Whether it’s on ESPN or Wikipedia or right here in The Times — the official designation is that Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald is about to start his second season in the NFL. But from a figurative standpoint, a lot of the team’s fans might feel that Season 2 started after the bye week last year.
That’s when the sentiment, for some I imagine, went from “We replaced Pete Carroll with this guy?” to “We replaced Pete Carroll with this guy!”
Suddenly the Seahawks looked like the team general manager John Schneider envisioned when he hired Macdonald: A dominant defensive force.
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Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald walks through the tunnel before the start of a game against the Kansas City Chiefs Friday, August 15, 2025 in Seattle. 230762
That has been this organization’s trademark in the most successful seasons over the past 1 1/2 years. It needs to be this year’s team trademark if it expects to win the division and/or make a meaningful playoff run.
The new-look offense that added quarterback Sam Darnold and receiver Cooper Kupp will serve as a storyline to be sliced and diced by the media throughout the season. But the difference between exceeding expectations vs. falling short of them will come down to the “D.”
So was the Seahawks’ second half last year a harbinger of what’s to come or simply a hot streak waiting to be cooled?
Carroll helmed the most dominant stretch in Seahawks history in winning a Super Bowl, returning to another one and capturing four NFC West crowns. And though Russell Wilson and Marshawn Lynch become household names — it was the defense that had the team on the brink of a dynasty.
It’s hard to think Carroll — a defensive guru — wasn’t integral to such success. Players such as Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor and Bobby Wagner would have been dynamic anywhere they were drafted, but Carroll had them working in such concert that Seattle led the league in scoring defense in four consecutive seasons. But in Pete’s last three seasons, the Seahawks never finished better than 26th in total defense, and were 30th in his final year in 2023.
You have to think that’s why the brass felt the team needed a change, and so they brought in Macdonald — a former defensive coordinator who not only installed a defense in Michigan that would eventually be tops in the country, but who oversaw a Ravens “D” that led the league in points allowed in 2023.
This was the fix Seattle needed to get back into the playoffs. And nine games into last season … it looked like nothing had changed at all.
The Seahawks were getting dismantled on the run. Perhaps the most humiliating game on this front was when the 49ers racked up 228 rushing yards on 33 carries without Christian McCaffrey en route to a 36-24 win at Lumen Field. But this wasn’t an isolated incident. After starting the season 3-0 against teams that were either subpar or having quarterback issues or both, the Seahawks dropped five of their next six — primarily due to shoddy defense. They gave up 42 points vs. Detroit, then 29 against the lowly Giants, then 36 against San Francisco. Two weeks after that, there was the 31-10 loss to Buffalo and then a 26-20 overtime loss to the Rams.
It was 2023 all over again — until suddenly it wasn’t.
Perhaps it wasn’t fair to think that Macdonald could overhaul a defense he inherited over the course of training camp. But he did overhaul it after those first nine games of the season, during which Seattle finished 4-5. Did bringing in Ernest Jones IV at linebacker provide a boost? Sure. But this isn’t Ray Lewis we’re talking about. This was a collective blossoming into something fearsome — something dominant.
It showed up in the first week back from the bye in Week 11, when the Seahawks solved the 49ers’ running game, holding San Francisco to 131 rushing yards (with McCaffrey back) in a 20-17 win. It showed up the following week in a 16-6 victory over the Cardinals, followed by a 26-21 win over the Jets, when Aaron Rodgers was held to 185 yards passing on 39 attempts.
Four times in their final eight games, Seattle kept their opponent to 17 points or fewer and went 6-2 after the bye. This is what needs to carry over into the start of this season.
The personnel are there. Defensive end Leonard Williams is coming off the best season of his career after recording 11 sacks and 16 tackles for a loss. Cornerback Devon Witherspoon has had two Pro Bowl seasons and might be primed to make an All-Pro team in his third year. And the addition of defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence — a Pro Bowler in ’22 and ’23 before injuries held him to four games last year — should be impactful.
The Seahawks have had their share of offensive stardom over the past decade and a half, but the defense has been their defining characteristic in the glory years.
Bringing it back is the key to restoring that glory.
Matt Calkins: mcalkins@seattletimes.com. Matt Calkins has been a sports columnist with the Seattle Times since 2015, where he has covered national title games, got a Seahawk to design his apartment and once extracted a two-word quote from Marshawn Lynch.