Super Bowl-winning head coach Mike Macdonald knows the Seattle Seahawks have a target on their backs.
The Seahawks will have a number of decisions to make in free agency as they try to maintain their championship roster. They will also have the entire league attempting to catch up to their success and find an answer to that champion defense. Macdonald acknowledged the latter reality during a Feb. 9 news conference, saying that the team would have to adjust.
The Seahawks’ defense was key to the victory, only giving up 13 points in the win and 331 total yards of offense. They also forced two interceptions and recovered a fumble, and scored a defensive touchdown when edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu returned a batted pass from New England Patriots quarterback Drake Maye 45 yards to the end zone. Macdonald said the players showed up in a big way, so much so that his defensive scheme did not matter.
“It’s funny, I told the team on Saturday night, I’ve got a bad habit of hemming and hawing in my office and with the rest of our coaching staff, thinking about plays and what we’re going to run and how it’s going to go, and then you get around the guys and you see them, and all of a sudden all those worries kind of go away magically,” he said.
“And I think that speaks to how they played. [It] became very clear very early that they were a determined bunch, that we were going to play our style of ball last night, and at that point, really, the plays became irrelevant. It was really the style of how the guys played, and just to play that relentlessly throughout the game was really impressive, and [I’m] really proud of those guys. That was a remarkable game by our defense.”
While the team outshone the scheme on the biggest stage, the scheme is still important to the team’s long-term success. And Macdonald acknowledged that the scheme would have to evolve as teams necessarily adjust to their tendencies in an effort to catch up to their success.
“We use the term ‘chasing edges’ here in Seattle,” Macdonald said. “You have to live like that. You can’t be copying everybody else. We want to be on the forefront of things. We know that we’re target number one now.”
Before the Seahawks can adapt their scheme, they will have to take care of several key contributors who are set to become free agents, including edge rusher Boye Mafe, cornerbacks Josh Jobe and Riq Woolen, safety Coby Bryant, and linebacker Drake Thomas.
They will also have to find a replacement for offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak, who confirmed after the game that he would accept the head coach position with the Las Vegas Raiders.
The Seahawks will also need that scheme to find success against a daunting schedule next year.
They played the San Francisco 49ers in the Divisional Round and the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC Championship Game; they will play both division rivals twice next year.
On top of that, they will rematch with the Patriots at home; they will also take on five other playoff teams: the Chicago Bears and Los Angeles Chargers at home; the Philadelphia Eagles in Philly, the Carolina Panthers in Charlotte, and the Denver Broncos in Denver. The perennial powerhouse Kansas City Chiefs will also visit Lumen Field next year.
