Full Steam Ahead For Mike Macdonald, Seahawks Entering 2025 NFL Combine

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Now in his second season as head coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Mike Macdonald will be on site as he scopes out talent in Indianapolis. [/caption]

Engulfed in a whirlwind for several weeks after accepting the task of replacing legendary head coach Pete Carroll last January, Mike Macdonald hardly had time to breathe as he assembled his first coaching staff last spring, let alone squeeze in a late February trip to Indianapolis to attend the NFL Scouting Combine.

But one year later, while he has had plenty to keep himself busy on and off the job, including hiring a new offensive coordinator and raising his newborn Jack, Macdonald won’t have to skip out on the festivities this time around. After leading the Seahawks to 10 wins in his first year at the helm and narrowly missing out on the playoffs, he and general manager John Schneider will be able to work in tandem this week as efforts to improve and fortify the roster are well underway with a vision for what they must accomplish to get the franchise back into contention.

Understandably, on-field workouts for 300-plus prospects draw the most attention during the course of combine week, as fans want to see who will be the next DK Metcalf or Shaquem Griffin and post spectacular, freakish testing numbers. In attendance, Macdonald and Schneider will be watching draft hopefuls closely and athletic testing does carry weight in the evaluation process.

But Seattle’s brain trust will have bigger fish to fry away from all the running and jumping at Lucas Oil Stadium, starting with critical formal and informal meetings with prospects. As Schneider has alluded to in the past, these visits provide an opportunity to learn what makes each player tick and do everything from asking football scheme related questions to conducting a staring contest, testing the mental makeup of incoming prospects through traditional and non-conventional methods.

While the combine obviously will always be marketed as a pre-draft event, Macdonald and Schneider will hardly be limited to watching players test, conducting interviews, and assessing medicals to continue crafting a big board for April. In fact, preparation for the start of free agency next month ultimately may be the most important business taking place behind the scenes and away from the camera.

Working the phones or meeting with agents in person, Schneider will open up negotiations with Seattle’s own free agents, with linebacker Ernest Jones IV being the top priority to re-sign after thriving in Macdonald’s defense as a midseason trade acquisition from Tennessee. Discussions between the two sides reportedly were curbed at the end of the regular season, but with the start of the league year now just three weeks away, this week will be crucial to re-opening those talks with sights on hammering out a multi-year deal to keep him in the Pacific Northwest for the long haul.

Though NFL teams won’t be allowed to speak with outside free agents until March 12 when the league permits “legal” tampering, Schneider will also be putting in a word with agents about players they may have interest in pursuing next month, gauging market values in the process while considering what Macdonald and his staff want to add personnel-wise. The arrival of a new play caller in Klint Kubiak creates more intrigue on this front, as he’s expected to deploy a vastly different scheme from his predecessor Ryan Grubb, which could call for significant changes to better fit his system.

Negotiations won’t be limited to pending free agents either, as the Seahawks have difficult decisions to make to open up salary cap space before free agency, starting with potential cap casualties in receiver Tyler Lockett and defensive ends Dre’Mont Jones and Uchenna Nwosu.

Despite being of the most best receivers in team history, Lockett would be on the books for an untenable $30 million cap hit in 2025, a price Seattle certainly won’t pay for a wideout coming off a down season and approaching his 33rd birthday. After posting his fewest receptions, receiving yards, and receiving touchdowns since 2017, Schneider likely will try to find a solution to keep him at a lower price tag and if those talks haven’t already started, they certainly will this week. If the two sides can’t reach an agreement, while it isn’t a fun part of the business, it won’t be the first time an iconic player has been jettisoned for cap-related reasons.

As for Jones, while he has splashed at times, the veteran has not lived up to the three-year, $51.5 million contract he signed two years ago. Like Lockett, he carries a massive cap hit of $25.6 million and with just 8.5 sacks over the past two seasons, the impact plays simply have not been there to retain him at that price point and unless something happens with his contract through an extension or restructure, he will also likely hit the market to create financial flexibility.

If there’s a wild card to watch on the cap casualty front, Nwosu missed 22 combined regular season games over the past two seasons due to injuries and Seattle could open up $8 million in cap space after his roster bonus deadline reportedly was moved back from February 14. However, he played well late last season upon the return from his latest injury and remains a revered leader in the locker room, so the team may roll the dice with hopes he bounces back to 2022 production with a clean bill of health.

The Seahawks have other levers that can be pulled this week to create cap space as well, including extending the contracts of quarterback Geno Smith and DK Metcalf. Two years ago, the team assembled the framework for Smith’s current three-year, $75 million contract at the combine, finalizing the deal at the start of free agency. With Macdonald and Kubiak in his corner and publicly vouching for him, an extension for the two-time Pro Bowler seems like a matter of when and not if, and the pact could once again start coming together in Indianapolis if the two sides haven’t already kicked off preliminary talks.

Though Metcalf’s second contract wasn’t signed until a week into training camp in August 2022, Schneider could also use this week to lock up the star receiver on a three or four-year extension. In the event those negotiations stall out, Seattle could wait until the summer again to revisit contract talks or, while unlikely with Lockett’s departure seeming probable, pursue a trade as a last resort to acquire draft picks.

Simply put, Macdonald may be pressed for time to breathe again with so much to do. Considering all of the potential moves that could go down this week with all 32 teams descending on Indianapolis and the clock ticking before free agency begins, he will experience the grind on the ground at the combine for the first time, facing a different type of whirlwind than the one he endured last February.

But with Schneider being battle tested with 15 years of experience under his belt, he will provide a great resource for the young coach to lean on as the two embark on critical offseason for the Seahawks as they hope to hit the ground running building a roster behind a shared vision for the present and future.