Why haven’t Seahawks interviewed Mike Macdonald? It doesn’t necessarily mean they won’t
He’s the hottest coach of the NFL’s best defense. He’s another dominant performance by his unit this weekend from reaching the Super Bowl.
Defense? That’s the worst part of the Seahawks. It’s what Seattle must improve with its new head coach and staff for 2024, and beyond.
So why haven’t the Seahawks interviewed, or even requested to interview, Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald?
The answer involves timing, NFL rules — and the Seahawks’ own thinking.
The fact that there’s no reported interest so far among Seattle’s nine known candidates doesn’t mean general manager John Schneider isn’t interested in potentially having the 36-year-old Macdonald replace fired, 72-year-old Pete Carroll as the Seahawks’ coach. Not necessarily.
Macdonald’s Ravens are the top seed in the AFC’s playoffs. Baltimore hosts the Kansas City Chiefs in the conference championship game Sunday. The winner advances to Super Bowl 58 in Las Vegas Feb. 11.
League rules for interviewing candidates for head-coaching vacancies changed recently, including for employees of top conference seeds. The intent is to keep focus on the playoffs and coaches in them focused on their jobs instead of flying to job interviews.
The result: The Seahawks’ and the hiring processes for the five other teams needing a new head coach are happening at a slower pace, over weeks, than in past Januarys into Februarys.
NFL rules state those employed by a conference’s No. 1 seed could interview initially only in a window starting three days after the end of the regular season and ending before the end of the first, wild-card round. The top seeds got a bye past that round and their coaches were relatively freer that week and weekend ending Jan. 15.
The Seahawks ended Carroll’s 14-year run as their coach and top football authority on the third day after the end of the league’s regular season. Schneider said last week he didn’t begin virtual interviews for Seattle’s opening until last Wednesday, Jan. 17.
That was three days after the league-mandated window to interview Macdonald and top-seed coaches closed.
NFL rules also state beginning this week no team can interview Macdonald or any other coach in the AFC and NFC championships until at least Monday, Jan. 29. That’s the day after the conference title games.
If the Ravens win, the Seahawks would not be able to interview Macdonald for the first time until after the Super Bowl, Feb. 12 at the earliest. Second interviews with Super Bowl coaches can happen beginning Monday through Feb. 4, the end of the Super Bowl bye week, per league rules.
If the Ravens lose Sunday, any team could talk to Macdonald at any stage of the interview process beginning Monday.
So while the Seahawks aren’t talking to Macdonald this week, no other needy team is, either.
That doesn’t mean the Seahawks won’t seek an interview with him after this weekend.
But they would have competition.
Mike Macdonald a hot NFL candidate
Macdonald is in high demand. That’s what coordinating the defense that led the NFL in points allowed, sacks and turnovers created leading to the best record in his conference and being one game from the Super Bowl does.
He did equally impressive work in 2021 in his one season leaving Baltimore and coordinating the University of Michigan’s defense.
His Ravens schemes work, often because Macdonald confuses opposing quarterbacks and offensive play callers.
Last weekend in the AFC divisional playoff game against Houston, Macdonald had the Ravens’ secondary changing from alignments of two safeties deep at the snap into what during plays became single-high safety coverage, with the other safety rotating up toward the line of scrimmage. Texans offensive coordinator Bobby Slowik, on the Seahawks’ list of nine coaches they are interviewing and interested in, and his rookie quarterback C.J. Stroud had big success this season against single-high coverage. But against Baltimore they often saw two-deep looks and thus called plays for them.
Then during the snaps, Baltimore often played the single-high sets Houston wanted to see but wasn’t seeing when the Texans chose their plays.
Doug Farrar, the Seattle-based NFL editor for the USA Today Sports Media Group, detailed Macdonald’s chess-match, check-mate win over the Texans 34-10 with video explanation this week.
Farrar called Macdonald’s work “a master class.”
Macdonald’s Ravens dominated Seahawks quarterback Geno Smith and his then-offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in Baltimore’s 37-3 win over Seattle in November.
Tuesday, the Chicago Bears hired Waldron to be their new offensive coordinator.
Ravens coach John Harbaugh was asked recently what he saw in Macdonald when he hired the 20-something as an intern for Baltimore in 2014. Macdonald then became Harbaugh’s defensive backs coach (2017) and linebackers coach (2018-19) before his year away running Michigan’s defense for Harbaugh’s brother, Jim.
Jim Harbaugh agreed on Wednesday to leave Michigan and become the new coach of the Los Angeles Chargers. That brought the NFL teams needing a new head coach down from
“He was very eager and very smart and very motivated and hardworking and all those kinds of things, and you could just tell,” John Harbaugh told Baltimore-area reporters. “He had all those kinds of traits. I think he’s been raised the right way. His parents are incredible people. He just got to it and worked hard at it and kind of came up through the system.
“With this particular defensive system, he’s probably been blessed with the opportunity to grow with the same system. And then the evolution of the system over the course of the last, what, nine, 10 years, he’s been right in the middle of all that.”
The Atlanta Falcons have interviewed Macdonald for their coaching vacancy. That was Jan. 12, before the wild-card games that Baltimore earned its bye past. The Falcons reportedly are requesting a second interview with Macdonald following Sunday’s AFC title game.
The Washington Commanders are also reportedly going to interview Macdonald plus Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson a second time.
Johnson, 37, interviewed virtually with the Seahawks Saturday. The Falcons have also interviewed Detroit’s play caller, who will coach the Lions’ offense in the NFC title game at San Francisco Sunday.
Seahawks’ interviews so far
NFL rules state beginning Monday, Jan. 29, through Sunday, Feb. 4, the Super Bowl bye week, interviews either in person or virtual are allowed for head-coach candidates who are coaching in Super Bowl 58.
Beginning Feb. 4, the league prohibits contact with coaches on the Super Bowl teams until Monday, Feb. 12. That’s the day after the Super Bowl.
The Seahawks have initially interviewed Slowik, Johnson, Cowboys defensive coordinator (and former Seattle Super Bowl defensive coordinator) Dan Quinn, Raiders defensive coordinator Patrick Graham, Dolphins offensive coordinator Frank Smith, Panthers defensive coordinator Ejiro Evero, Rams defensive coordinator Raheem Morris and Giants offensive coordinator Mike Kafka.
The Seahawks are reportedly seeking second interviews with Quinn, Kafka, Morris, Graham and Evero. That’s four NFL defensive coordinators and one offensive coordinator, the 36-year-old Kafka.
There will be more than those, likely after the conference title games this weekend.
ESPN has reported the Seahawks also want to interview former Titans head coach Mike Vrabel, though there hasn’t been any information that interview has happened. Seattle doesn’t have to ask for permission to interview Vrabel. He currently isn’t employed by any team. Tennessee fired him this month after its 6-11 season.
Schneider was asked what he’s prioritizing in his search for Seattle’s first coach since 2009 not named Pete Carroll.
“Our culture and how are we evolving,” Schneider said. “Who’s going to help us move to the next level? How are we going to compete with everybody that we need to compete with and advance this organization moving forward?
“We’re going to learn so much in this process about the ideas. I’m proud about all of the connections we have around the National Football League, and we’ve learned a lot already. To be able to understand what that looks like, different opinions, different philosophies, open the door to different ideas — whether it’s a defensive head coach or an offensive head coach or a special teams guy that is becoming a head coach. I think that’s all really important.”
This story was originally published January 24, 2024 at 5:10 AM.
