How Seahawks will use safeties, Tampa-2, LBs in Mike Macdonald's defense
Ravens film analyst gives insight into what Mike Macdonald will do with Seahawks defense: Seaside Joe 1852
Teams can switch on a dime for a variety of reasons, but perhaps the most common catalysts for redirection are changes at quarterback, head coach, general manager, and ownership.
For example, Terry Pegula bought the Buffalo Bills in 2014 at a time when the franchise hadn’t been to the playoffs in 15 years. He hired Sean McDermott and general manager in Brandon Beane in 2017, then drafted Josh Allen in 2018, and now we think of the Bills much differently than we did in the first decade of the century.
The Seattle Seahawks are undergoing their own set of monumental changes, but some of these have flown under the radar compared to Buffalo: Paul Allen’s death in 2018 led to a change in ownership and technically the franchise could go on the market at any time; the Seahawks made a change at quarterback two years ago, but another shift could happen at any time and be as sudden and unexpected as it was from Russ to Geno; even John Schneider was sort of promoted from GM-in-title to real-GM with Pete Carroll’s firing.
However, the change at head coach is not so subtle: For the first time in 15 years, the Seahawks are not the Pete Carroll team. Like the hirings made by the 49ers and Rams in 2017 that turned those franchises into the “Kyle Shanahan” and “Sean McVay” teams, Seattle’s hope is that they will soon be known as “The Mike Macdonald team”.
If his teams are anywhere near as good as his recent defenses, the Seahawks are in great hands.
From Tuesday: Check out these 10 draft prospects who I’m circling for the Seahawks in the first round, as well as 10 alternates
I recently did a mailbag (upgrade to Super Joes if you want to submit questions in the future) and one of the responses was from a reader who wanted more information from “the Ravens guy who does all-22 videos” as I’ve been sharing those clips for almost a year due to the fact that they’re so damn good.
All-22-film-cuts on Twitter, All-22 films on YouTube, plus I see some recent 2024 draft prospect breakdowns on his All-22 Patreon, this guy is a real man-of-mystery to me as I don’t even know his name. I just call him “All-y” (sounds like “Ollie”) and watch his videos and that’s good enough for me.
I asked readers for a few questions to send his way and he was gracious enough to send back these well-explained, in-depth answers about Macdonald’s defense with the Ravens. “Ollie” is a Ravens fan who mostly does content for that team and the Detroit Lions, but sometimes veers into Seahawks territory and regardless of which team it is I know I’ll learn something every time.
In addition to his answers, I included links on some of the terms that go to videos or websites explaining what those terms mean. Don’t feel ashamed if you don’t know, as I created many of the links so that I would know! This process is that we can ALL get better informed on the game we love so much.
Follow his pages, watch his videos, and read this:
"Mac's specific use and want from his MLB would be great to understand- I personally have never liked the Mike backer being 11 or 12 yards in a drop, The D should be using the SS and the Nickel for those deeper middle areas IMHO"
All-22: Thank you for your question. Macdonald’s Defense will use some Tampa 2, with the MLB dropping quite deep to match a vertical in the middle of the field. You will not see it a ton unless the Seahawks face the Bengals. Since 2022, Macdonald (and much of the league) utilized Tampa 2 concepts often to neutralize or slow down the Bengals Passing attack.