The teams haunted by not hiring Mike Macdonald

Few coaching hires work exactly like you think they're supposed to go when they get picked

There is work left to be done in the playoffs before Mike Macdonald’s legacy as a head coach is even worth discussing, but it’s not too soon to say that the Seahawks got even better return on the first two seasons than they bargained for and a defensive coordinator who has done this in four years:

• Took over a 19th-ranked scoring/25th-ranked total Ravens defense in 2022 and immediately had Baltimore 3rd/9th in his first season

• Then 1st/6th in his second season

• Took over a 25th points/30th total Seahawks defense in 2023 and improved to 11th/14th in his first season as a HC/DC

• Then 2nd/6th* in his second season

*This is just prior to the conclusion of the regular season, the rankings could still go up

Keep in mind that Macdonald isn’t just a former defensive coordinator who became a head coach like most former defensive coordinators. He’s one of only two head coaches who calls defensive plays for his team, along with Todd Bowles of the Bucs. And Bowles is on the fringes of a bottom-10 defense.

It’s one of the things that Macdonald insisted was important for him to keep doing when he was hired by Seattle in late January of 2024.

The Houston Texans hired a defensive-minded head coach (the “defensive-minded” label that was considered poison in head coaching searches to many) in DeMeco Ryans, and Houston has the number one defense by scoring and yards, but he relinquished play calling duties as the start of the season.

Good for him to have the humility to do that, but it doesn’t change the fact that of the two best defenses in the NFL, only one of those teams has a head coach pulling double-duty. At this point it would be easy to take for granted how lucky the Seattle Seahawks were to land Macdonald because in a way it seems like they were his only choice after most teams bowed out of the race in 2024 due to Baltimore’s run to the AFC Championship.

But John Schneider was patient and confident that Seattle would not only secure Macdonald’s services. That also the wait would be worth it.

Not everybody was so sure, including Rob Staton. He made a compelling case for why Seahawks fans shouldn’t get their hopes too high for Macdonald, arguing that he was probably getting overrated due to help from the Ravens history as a defensive-focused team and the MVP caliber play of Lamar Jackson:

I’ve noticed in recent days that Seahawks fans and media have started to go a bit too far. Macdonald’s reputation is taking on a life of its own. I’ve seen the words ‘defensive wunderkind’ used. People are saying he’s the antidote to ‘McShanahan’. Really? As we’ll see, the statistical evidence doesn’t back that up. All the while it’s being ignored that the structure of the Ravens, crafted over two decades, has enabled coordinators to be swapped in and out with little drop-off in performance.

Staton noted that a single game against the 49ers was worthy of entry onto the record against Macdonald’s prowess to slow down Shanahan:

“Now let’s look at Baltimore’s impressive 33-19 win against the 49ers and how they handled Shanahan’s offense:

— 429 total yards conceded
— 6/14 third down
— 121 rushing yards
— 6.7 yards per rush

Again, it’s not exactly a reassuring set of statistics. These are the kind of stat-lines we’ve come to expect from the Seahawks against the Rams and Niners.”

Staton briefly mentioned the fact that Brock Purdy was intercepted four times, but poopoo’d those turnovers as good luck: “It should be acknowledged, though, that Shanahan moved the ball pretty much at will in the game and avoidable turnovers cost San Francisco. Lamar Jackson was also superb on the night.”

“Now, maybe it’s possible for the Seahawks to similarly create an offense that can achieve all of this, rank fourth in DVOA and produce the NFL MVP in 2024 or beyond? Until that happens though, you won’t be creating the kind of environment where Macdonald’s defense thrived this season.”

Rob Staton called Macdonald “a system coordinator” and questioned if Seattle would be making a huge mistake by expecting him to have success in the Seahawks franchise environment without John Harbaugh or Lamar. He compared Macdonald to Robert Saleh because…they’re both defensive coordinators?

But the ending really hits home as of Saturday night:

“I don’t think any defensive-minded Head Coach is coming in to ‘limit’ Shanahan and McVay without a significant period of transformative work to the roster, including being bad enough to one day draft a blue-chip talent. I think the best thing to do is square-up to your two division opponents and try to outscore them.”

You could question if this entire piece came with an agenda and you’d be right. It wasn’t disguised. Rob Staton, like a lot of fans of many teams, just wanted the team to hire Ben Johnson and not anybody else.

