Head Coach Mike McDonald Leads The Seattle Seahawks New Era | 2024 NFL Preview

the Seattle Seahawks the one storied franchise and one of the most iconic teams of the 2010 are now completely stripped of every single piece of the legion of boom era it started with the actual legion of boom in the secondary then Russell Wilson although they do have Pete Carroll in a quote unquote advisor role in the front office but keeping the old guy who used to run things around which a new guy that now runs things typically doesn't turn out well but now to actually summarize 2023 season so the Seattle Seahawks I'm going to quote Warren Sharp's summary here cuz I think he does a much better job than me if it's hard to process big picture thoughts about the Seattle Seahawks immediate past or present that's not your fault it's their fault there as close to middle of the road as any team in the NFL last year they were one game above 500 and9 and8 went 88 And1 against the spread in the last three years they are just one game below 500 they are just two games below 500 against the spread pick a week will Seattle win flip a coin will they cover the spread flip a coin and that's why it's so difficult to predict the Seahawks season last year because they went n and8 the same record they went the year before and still missed the playoffs on a technicality tiebreaker situation and to be honest even if they would have snagged that seven seed playoff spot over the Packers unless they beat the Cowboys I'm not sure how much better I would have felt about this team and when I did my uh offseason questions video what two weeks after the season ended I really couldn't put my finger on what the hell happened I even asked my Seahawk fan friends to try to explain this to me they couldn't tell me what happened well just Trail off I'm just trying no injuries and you know the coaching and no one could give me a straightforward answer but the Seahawks gave us all the answer and said yeah it was all Pico's fault get him out of here and now they're bringing in Mike McDonald for y'all unfamiliar with the name he was the defensive coordinator for the Baltimore Ravens who were I would say arguably the best defense in football last year but I don't think that's an argument right I'm pretty comfortable saying they were the best defense in football last year look up the numbers yourself or wait till the AFC North uh preview I do for the Ravens we'll cover him there so he comes in now the youngest coach in the NFL head coach obviously but the more interesting hire to me is offensive coordinator Ryan grub who comes from Washington who'll get to shortly we're going to skip the what's more likely make the playoffs or miss the playoffs number one pick whatever cuz I think that's hard to do with rookie head coaches and a rookie offensive coordinator we have no idea what this team is going to look like if we're being honest a lot of these pieces on the team look the same and me personally you're just not going to convince me that Pete car was the only thing standing in the way of them maximizing this team that's just a tough sell for me but I want to start with Ryan Grub's offense so like I said he was the offenseive coordinator at Washington last year not the commanders the Washington Huskies in college set aside schematics for a second that offense featured Michael penck Jr romad dun Troy fonu Rosen Rose Garden Jaylen poke Jaylen McMillan that is what seven NFL players out of 11 and also they're running back Dylan Johnson who added in 16 tugs himself lot of NFL Talent on that roster granted everyone in the NFL is NFL Talent by definition but the talent Advantage he had on a weekly basis if we're going to hold that against Michael pennick as we're doing his draft process then we got to kind of hold it against Ryan grub too right and now we can get to the schematics of it without getting too granular Ryan Grub's offense was based a lot on hey I have wide receivers who can just go win if I ever get in a jam and formation and concept wise since these hash marks are so absurdly big in college I'm just going to take advantage of all that space I have over there if I'm on the far hash so if I can get radun with over 50 yards of space to himself to the right of the formation why would I not do that sure let's do that and that part is the harder part to see what's going to be able to transition over because obviously the hashmark thing not the same in the NFL and obviously Gino's a baller don't get me wrong but is how do I put this is Gino as good of an NFL quarterback as Michael penx was a college qu quarterback I hope that makes sense like Michael penx was what second in Heisman voting last year in my opinion should have won it but story for another day is Gino Smith second best quarterback in the country I don't think so and I love Gino but I don't think so can you build an offense around I have DK meaf I have Tyler Lockett I have Jackson Smith and jigo we're just going to put them on one side of the formation and tell them to go win nothing I've seen so far from any of those guys convinc me that you could do that reliably as a said for your offense DK would be the best argument for that but again what metric do we have that that is reliable game after game week after week for something that you are going to be able to do the flip side though is that on the other side of the ball Mike McDonald's job is to maximize everything he can get out of this Seahawks defense and if you look at this Ravens defense last year they were the best defense in the league and I'd argue they did not have the best defensive Personnel in the league outside of ran Smith and Kyle Hamilton now as far as who's the roquan Smith replacement on this team ah that that one's rough sign Jerome Baker I'm assuming the idea is that it's going to be him best of luck with that but I look at this secondary Devon Witherspoon is listed as their nickel Corner he's not really a nickel Corner he's more so a just put me somewhere in let me play football corner and that's as close to Kyle Hamilton as they're going to be able to get Mike McDonald is really good at simulator pressures which in layman's terms is if you overload one side of the line the offensive line is going to shift their protection that way because they're like oh damn here come the defense blitzing we got to go that way but in a simulator pressure you pretend that's where the blitz is coming from they drop the blitz comes from the other way in shortest terms possible and the Ravens LED the league in sacks by doing that with jvon Clowney Kyle vanoi and just m was incredible but that's the only All Pro level pass rusher they had on that team if we're trying to manufacture an all proo out the Seahawks defense specifically in that front 7 your best bet is going to be Byron Murphy by like week 10 I know it's just pre season don't overreact but he looks pretty much how he looked at Texas where he's throwing grown out the way left and right looks pretty damn impressive he's going to have the rookie struggle because rookie struggle is what they do but eventually he's going to be able to fill that role so in short the Seahawks season this year is a mix bag for me if they make the playoffs I would be stunned it would be because I'll make a case for both if the Seahawks make the playoffs it'll be because Von Witherspoon was able to play the Kyle Hamilton role Byron Murphy one Defensive Rookie of the Year and Ryan Grub's offense translated to the NFL or he was able to translate it to the NFL way better than any of us could have guessed if they missed the playoffs it will be because the college offense was a little too Goofy for the NFL young head coach couldn't put his defense together in just one year and also they're at best the third best team in their own division so at best we're talking sixth or seventh seed which is what they were fighting for last year so essentially we're asking them to be either the same record or one game better without P Caroll if I had to lean one way it will be missed the playoffs but again with the Seahawks you never know [Music]