Coach Mike Macdonald answers why Seahawks got rid of both inside linebackers in 3 weeks
Mike Macdonald is not complacent.
He is not tolerant of repeatedly poor performance.
The non-nonsense rookie head coach his Seahawks players jokingly yell the Army battle cry “HOO-AH!” at continued to blow up his defense’s weakest position Monday. He and general manager John Schneider cut Tyrel Dodson, Seattle’s “green-dot” defensive signal caller for all of the first nine games of this season.
Dodson played 98% of the team’s defensive snaps as its middle (for seven games) and lately weakside linebacker.
Cutting Dodson comes less than three weeks after the Seahawks traded starting weakside inside linebacker Jerome Baker to Tennessee. That was to get Ernest Jones IV from the Titans.
Jones immediately, after just two practice days with the Seahawks, replaced the failing Dodson at middle linebacker.
The Seahawks are 26th in the NFL allowing an average of 139.4 yards rushing per game. That’s a large reason they are 4-5 and in last place in the NFC West entering their key division game at San Francisco (5-4) Sunday.
The 49ers used third- and fourth-string running backs to romp for 228 yards on the ground last month in a 36-24 win at Seattle. That was the game before Macdonald and Schneider traded Baker and a fourth-round draft choice for Jones and moved Dodson out of the middle-linebacker spot.
Now Macdonald has sent away his two starting inside linebackers within three weeks.
“Holistically as a defense, we weren’t getting it done,” Macdonald said following the Seahawks’ return-from-the-bye practice Monday.
“We put a lot on our linebackers,” Macdonald, a former linebackers coach, said.
Macdonald: ‘Attack’ issues
Jones will take over Dodson’s former role as the defensive player who gets the play calls from the head coach on the sideline through his green-dot helmet speaker and relays it to the rest of the defense.
Macdonald said rookie fourth-round draft choice Tyrice Knight will get the first opportunity to start at weakside linebacker, beginning Sunday against the 49ers.
Cutting Dodson, 26, effectively ends at half a season the experiment Schneider made this past offseason at inside linebacker. The GM let inside linebackers Bobby Wagner (Washington) and Jordyn Brooks (Miami) sign elsewhere. He replaced them with Baker and Dodson. Baker signed for one year and up to $7 million. Dodson signed for one year at $4.26 million.
Ultimately, the Seahawks signed two starting middle linebackers this spring for more than $11 million, then got no more than half the season from them.
Schneider and Macdonald talked in the middle of the indoor field following practice Monday, as they often do following the day’s on-field work.
“I hate that it had to work out like this through those two guys. Those are two guys that we respect a lot. Come in, work really hard,” Macdonald said of Dodson and Baker. “But sometimes you have to make those decisions and what you feel is best for our defense to take the next step.
“And so that was the decision that was happening to those guys. But we do put a lot on our linebackers. We expect a lot for those guys. And that’ll always be the case here, for as long as we are here.”
The News Tribune asked Macdonald if it was as fundamental as Dodson and Baker were not stout enough at the point of attack to take on blockers and ball carriers.
“You look at some of the plays that got out on us, and some explosive runs that we felt like we could have played better at that level,” Macdonald said.
“Again, I don’t want us to feel like we’re singling guys out. Obviously it looks that way because of the roster rules we made. We made them for two completely different reasons. But those things that we need to improve on are really all the entire defense. Just so happens that we need to move at linebacker.
“Sometimes you have to make really tough decisions. And you know, that’s part of my responsibility. It’s part of John’s responsibility, at all times. And we owe that to our to our fans and to our football team, the rest of the locker room, so we’re always going to take that mindset.
“It’s always: ‘The team. The team. The team.’”
In explaining shedding Dodson and Baker, and what the coaches focused on while the players were away, Macdonald said he wants a mentality shift over the final eight games in the Seahawks’ defense he designs and calls during games.
“You’re not trying to really defend anything. You’re trying to attack stuff that you see on tape, and personnel-wise.
“Re-frame our mentality.”
What, exactly, does Macdonald mean for the Seahawks to “re-frame our mentality”?
“I think it’s all about the ‘how’ of what we’re doing,” he said.
“You know, the Xs and Os are important. But how we make it come to life is the secret sauce.
“When you see it on all levels of the assembly line—from how we how we game plan it, how we package it, how we coach it, how we drill it, how we practice it, how it shows up on game day—and that system is right, we play really good football.
“When that system is kind of jacked up on any part of the process, I feel like that’s where we’re falling short.
“So from top to bottom, we’ve got to do a great job of packaging it and making it come to life out here on the practice field, and on Sundays.”
Next up: Tyrice Knight, Drake Thomas
Knight, from Texas-El Paso, has played 23% of defensive snaps this season, mostly when Baker’s injured hamstring sidelined him.
Drake Thomas, a special-teams mainstay who has played 32 snaps (5%) at weakside linebacker through nine games this season, will also get an opportunity to play more, Macdonald said.
Josh Ross, claimed off waivers from Macdonald’s former Baltimore Ravens last month, played weakside inside linebacker at Michigan — while Macdonald was defensive coordinator for the Wolverines in 2021.
“It was an opportunity for us, when we sat, kind of took a step back and looked where we were at, it was, really, the best thing for us to move forward that way. Give the other guys in the room the opportunity to step up.
“I hope they grade the opportunity by the horns, and take it and run with it.
“Then it gives Tyrel an opportunity to find another spot somewhere else, so he can finish the year strong.”
This story was originally published November 11, 2024 at 4:01 PM.