Luckily for the Seahawks, a lot of owners of a lot of teams had the same affinity for Johnson and may have been so distracted by that pursuit that they were overlooking the possibilities of what they could build around Macdonald despite having also interviewed him during the 2024 playoffs:

• The Titans interviewed him, but hired Brian Callahan

• The Chargers interviewed him, but hired Jim Harbaugh

• The Falcons interviewed him, but hired Raheem Morris

• The Panthers interview him, but hired Dave Canales

• The Moons/Commanders tried to get him, but too little too late after they struck out with Johnson

The short story for the five teams that didn’t hire Macdonald is that a) Callahan was fired less than two seasons in, b) Morris is in a heap of trouble, c) Dan Quinn’s defense is almost as bad as the one he inherited in Washington, d) Canales is sort of just “there” in Carolina so far.

Not even Harbaugh, Macdonald’s former boss at the University of Michigan (an accomplishment at the college level that I skipped over—the large role Macdonald had in setting them up for a national championship) and 2024’s marquee hire, can say that he’s had as good of a run over the past two years.

Whether you think these teams could have convinced Macdonald to become their head coach is besides the point because none of them really even attempted to lock it in, which is what allowed the Seahawks to literally be the last time to try given that they missed their opportunity to interview Macdonald during Baltimore’s wild card bye week window.

Washington came the closest but had such a debacle in trying to land Ben Johnson—he opted to return to the Lions as an offensive coordinator instead—that Macdonald had no reason to turn down the franchise that tried the hardest. It wasn’t like Seattle had better pieces in place and they certainly didn’t have the pick to draft Jayden Daniels like Washington did at the time.

(A hand-delivered “Lamar Jackson” if you will.)

Even Leonard Williams was set to become a free agent.

He must have just had equal confidence in Schneider and was told he’d be allowed to help with the shopping which probably led to picks like Byron Murphy and Nick Emmanwori.

But no team has to live with the “Mike Macdonald head coaching future flubberation” quite like the Baltimore Ravens do.

In the NFL, fortune favors the bold but so few teams are willing to embrace the mentality and fearlessness that “bold” actually entails. I’ll give you an example of a bold move that probably didn’t work as well as the franchise wanted:

The Cardinals drafted Josh Rosen 10th overall in 2018 and then drafted Kyler Murray in 2019.

Rarely do teams give up on top-10 picked quarterbacks that quickly, but Arizona was right to admit their mistake on Rosen. It just happens that Murray, even if better than Rosen, probably isn’t going to live up to the hype.

It’s hard to imagine a world where the Ravens fire John Harbaugh after the 2023 season — 13-4 record, #1 seed, a 7-point loss to the Chiefs in the AFC Championship — but how far away are we now from Baltimore’s admission that every great coach hits a wall, just as the Seahawks had to do with Pete Carroll?

The year before Macdonald, the Ravens were 25th in total defense. Two years after Macdonald, the Ravens are 25th again. The only other time the Ravens had a lower ranked defense in the history of the franchise was their debut 1996 season.

Strange. How could this happen to the defense while Lamar Jackson is the quarterback!!!

Although the Ravens are not expected to fire Harbaugh even if they lose to the Steelers on Sunday and are eliminated from playoff contention (The Ravens are 4-7 in the playoffs over the last 13 years), defensive coordinator Zach Orr could take the fall. Baltimore attempting to poach one of Seattle’s assistants as a replacement wouldn’t be totally shocking.

After all, Macdonald wasn’t just a quick two-year flash in the pan in Baltimore. He spent 10 seasons working his way up on the Ravens, minus the one year he spent as Michigan’s defensive coordinator. If anybody knew who they would be getting as a coach, it was the Ravens, but they chose older over bolder.

Harbaugh is 63—and look, maybe he coaches 10 more years and wins 3 more Super Bowls—but what would this same situation be like if they were quarterbacks? It would be like letting Drake Maye leave in free agency because you wanted to see how much more you could get out of Russell Wilson…in 2025.

Of course, I mentioned the teams that interviewed Macdonald in 2024. But what about the ones who didn’t? The Raiders didn’t! They stuck with Antonio Pierce! The Patriots didn’t, but maybe were just okay with using Jerod Mayo for a year until Mike Vrabel was available.

And then there were the teams that were content with missing the boat of a coaching change entirely, like the Pittsburgh Steelers. Can you imagine the devastation the AFC would feel if the Steelers had stolen Macdonald, the ideal Pittsburgh legacy-building coach, from their biggest rivals?

If you can’t beat ‘em, Toml ‘in.

As I said in the beginning, this is all moot if the Seahawks suffer a quick playoff exit. It wouldn’t be the first time a coach was crowned prematurely.

So enjoy Sunday. The Seahawks are the number one seed and best of all they secured that spot by beating not one, but BOTH of the offensive-minded gurus in the division who many argued Seattle needed to COPY, not COMBAT.

The Seahawks waited for Macdonald to arrive. The NFL wish he didn’t get here so fast.

Seaside Joe 2498