It’s been 26 years since a Seahawks head coach faced off against one of his former bosses as a head coach. That drought ends on Sunday when Mike Macdonald faces Jim Harbaugh at Lumen Field. Even though Macdonald didn’t work for Harbaugh in the NFL like he did his brother John, this is still the closest example have in the last quarter-century of a head coaching case like this.
The last time a Seahawks head coach faced one of his former head coaches as a head coach was October 8, 2000.
That’s when Mike Holmgren faced former boss George Seifert as Seattle lost 26-3 to the Carolina Panthers.
Holmgren was Seifert’s offensive coordinator with the San Francisco 49ers from 1989-1991, and before that he served as quarterbacks coach when Seifert was the OC for Bill Walsh. They won two Super Bowls together.
Because Holmgren only ever worked for Walsh and Seifert at the NFL level, and Seifert was fired after going 1-15 in 2001, he never faced one of his mentors again after that. Then:
All of Jim Mora, Jr.’s coaches had stopped coaching by 2009, including Holmgren. Most of them were long retired.
Pete Carroll had not worked for anybody since Seifert in 1996, so all of his mentors were retired by 2010.
Macdonald has only worked for John Harbaugh at the NFL level, and didn’t face the Ravens in either of his first two seasons; this is the first time he’s faced Jim Harbaugh.
Macdonald only spent one year coaching for Jim Harbaugh when he was the defensive coordinator at Michigan in 2022. If you want to only stick to NFL-on-NFL coaching trees, then the drought still ends this season when the Seahawks play the Giants in Week 14.
And if this coaching rabbit hole does interest you, the rarity of Sunday and Week 14’s game gets even more absurd than that:
Prior to October 8, 2000, there had not been a case of a Seahawks head coach against a mentor since Seattle’s first head coach Jack Patera.
Dennis Erickson didn’t do it because he had been a college head coach for 13 years prior to being hired in the NFL; Tom Flores hadn’t been an assistant since he worked for John Madden in 1978; similar story for Chuck Knox.
Now in Patera’s case there were a few examples, as he faced George Allen’s Washington Redskins in 1976 (31-7 loss), and Bud Grant’s Minnesota Vikings in 1976 (27-21 loss) and 1978 (29-28 win). In that last game, Jim Zorn had a 22-yard touchdown run to cut the lead to two points and then Efren Herrera kicked the game-winning 19-yard field goal.
When Patera was fired in 1982, interim Mike McCormack also didn’t face any former bosses, one of which included Vince Lombardi.
You’ll have to tell me if I’m overlooking anyone or anything, but my count Macdonald is set to become only the third Seattle head coach, for the fifth time in franchise history, who faces off against a former boss.
But based on Super Bowl rings, I think we all know who the boss is now.
Zach Charbonnet returns to practice
The Seahawks have designated Charbonnet to return to practice, meaning that although he is ineligible to be activated and play against the Chargers (nor would he play even if he was), Seattle has 21 days to activate him.
The Seahawks have a Sunday night game against the Chiefs on October 25, which would mark the first week after his 21-day window so it would be surprising if Charbonnet wasn’t on the 53-man roster by then. If two weeks is enough time for Charbonnet to get ready, he would be available to face the Denver Broncos on October 15. But don’t expect Charbonnet to immediately fix Seattle’s run game issues.
While Kenneth Walker III felt like the Seahawks were getting a top-15 worthy running back in the second round, Charbonnet felt like they were getting a late second round player in the late second round. Charbonnet can certainly help, but Jadarian Price is still Seattle’s best hope for a Walker replacement and the issues are mostly in blocking, not with the backs.
All-22 Video Exposes WR/TE Blocking Issues
This breakdown by coach All-22 not only highlights blocking issues with the offensive line, but also with regards to tight ends and receivers. Specifically, the breakdown gives Seahawks fans even more insight into why Rashid Shaheed doesn’t get more snaps, a topic I addressed earlier this week but didn’t have any film to back up why Cooper Kupp is so important to the offense as a blocker.
Without blowing the nine plays here out of proportion, at times Kupp looks like Trent Williams compared to his teammates…even A.J. Barner and Abe Lucas, the latter of whom is at best someone we need to monitor.
Shaheed’s worst play in this video comes at around 17 minutes in. Whereas we only ever talk about receivers in terms of catches and yards, it’s these little moments that add up to the difference between being a starting caliber player and a phenomenal athlete who is an “underachiever”.
Did anyone catch this live?
I didn’t, so that’s why these film study videos are so important. Look at how much time has passed after the snap and Shaheed is still motionless: 0.72 seconds and the entire rest of the offense is out of the blocks and running the play. That’s not good!
To make matters worse, because Shaheed is late out of his stance, he trips on a teammate, winds up face-first flat on the ground, and the guy he’s supposed to be blocking is free to tackle Emanuel Wilson. So when we get mad at the offensive line for not blocking well enough in the run game, we absolve the other four guys (WR/TE/FB) of accountability.
