MM's biggest competition in the next couple of years is with McVay and Shanny... if the Seahawks D gets the Seahawks to even or better vs his division rivals, that is going to be noticed. And be the biggest factor in Seattle's success as well. Trust Schneider to zig when (most of) the rest of the league zags... instead of loading up on offense to try and boat-race LA and the Niners, he has gone the other direction. We'll see how it all works out, but so far, I like it!
In view of what Coach Mac did to Shanny and McVay last year, it is they who had best consider our Hawks 'The Competition'. My bet is MM is squarely focused on beating the Niners in our first meeting in Game 6 and will have the Team ready to do just that. Pre-Super Bowls. Mini-Super Bowls. Get through those guys and a real Super Bowl is entirely within reason, as this is one bad-ass Division. Forget about taking this year to find ourselves. These first 5 games will be intense, with few starting positions locked down. If we have a culture shift, it will be in this direction. We have the talent. We have the brains. It'll be about about Will. Take a page from Campbell's Lions. Oh wait- we'll see them in Game 4... We have some damn good football coming at us. Thanks, Schneider.
Love the enthusiasm and I share it. I am just cautious about what the first quarter of the season will look like as players learn a new scheme on both sides of the ball.
If the Seahawks win the NFCW that would get MM “Coach of the Year” consideration and why not?
- There's a rumor from a behind-the-scenes draft video that the Panthers were strongly considering making a trade offer with the Seahawks to get up to 16, and that maybe they were ready to push all-in but ultimately decided that John Schneider wouldn't go for it with what they could offer. It seems to me that the Seahawks wouldn't have said yes to going from 16 to 33 without next year's first round pick, which I think Carolina...can you make the same mistake twice like that? But I bring this up because my ultimate draft prediction was that the Seahawks would trade down to 33 and we were even closer to that becoming a reality than we previously thought!
- I posted several times before the hire that I thought an OC hire made sense because of the reasons I mentioned today. That if you have success, you can keep your OC instead of lose him to a HC promotion. That still makes sense to me now, but there's also the value in keeping your defensive coordinator too: The Ravens were a MUCH better team with Mike Macdonald instead of Wink Martindale. This could be a crushing blow to Baltimore, losing Macdonald. I mean, wasn't it a crushing blow to the 49ers to lose DeMeco Ryans last year? We never talk about the fact that the 49ers could have beaten the Chiefs if they had Ryans as the DC. Maybe they wouldn't have, but there's a good argument that losing Ryans was huge.
“People might argue that because Shanahan, McVay, and Reid have won Super Bowls recently…”
Apologies, but I have to be petty and edit/emphasize that Kyle Shanahan has NOT won a Super Bowl recently or ever. And as long as he coaches the Whiners, I hope he never does.
It’s not a jab at Seaside Joe, I just can’t stand idly by while a rival gets undue credit, mistakenly or otherwise 😂
Great read as usual! I was surprised to see the lack of disparity between offensive and defensive oriented hires, the media has done its job well in that regard. Maybe the collective desires of defensive football minds can will Mike MacDonald to bring another Lombardi to Seattle. However I think he’ll do just fine on his own ability. Can’t wait to see it in action!
The history of both sides is actually somewhat irrelevant. If you go and check rankings etc. of Superbowl teams you will find that Rarely do those rankings have their O-line way down the line. Normally they are at least in the top ten. As Holmgren has said Mutiple times, What got SF, GB and Seattle to the big game was very good or better O-lines! Very simply it makes the QB better as well as the ability to call plays an easier project. The D head coaches that have excelled or have had great success have had two things - An O coordinator they trust or believe in and a very good to great O-line coach ( Belichick , had the best up until his last two years) - IF MM blends with Grubb this will be a good team , that will become a great team, IMHO~!
I'm too lazy to do the analysis to prove your premise, but superficially at least, I would guess that trench play on both sides of the ball is key to success. Mahomes loses the SB with a bad o-line, and wins with a very good o-line. Brady almost always had solid to great o-lines. QB's become great QB's with time to read the field and make decisions. If Geno goes from having one of the highest pressure rates, to one of the lowest, tell me his performance doesn't improve significantly. Did Geno get better? Nope. Same Geno.
I would guess Mike Mac shares that view, given where JS spent his draft picks. Win in the trenches and everything becomes easier.
Just to hammer home the point quickly: that list of "defensive HCs" demonstrates that such a coach doesn't preclude a team from fielding a really good offense. That Broncos team we beat broke offensive records that season, the 28-3 Falcons were led by MVP Matt Ryan, Rivera's Panthers were explosive on offense at their peak, Staley's Chargers put up tons of points when they were healthy, the Bills score in bunches, the Ryans-Stroud Texans were all about offense last year and the defining feature of the 00s Patriots was their ability to score at will in the clutch. Those are just the examples that spring to mind.
