The 1st tasks for Seahawks and new coach Mike Macdonald: an OC + veteran leaders’ futures
Patrick Queen could have saved the Seahawks time — including a private-jet trip to Baltimore — before they hired Mike Macdonald as Seattle’s ninth coach in franchise history.
Queen could have told them what to do.
He calls Macdonald “the best person I’ve ever been around.”
This week the Ravens’ inside linebacker is in the Pro Bowl for the first time in his four-year career. His contract with Baltimore is ending. Queen is poised to sign a big-bucks deal in free agency next month.
He sounds like he wouldn’t exactly mind continuing to play for his now-former Ravens defensive coordinator.
You know, in Seattle now.
“I think he’s the best candidate out there right now,” Queen told reporters Monday, two days before the Seahawks hired Macdonald to replace Pete Carroll as Seattle’s head coach.
“I don’t think anybody does it like him,” Queen said of Macdonald. “Nobody cares like him. Nobody will do what he does. He will not rest until he has everything right.
“Whoever gets him, if he leaves, they’re getting the best candidate out there. The guy is all around just the best person I’ve ever been around, coach-wise and person-wise. He really cares and truly cares about the players, the people around the organization and the fans.”
Queen is an interesting person to speak about Macdonald.
The young, all-star linebacker could be involved among the first decisions Macdonald makes in Seattle as a first-time head coach.
Mike Macdonald’s first Seattle tasks
Macdonald is 36. He is the NFL’s youngest head coach. He’s exactly half the age of Carroll.
Carroll was the league’s oldest coach until Jan. 10. That day team chair Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde chose general manager John Schneider’s vision for how to improve the Seahawks over Carroll’s.
Allen fired Carroll after 14 seasons and two Super Bowls as Seattle’s top football authority.
Schneider is now that.
His and Macdonald’s first big need for the Seahawks’ future, following an introductory press conference Thursday morning: hiring a new offensive coordinator.
With a young, defensive play caller as the new head man, the team may be seeking an older, established offensive coordinator.
One veteran NFL OC’s availability for potentially coming to Seattle may hinge on the Washington Commanders’ decision with what is now the league’s last head-coaching vacancy.
Eric Bieniemy, 54, left being Kansas City’s offensive coordinator before last season to take the same job with Washington. The Commanders have since fired head coach Ron Rivera. Bieniemy’s future is in flux while Washington considers who it will hire as its next head man.
Bieniemy reportedly met two weeks ago with Commanders decision-makers about their head job.
Schneider has said the hiring of the Seahawks’ new coaching staff, of which he now has final say with Carroll gone, is next in importance to hiring the new head coach.
“Our key here is to let people know that they have people that are going to help them be the best head coach and have the best staff that they could possibly have,” Schneider said this month, “and they’re going to know that we can support them whether they have been a head coach, or they haven’t been a head coach
“Staff development and procurement, I think that’s extremely important, regardless of (whether the new head coach is) an offensive guy, defensive guy, or special-teams guy.”
Seahawks’ player decisions
Schneider’s and Macdonald’s second big tasks: the status of Seattle’s veteran team leaders for 2024, and beyond.
The Seahawks have a quarterback of the present, but not the future. Geno Smith will turn 34 during the next season. His contract runs through 2025. It’s four years shorter than Macdonald’s, and it’s financially easier for Seattle get out of before it ends.
On Feb. 16, the fifth day of the NFL’s upcoming waiver period, Smith’s $12.7 million salary for the 2024 season becomes fully guaranteed. Backup quarterback Drew Lock’s contract has ended; he is heading toward free agency next month. So Schneider and Macdonald appear likely to grant Smith his right to guaranteed Seahawks money in two weeks and ride with him for next season.
But beyond 2024 for the most important position on the team, and in the sport? The Seahawks own the 16th pick in this spring’s draft. That’s likely too low to get the best quarterbacks coming out of college to start immediately in the NFL.
The GM and new coach have assuredly talked about that in their in-person interviews this week, in Baltimore Tuesday and Renton Wednesday. The offensive coordinator they will soon hire will know that plan, as well.
Seattle also has decisions to make with starters on Macdonald’s specialty, defense.
Bobby Wagner’s future
Bobby Wagner made the Pro Bowl for the ninth time this past season. He led the NFL for the third time in his 12-year pro career with 183 tackles. That tied fellow Seahawks inside linebacker Jordyn Brooks’ team record from 2021.
Wagner turns 34 this June. His one-year contract has expired. He said in December he is playing a 13th NFL season in 2024 for somebody, “100 percent.”
Schneider and Macdonald have to decide if it will be with the new Seahawks. Wagner doesn’t have an agent. He will negotiate directly with Schneider and Macdonald.
Jordyn Brooks’ future
Brooks is also due for free agency in March. Schneider and Carroll decided last year not to pick up the fifth, option year Seattle’s first-round pick from 2020 could have had with guaranteed money for 2024 with the Seahawks. That was when Brooks was in the first months of his recovery from reconstructive knee surgery in January 2023.
Brooks said following the Seahawks’ final game of this past season, Jan. 7 at Arizona, he wants to remain with Seattle. But he knows that’s not up to him.
“If it is (my last Seahawks game),” Brooks told The News Tribune in the visiting locker room in Glendale, Arizona, postgame last month, “I don’t have any regrets. I’ve enjoyed these guys the last four years. My teammates became true brothers to me. I’ve enjoyed the coaches that I’ve had. I’ve enjoyed the city of Seattle.
“So, if it is (the end here), then I’ve had a great four years.”
That brings us — and the Seahawks, perhaps? — back to Macdonald’s Pro Bowl linebacker from Baltimore.
Queen and Macdonald’s Ravens annihilated Smith and Seahawks in Baltimore’s 37-3 rout of Seattle in November. Queen’s rookie contract has also ended. The Ravens didn’t pick his fifth year option for 2024 last year, either. That makes the 24-year-old inside linebacker and second-team All-Pro poised for a rich, new deal in about six weeks.
The best way for Macdonald to install his trick, disguised coverages, blitzes and run defense from his Baltimore 3-4 scheme in Seattle this year? Have the man in the middle of his top-ranked Ravens defense the last two years playing Macdonald’s schemes in Seattle.
But the Seahawks are already over the league’s salary cap for 2024, by about $4.5 million. That’s with only 48 players signed to the 53-man roster for this year. So they have to cut salary of some veterans before and while they sign any others.
Schneider wanted the authority to have final say in that for the last 14 years in Seattle. Now he has it.
With a young, first-time head coach, the GM is likely to make these player calls. Macdonald will have his say, especially on defense.
“We’re going to have a lot of fun, we’re going to work our tails off, and it’s going to be an incredible ride,” Macdonald said Wednesday upon being greeted by Kolde, president Chuck Arnold and Seahawks staff in the new coach’s first moments inside team headquarters.
“We’re going to be here for a long time,” Macdonald said, “and we’re going to win a lot of football games.”
This story was originally published February 1, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