Life’s not fair, but we could probably still do a better job of that.
Tory Horton had a bad rep in the video too, and this could have been one of Barner’s worst games as a blocker.
That being said, I think Abraham Lucas is entering the danger zone. It’s not just one bad game, Lucas has been on the losing end of a mano a mano too many times this season. It’s hard to not think back to Week 1’s loss to the 49ers last season too.
The Seahawks have no regrets about drafting Byron Murphy in 2024, nor should they, but prior to that I threw out the idea of drafting Amarius Mims to be Seattle’s future right tackle. The move doubled as insurance for Lucas and for the possibility of moving Lucas to right guard, where some of his issues could potentially be mitigated. Mims went to the Bengals three picks later and right now he’s considered one of the top pass protecting tackles in the league.
Trust me, I would NOT go back in time and draft Mims instead of Murphy. I’ve got no notes. But finding a tackle of some regard at some point would make me feel a lot better about Seattle’s offensive line options right now.
Enter the Week 4 Expectations Contest!
All Seasiders are encouraged to participate and it only takes a minute to guess how certain Seahawks will do against the Chargers this weekend. One of you will be a winner!
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Super Joes Q&A
Let’s take a couple more Q&A questions.
Seth: I’m not too worried about the hawks...I think we’ll make our adjustments after the Commanders game and be solid moving forward but I don’t like the idea of facing any team that’s 0-3 and fighting for their season. Tell me why I should take a deep breath and relax this week and who you think I should be concerned more about coming up on the schedule?
I wish I could but I kind of agree with you. There’s a case that a 3-0 Chargers team would feel less threatening somehow. Like at least then fans could feel like it’s just two powerhouses and “best team wins”. This narrative of it being L.A.’s season on the line is a lot less comforting.
That being said, at least the Chargers have also looked bad. They’re not just 0-3, they’re a bad 0-3. Starting the season against the Cardinals and Raiders, they were universally expected to open the year 2-0. And this game is a bottom-three offense against a top-three defense, so those are the types of matchups that I feel are a lot more predictable than simply, “winning” or “losing”.
Like yeah any team can win any given Sunday. But what’s far more predictable is that Mike Macdonald should get the better of Mike McDaniel. If the Seahawks don’t turn the ball over multiple times, I do still like their odds.
And more concerning? That shouldn’t be too hard:
Week 5: 49ers
Week 6: at Broncos
Week 7: Chiefs
Week 8: Bears
Seattle definitely doesn’t want to accidentally let up this week and lose.
Ryan: Looking at the rest of the division so far, how are they matching or defying expectations? (Prompted by my perusing of DVOA the other day and seeing the Rams were at the bottom of special team again)
There’s definitely talk of the 49ers being the best team in the NFL so far, which I’m sure most of you have heard. They weren’t that great against the Cardinals last week (and maybe Arizona is better than people think, which is good news for the Seahawks given that they won 31-7) and the defense was bad. Plus Nick Bosa is injured again.
The 49ers play the Broncos this week, then Seattle next week.
As for the Rams, I held firm in the offseason that they were being vastly overrated. That they continue to do things that hurt the team every year, like ignoring the draft and special teams. Sure enough, special teams are bad and they don’t have any young reinforcements to shore up their weaknesses.
I think L.A.’s offense is heavily reliant on Puka Nacua, and sure enough Matthew Stafford is one of the worst deep ball passers in the league this season with Nacua out the last two weeks; Nacua is expected to return this week against the Eagles, but he’s always in danger of getting injured again because of his physical playing style.
Myles Garrett’s knee issue has gone from non-existent to no big deal to missing practices for precautionary reasons to playing in Week 1 (and recording no stats) to going on IR to miss the minimum four games only to now he’s out at least six weeks. Aaron Donald has been bad so far and he still might be L.A.’s best defensive lineman.
The only real win for the Rams’ offseason so far is that Trent McDuffie is the highest-graded corner in the early going.
The Rams always start bad under Sean McVay and almost always rebound at some point. However, they haven’t rebounded well enough to make the Super Bowl since 2021. I still see them more for their weaknesses (right side of the OL, WR depth, defensive line, linebackers, safeties, special teams) than their strengths.
Sorry, my brain went cuckoo: I wrote the game was at SoFi Stadium, when it's at Lumen Field.
I’m glad to have your input on the Rams. This might be the best week of the season for the Hawks to gain ground on the teams in the division. Seahawks should get back on track with a win, the Broncos could give the 49ers their first loss, and the Eagles have a decent shot at beating the Rams. Although the Eagles did look bad last week, they have the potential to play a tough game and come out ahead. If that is the case, a win against the 49ers in week 5 would put us in the driver;s seat to win the division. We would once again control our destiny against all teams for the one seed as well with the exception of the Vikings.