Leadership Lessons & Coaching Philosophies Shared By New Seahawks Coach Mike Macdonald

When asked about what offenses are doing to stress defenses in today’s NFL, Macdonald took a long and informative route to get to his answer, explaining how he wants to bring his defense along, from the start of offseason workouts in April through camp, so that by September it will be ready for those challenges offenses present.

“There’s no perfect defense, otherwise everybody would run one call and everyone would be happy,” he said. “There’s strengths to calls and there’s weaknesses, we call them stressors. So when we’re installing these rules to our players, Day 1, these next two weeks in Phase 1, I’m not going to give them one call. All they’re learning is coverages, structures and techniques. They’re learning stresses and strengths of those calls, and how to execute individual techniques. By the end of Phase 1, we’ll learn how to get lined up, then Phase 2, we’ll start introducing calls, and then at that point all you’re doing is just learning adjustments and it should be easier to learn.

“Imagine being a player and you get 17 things based on how an offense is lined up, there’s no way I can play the way you want me to play, play the right way, consistently. But if you just say, hey I’m going to do the thinking for you and we’re going to live in these five or six worlds, and just know them cold like the back of your hand, we’re going to make it look the same, we’re going to change the looks, move guys around and attack offenses differently, well now, shoot, those guys can play those six pretty good. They understand the stressors, but for the offense to find that for a 60 or 80-play game, that’s going to be tough for them to do.”