There are all sorts of ways to win SB's, as has been shown over the years. I've never understood the rationale to 'copy' the recipe of recent successful teams. It's very difficult to do. You can copy certain philosophical things (cap management, draft strategy, player development, etc) but trying to copy KC's success is a fool's errand IMO. How many Patrick Mahomes's are there?
Can you win with a great defense that takes the ball away, and a solid but unspectacular offense? Of course. Can you win with a dominant offense and a solid unspectacular defense? Yes indeed. I don't care how we win, just win.
I remember all the hype about Branden Staley and that has tempered my expectations somewhat. He was the big "it" candidate in the NFL that everyone was saying the same things about. I am bullish on the MM hire, but it's important to keep in mind that most first time coaches aren't Super Bowl winners. Most of those since Pete was hired are (like Pete was) a retread.
Love the team, love the coaches, love the direction.
No more stale stuff or lack of ability to make a change. A good defense makes a better offense because they have to play against them all week in practice and it takes some pressure off in games. If we can get the line solidified and the LB's healthy, it's all good. MM was for sure the right choice. He's not just a defensive coach, he's a generational game changer.
A game changer can see things that someone else can't see and break the mold with change. He can make the offense better too. He can also attract and maybe keep a successful offensive coach who likes the success that a game changer brings. If it works, don't fix it. Ride the wave like Ben Johnson has with the Lions. Smart coaches recognize the need for multiples in success.
Who thinks Grubb is ten times the OC that Waldron was? Give me a like. You can just look at Grubb's face and see that he is thinking a lot more strategically, has more going on. Huff along with Grubb will make a difference and bring consistency. Frazier will solidify the whole staff. Someone who is really good himself can be successful to a degree. Someone who can surround himself with great people will have a magnitude of success. Get ready for the ride!
Everything is going the right direction now. Remember SB 48 with the high flying Broncos offense and Peyton Manning against the Legion of Boom, 43-8. It wasn't close. Geno Smith would have won.
MM's biggest competition in the next couple of years is with McVay and Shanny... if the Seahawks D gets the Seahawks to even or better vs his division rivals, that is going to be noticed. And be the biggest factor in Seattle's success as well. Trust Schneider to zig when (most of) the rest of the league zags... instead of loading up on offense to try and boat-race LA and the Niners, he has gone the other direction. We'll see how it all works out, but so far, I like it!
In view of what Coach Mac did to Shanny and McVay last year, it is they who had best consider our Hawks 'The Competition'. My bet is MM is squarely focused on beating the Niners in our first meeting in Game 6 and will have the Team ready to do just that. Pre-Super Bowls. Mini-Super Bowls. Get through those guys and a real Super Bowl is entirely within reason, as this is one bad-ass Division. Forget about taking this year to find ourselves. These first 5 games will be intense, with few starting positions locked down. If we have a culture shift, it will be in this direction. We have the talent. We have the brains. It'll be about about Will. Take a page from Campbell's Lions. Oh wait- we'll see them in Game 4... We have some damn good football coming at us. Thanks, Schneider.
Love the enthusiasm and I share it. I am just cautious about what the first quarter of the season will look like as players learn a new scheme on both sides of the ball.
If the Seahawks win the NFCW that would get MM “Coach of the Year” consideration and why not?
MORE:...
- There's a rumor from a behind-the-scenes draft video that the Panthers were strongly considering making a trade offer with the Seahawks to get up to 16, and that maybe they were ready to push all-in but ultimately decided that John Schneider wouldn't go for it with what they could offer. It seems to me that the Seahawks wouldn't have said yes to going from 16 to 33 without next year's first round pick, which I think Carolina...can you make the same mistake twice like that? But I bring this up because my ultimate draft prediction was that the Seahawks would trade down to 33 and we were even closer to that becoming a reality than we previously thought!
- I posted several times before the hire that I thought an OC hire made sense because of the reasons I mentioned today. That if you have success, you can keep your OC instead of lose him to a HC promotion. That still makes sense to me now, but there's also the value in keeping your defensive coordinator too: The Ravens were a MUCH better team with Mike Macdonald instead of Wink Martindale. This could be a crushing blow to Baltimore, losing Macdonald. I mean, wasn't it a crushing blow to the 49ers to lose DeMeco Ryans last year? We never talk about the fact that the 49ers could have beaten the Chiefs if they had Ryans as the DC. Maybe they wouldn't have, but there's a good argument that losing Ryans was huge.
