In 2010. the Seattle Seahawks hired Pete Carroll, a defensive mastermind, to be their new head coach.
14 years later, the Seattle Seahawks have hired another defensive mastermind to replace Carroll.
Mike Macdonald, the former Baltimore Ravens and Michigan Wolverines defensive coordinator, was tabbed for the job right around the time he flew to Seattle for his second interview with general manager John Schneider, per multiple reports.
It’s a massive hire for a team that had absolutely lost its way on defense under Carroll and former defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt. Last season, the Seahawks ranked 28th in Defensive DVOA, a number once thought impossible under Carroll in the Legion of Boom days. But bad draft picks and free-agent signings on that side of the ball, as well as a lack of coaching oversight, left Seattle’s defense in a bad way.
That will certainly change now. The Ravens finished their 2023 season ranked first in Defensive DVOA, and it was the ways in which Macdonald was able to raise the profiles of relatively unknown players that pushed him into status as perhaps the most coveted coach in this hiring cycle.
The 36-year-old Macdonald becomes the youngest head coach in the NFL, and he’s exactly half Pete Carroll’s age. He began his coaching career at Cedar Shoals High School in Georgia in 2008 as a running backs/linebackers coach, and then became a member of the Ravens’ coaching staff in 2014 as a coaching intern after four years on the Georgia Bulldogs’ staff. He worked with the Ravens as a defensive assistant and linebackers coach before becoming Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021, and then, Baltimore’s defensive coordinator in 2022.
What kind of help can Mike Macdonald give the Seahawks' defense as their new head coach? @gregcosell and I discussed the Ravens' defense repeatedly on this year's "Xs and Os," and the answer is… a lot. Which is exactly what this defense needs. Tying coverage to pressure is key. pic.twitter.com/LuRl8IeE74
— Doug Farrar ✍ (@NFL_DougFarrar) January 31, 2024
