empty promises.
“Just him being him, honestly. He prepares not only himself, but for us as well too,” Bryant remarked. “Each and every week he strives to be the greatest and that's what we strive for too. It speaks true volumes. And we're going to get a W for him for sure.”
Such transparency matters to players even at the highest level, and with Macdonald upholding those values while staying genuine and yet approachable, it’s not hard to see why Bryant, Thomas, and the rest of their teammates have been bought in from Day 1 and want to pay it forward by winning a ring for their beloved coach on Sunday.
With plenty of room for distraction leading up to the actual game, the Seahawks will have their work cut out for them on Sunday night, as the Patriots finished second in the NFL in scoring while winning 16 regular season and playoff games to make an unexpected return to the Super Bowl. Quarterback Drake Maye threw 31 touchdown passes while also scoring four times as a runner, while New England’s defense has given up less than nine points per game in the postseason, making them more than a formidable opponent with the ultimate prize on the line.
But at the urging of Macdonald, Seattle has kept things loose with the media circus that comes with Super Bowl week while staying focused on the task at hand this week. No matter the magnitude of the game, the messaging has remained constant all season long, and that consistency dating back to the start of OTAs has been a key part of the recipe for the creation of a special football team that has sights set on finishing the job and giving the man in charge a slice of history even Belichick can’t match.
