The Seattle Seahawks set some records as they cruised to a Super Bowl win this season, including another for their well-respected head coach.
Mike Macdonald led a rapid turnaround in Seattle, building a team that was a fringe playoff contender when he took over and crafting them into Super Bowl champions. The team took to social media this week to share a first-of-its-kind accomplishment for Macdonald in the Super Bowl win.
Mike Macdonald Makes NFL History
As the team shared in a post on X, Macdonald became the first head coach to win a Super Bowl while serving as the team’s defensive play caller.
“Historic season, championship finish,” the team wrote in the caption.
The Seahawks won thanks in large part to their strong defensive effort, holding the New England Patriots scoreless through three quarters and ratcheting up the pressure on second-year quarterback Drake Maye. The Seahawks disguised coverages and generated pressure on Maye both through blitzes and pressure at the line.
The Seahawks forced Maye into some critical mistakes, including an interception that was returned for a touchdown. Macdonald took big credit for the game plan, which also saw the Seahawks controlling the ball with some long scoring drives.
Changes Coming for Mike Macdonald’s Staff
The Seahawks have already hit some roadbumps on the path to defending their Super Bowl title, losing offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak to a head coaching job and replacing him with Brian Fleury, who formerly served as the run game coordinator/tight ends coach for the San Francisco 49ers.
Macdonald said it was important to hire someone who had a similar mindset to him and the existing coaching staff.
“The continuity is really important,” he said, via the team’s official website. “I think we were able to do that still with hiring Brian. This is still year three for me. It’s all about the process. You just want to be disciplined to that and have respect for all the layers of it and all the steps. I felt like we did that, and it became clear that this was the best decision, the best way to go as we finished it up.”
Macdonald added that the team had plenty of talented candidates in-house, but he wanted to cast a wide net and find the best candidate.
“Brian’s someone that that I’ve known about for a while, and we have some common relationships that we share kind of throughout the coaching ranks,” Macdonald said. “So, I knew about Brian. I knew he was a great coach.
And then we had an opportunity to talk to him and he just did a phenomenal job.”
Macdonald said it would be a boon to the staff to have a coach who already knows and understands their philosophy.
“I think his vision for and what he believes in offensively and with a football team was aligned with how we wanted [it] to and [he] just hit the principles and philosophy and how he goes about his business and how he coaches and what he wants from our offense,” he said.
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