00:00Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike McDonald is on his way to redefining his third defense in this decade.
00:05In 2021, he became Michigan's defensive coordinator under Jim Harbaugh and turned that defense into one of the NCAA's best.
00:12A defense that allowed 34.5 points per game in 2020, 95th in the FBS, then allowed 17.4 points per game in 2021, which ranked 8th.
00:22That got McDonald the job as a Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator in 2022,
00:26and after a season in which his players logged into his playbook, McDonald once again turned the defense around.
00:32The 2022 Ravens ranked 8th in defensive DVOA after ranking 28th the year before.
00:37In 2023, the Ravens had the NFL's best defense by DVOA.
00:41McDonald got another promotion out of that.
00:43In 2024, the Seahawks hired him to replace Pete Carroll as their head coach.
00:48A tough act to follow, but McDonald doesn't seem to be intimidated by these things.
00:52The 2023 Seahawks ranked 28th in DVOA under Carroll.
00:56McDonald pushed that up to 10th last season, and now, after their 23-20 Thursday night win over the Arizona Cardinals,
01:01to put them at 3-1 in the season, the Seahawks ranked 5th in defensive DVOA.
01:06How is one coach able to come into so many buildings and improve so many defenses so drastically in short order?
01:12In McDonald's case, it appears to be the illusion of complexity.
01:15Like all great coaches, he puts enough concepts into his players' heads without overdoing it.
01:20There's just enough trickeration to confuse opponents, but his defenders can play fast and ruthlessly, because it's all baked in.
01:27Moreover, McDonald isn't tied to one thing.
01:30The 2025 Seahawks are coverage agnostic.
01:32They don't have a type of coverage they rely on beyond all else.
01:36This season, they've run cover 1 10% of the time, cover 2 15% of the time, cover 3 31% of the time, cover 4 16% of the time, and cover 6 22% of the time.
01:47They don't blitz a lot. The Seahawks have rushed 4 defenders on 80% of their snaps, the NFL's 3rd highest rate,
01:53but their 12 sacks are tied for the league lead with the Denver Broncos and the Los Angeles Rams,
01:58and their pressure rate of 24.7 ranks 7th best in the league.
02:02So how does McDonald put offenses in a blender without a signature concept?
02:06On the front end, his pressure calls are real problems, but it's so hard to call protections against them,
02:11you never know who's rushing and from where, and who's dropping into coverage and from where.
02:15Let's take a couple of pressures against the Cardinals on Thursday night as examples.
02:20This isn't really complicated stuff per se, and that's by design, but McDonald has his guys so in sync, it usually works.
02:27With 8 seconds left in the first quarter, Seahawks lined up in a familiar overload front concept.
02:323 to 1 side, a linebacker as a stand-up 3 tech to the other side, and an edge rusher to that side looking to benefit from line 1s.
02:39The 49ers do this with the great Fred Warner as a stand-up 3 tech lot.
02:43Warner can either pressure or drop from there.
02:45In this case, linebacker Ernest Jones, a very underrated part of this defense, dropped into coverage to rob the middle of the field.
02:52Now it was a 4-man pressure against 5 blockers, but the Seahawks still had the advantage
02:56because Leonard Williams and Demarcus Lawrence performed a stunt to mess with the protection
03:00that sent Lawrence to the other side of the field as a looper.
03:03Jones' drop forced Kyler Murray to bail because he didn't have a clear look downfield,
03:07and with Lawrence chasing him down, Murray ran out of bounds.
03:10That was 3rd and 15, so drive over.
03:13McDonald loves to use deception in his pressures as well.
03:16With 3-10 left in the third quarter, the Seahawks lined up in what looked like a standard 2-D coverage with 4 rushers.
03:22Cornerback Josh Jobe was playing tight against receiver Marvin Harrison Jr.,
03:25and cornerback Devin Witherspoon was playing slightly off against receiver Michael Wilson.
03:30The one thing you would not expect out of this alignment was a dual cornerback blitz
03:34with 3 droppers at the intermediate level, but that was the call.
03:38The Cardinals helped out with a flea flicker that put extra time on the protections,
03:42and both Jobe and Witherspoon got home.
03:44Once again, the Cardinals had the numbers advantage.
03:467 blockers at the line out of 12 personnel, and once again McDonald won anyway
03:51because he knew better how to deploy his numbers.
03:54One way to note which coaches are really doing their jobs
03:56is how many previously unknown players come into their systems and become stars in short order.
04:01We've mentioned Ernest Jones, who's one of those guys,
04:03but the real hidden gems this season have been in Seattle's secondary.
04:07Some unheralded guys, some injury replacements,
04:10some guys who have just done enough to be starters, and it's pretty cool.
04:15Cornerback Josh Jobe, who we've mentioned already,
04:17barely saw any snaps in two seasons with the Philadelphia Eagles,
04:20was an unheralded signing in Seattle in 2024,
04:23and has really come on in these schemes in 2025.
04:26This season, Jobe has allowed 16 catches on 31 targets for 117 yards,
04:31no touchdowns, one interception, one pass breakup,
04:34and an opponent pass rating of 47.4.
04:37Cornerback Darion Kendrick, who allowed six touchdown passes
04:40with the Los Angeles Rams in 2022 and 2023 combined,
04:44is another major surprise.
04:45Kendrick missed the entire 2024 season with a torn ACL,
04:49didn't make final cuts with the Rams in 2025,
04:52Seahawks signed him in late August.
04:53All Kendrick has done this season is to allow four catches on nine targets for 23 yards,
04:58no touchdowns, two interceptions, three pass breakups,
05:01and an NFL best opponent pass rating allowed of 12.0.
05:05Two undrafted free agents in 2022, originally signed by other teams,
05:09who are all suddenly playing like pro bowlers with the Seahawks.
05:12That's how you know they're being coached up.
05:14There are a lot of great defensive coaches in football today at all levels,
05:18but if you go by organizational redefinition over and over,
05:22it's hard to say that anyone in any level of football
05:24has been a better defensive coach this decade than Mike McDonald.
05:28The Seahawks, once again, are lucky with their new head coach.
05:32The Seahawks, once again, are lucky with their new head coach.
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