‘It’s different’: Mike Macdonald era begins — with Seahawks vets reminded of Pete Carroll
Geno Smith, Tyler Lockett, Uchenna Nwosu, they noticed.
All the Seahawks who have been around here for more than a day or three noticed. Right away.
The “All In!” signs above every doorway leading from the locker room to the outdoor and the indoor practice fields the last 14 years? Gone.
The “Always Compete” mantra that had been painted, plastered and posted just about everywhere “All In!” wasn’t inside the team headquarters building? Also gone.
“The biggest difference is: No basketball hoop,” Lockett, the longest-tenured Seahawk, said Wednesday.
Embarking on his 10th NFL year all with Seattle, Lockett was speaking on the stage of the players’ main meeting auditorium at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center. The space to his right was where a regulation-size basketball goal had been bolted into the carpeted floor. It was for team shooting contests at meetings. From 2010 until this winter, that is.
Now, that space is conspicuous emptiness. The scoreboard that used to track the shooting contests between offense and defense that led off team meetings is gone, too.
Yet more reminders Pete Carroll is no longer the Seahawks’ coach. He’s no longer Seattle’s top football authority and all-encompassing culture-setter. The team fired him in January, after 14 years of this being his program.
Now it’s Mike Macdonald’s team. He’s Seattle’s coach.
Wednesday was a reminder it’s going to take longer than these first days of the initial phase of the NFL’s offseason training program for Seattle’s veteran players to get used to this.
Macdonald arrives after being coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens’ best-in-the-league defense the last two seasons. At 36, he’s the NFL’s youngest head coach.
His quarterback is just three years younger.
“It’s different,” Smith, the team’s Pro Bowl QB Carroll chose in 2022 to replace traded Russell Wilson as Seattle’s starter, said Wednesday of the Seahawks’ regime change at this point in his career.
“I would say I didn’t expect that.”
Three months ago to the day, Smith sat in the front row of the same auditorium. He had been to Carroll’s far left, slumped in his seat. He listened that January day as the coach who revived — saved, really — Smith’s career talked. Carroll said he fought to keep his job with Seahawks owner Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde after the team missed the playoffs for only the third season in 12 years.
Carroll lost that fight with team ownership.
A part of Smith exited with Carroll.
“That day is a day I’ll probably remember forever, just because of how things happened for me here,” Smith said Wednesday. “Obviously, Coach Carroll, big influence on my career, helped me out a bunch when I came to this organization (in 2019). Really helped me, thrust me, into this spotlight that I’m in now.
“So for me it was just kind of a terrible moment, to see someone that I love so much, having to part ways with him.”
Smith shrugged.
“But, in the NFL that’s the way things go,” he said. “And very excited for what we have here now.
“It’s going to be different. As you can see, there’s no basketball hoop here. A lot of the signs are different. But this isn’t the first time I’ve been through this. I’ve been on different teams. I was with the Jets when we had a coaching turnover (from Rex Ryan and his staff in 2014 to Todd Bowles in 2015).
“I kind of know what to expect when it comes to this. And the real thing is, you’ve got to buy in. No matter who the coach is, no matter who’s leading this thing, you’ve got to buy in — and all the guys have got to buy in.”
That’s what Macdonald is doing this first two weeks of the offseason program. He presenting, and selling, the Seahawks in daily team meetings on his new ways. Of thinking. Of talking. Of practicing. Of playing.
And, the plan is, of winning.
“That’s the key message,” Smith said. “And right now, I feel that’s happening. I feel like the guys are really attentive and just buying in, and just trying to figure things out.”
Smith and Lockett said that includes getting to know the coaches as people — where they are from, their families. That something they learned instantly about Carroll and his assistants upon joining the Seahawks over the last decade. And they’ve known them now for years.
They are still getting to know Macdonald.
And, vice versa.
“I feel like he’s starting to loosen up now,” Nwosu said, comparing his young, rookie head coach Wednesday to his first team meeting in front of the Seahawks’ players Monday. “First day was like, you know ...’I don’t know what’s going on.’ He was, kinda like, I don’t know if he was nervous, or if that’s just how he is.”