Love your work Joe!
I like how McDonald is already a success story according to your list!
“People might argue that because Shanahan, McVay, and Reid have won Super Bowls recently…”
Apologies, but I have to be petty and edit/emphasize that Kyle Shanahan has NOT won a Super Bowl recently or ever. And as long as he coaches the Whiners, I hope he never does.
It’s not a jab at Seaside Joe, I just can’t stand idly by while a rival gets undue credit, mistakenly or otherwise 😂
Great read as usual! I was surprised to see the lack of disparity between offensive and defensive oriented hires, the media has done its job well in that regard. Maybe the collective desires of defensive football minds can will Mike MacDonald to bring another Lombardi to Seattle. However I think he’ll do just fine on his own ability. Can’t wait to see it in action!
Appreciate you are also spelling their team name the correct way as well….
The history of both sides is actually somewhat irrelevant. If you go and check rankings etc. of Superbowl teams you will find that Rarely do those rankings have their O-line way down the line. Normally they are at least in the top ten. As Holmgren has said Mutiple times, What got SF, GB and Seattle to the big game was very good or better O-lines! Very simply it makes the QB better as well as the ability to call plays an easier project. The D head coaches that have excelled or have had great success have had two things - An O coordinator they trust or believe in and a very good to great O-line coach ( Belichick , had the best up until his last two years) - IF MM blends with Grubb this will be a good team , that will become a great team, IMHO~!
I'm too lazy to do the analysis to prove your premise, but superficially at least, I would guess that trench play on both sides of the ball is key to success. Mahomes loses the SB with a bad o-line, and wins with a very good o-line. Brady almost always had solid to great o-lines. QB's become great QB's with time to read the field and make decisions. If Geno goes from having one of the highest pressure rates, to one of the lowest, tell me his performance doesn't improve significantly. Did Geno get better? Nope. Same Geno.
I would guess Mike Mac shares that view, given where JS spent his draft picks. Win in the trenches and everything becomes easier.
Just to hammer home the point quickly: that list of "defensive HCs" demonstrates that such a coach doesn't preclude a team from fielding a really good offense. That Broncos team we beat broke offensive records that season, the 28-3 Falcons were led by MVP Matt Ryan, Rivera's Panthers were explosive on offense at their peak, Staley's Chargers put up tons of points when they were healthy, the Bills score in bunches, the Ryans-Stroud Texans were all about offense last year and the defining feature of the 00s Patriots was their ability to score at will in the clutch. Those are just the examples that spring to mind.
Sorry that should be 2010s Patriots, I forgot which decade we are currently in
There are all sorts of ways to win SB's, as has been shown over the years. I've never understood the rationale to 'copy' the recipe of recent successful teams. It's very difficult to do. You can copy certain philosophical things (cap management, draft strategy, player development, etc) but trying to copy KC's success is a fool's errand IMO. How many Patrick Mahomes's are there?
Can you win with a great defense that takes the ball away, and a solid but unspectacular offense? Of course. Can you win with a dominant offense and a solid unspectacular defense? Yes indeed. I don't care how we win, just win.
I remember all the hype about Branden Staley and that has tempered my expectations somewhat. He was the big "it" candidate in the NFL that everyone was saying the same things about. I am bullish on the MM hire, but it's important to keep in mind that most first time coaches aren't Super Bowl winners. Most of those since Pete was hired are (like Pete was) a retread.
Love the team, love the coaches, love the direction.
No more stale stuff or lack of ability to make a change. A good defense makes a better offense because they have to play against them all week in practice and it takes some pressure off in games. If we can get the line solidified and the LB's healthy, it's all good. MM was for sure the right choice. He's not just a defensive coach, he's a generational game changer.
A game changer can see things that someone else can't see and break the mold with change. He can make the offense better too. He can also attract and maybe keep a successful offensive coach who likes the success that a game changer brings. If it works, don't fix it. Ride the wave like Ben Johnson has with the Lions. Smart coaches recognize the need for multiples in success.
Who thinks Grubb is ten times the OC that Waldron was? Give me a like. You can just look at Grubb's face and see that he is thinking a lot more strategically, has more going on. Huff along with Grubb will make a difference and bring consistency. Frazier will solidify the whole staff. Someone who is really good himself can be successful to a degree. Someone who can surround himself with great people will have a magnitude of success. Get ready for the ride!
Everything is going the right direction now. Remember SB 48 with the high flying Broncos offense and Peyton Manning against the Legion of Boom, 43-8. It wasn't close. Geno Smith would have won.