The 27-year-old linebacker shrugged and laughed.
“I feel like he’s loosened up a little more,” Nwosu said. “You know, when you get around a new team, first-time head coach, I’m sure there’s some nervousness that goes with it.
“I can’t wait to get to know about him more, and not just about football.”
All-new playbooks
These Seahawks are also trying to figure out the offensive, defensive and special-teams playbooks. They are all new.
Everything is different from the Carroll era, and from the systems of foormeerr offensive coordinator Shane Waldron and defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. The formations, the numbering system, the pass protections, the audibles — everything is new to Smith and the Seahawks, on offense and defense.
Macdonald has 21 — count ‘em, 21 — new assistant coaches. That includes new offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb, new offensive line coach Scott Huff and new defensive coordinator Aden Durde.
For Smith and the Seahawks offense does “red” now mean “blue” and “one” mean “two” compared to the offense the previous seasons under Carroll and play caller Waldron?
Smith grinned. That’s exactly what he, Lockett, fellow receiver DK Metcalf, lead back Kenneth Walker and a remodeling line are going through right now with these team meetings each day.
“Yeah,” Smith said, “everything’s brand new. It’s all new terminology. There are going to be new protections. Everything is going to be new. It’s a fresh start, as far as learning the offense. For all of us.”
He said he and the offense have been watching a ton of the Washington Huskies offense run by Michael Penix Jr. that Grubb called at UW the last two college seasons — including to a 21-game winning streak and the national championship game in January.
“Been watching a lot of Huskies film,” Smith said, nodding his head. “Those guys were lightin’ it up!”
Smith said Macdonald has told his Seahawks he wants them to be “physical, hard-hitting. He was us to go out there and be confident, dominant” when they play.
“Like there are 13 guys on the field,” Smith said.
That has Smith feeling refreshed entering his 12th NFL season, with this year and next remaining on his contract.
“I feel like a young 33,” he said.
Pro Bowl safety Julian Love said what’s refreshing about the coaching change is Macdonald and the new assistants are starting with a “blank slate” for the Seahawks, “but with player input.”
So, a collaboration to set the foundation.
Nwosu: ‘We have the right coaches now’
Nwosu, the Seahawks’ leading pass rusher, had 9 1/2 sacks in 2022. He had two sacks in the first six games last year before he tore his pectoral. He missed Seattle’s final 11 games of the team’s second consecutive 9-8 season.
He has been rehabilitating in Southern California with John Meyer of the Meyer Institute of Sport in El Segundo. Meyer is the chairman of performance health and wellness for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers and the director of performance health and wellness for the NHL’s Los Angeles Kings. Meyer worked at USC when Nwosu played collegiately for the Trojans in his hometown.
Carroll and general manager John Schneider signed Nwosu out of his native Los Angeles from the Chargers, before the 2022 season. The Seahawks re-signed him last summer to a deal worth up to $59 million with $32 million guaranteed, months before his injury.
Nwosu also is going to be noticing Carroll is gone these first months of the Macdonald regime. The outside linebacker said last summer Carroll was a large reason he re-signed with Seattle last year.
Nwosu said he’s a couple weeks away from doing more football activities beyond the rehabilitation and weight-room work he’s doing this week at the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
The News Tribune asked him if he will be ready to fully participate from the start of training camp in late July.
“Absolutely.”
Nwosu was asked Wednesday what he expects to get out of this 2024 season with all that is new for these Seahawks.
“As a team, I expect a good playoff run,” Nwosu said. “We’ve been close the last two years. I feel like it’s time to really get over that hump.
“We’ve got all the players. I feel like we’ve got the right coaches now.”
Nwosu said the coaching change has brought the returning players closer together.
“You know, these coaches seem committed,” he said. “They are really putting in the time and effort so far. And that’s what you want to see from a staff.
“But, definitely a deep playoff run this year. Like I said, we’ve got all the pieces.
“Now, it’s time to put it all together.”
This story was originally published April 10, 2024 at 6:25 PM.
