Just when you think you’ve figured out new Seahawks defense, it changes

SEATTLE – As the Mike Macdonald era opens, there will be a temptation to try to describe exactly what the Seahawks are doing on defense.

It is a task that will not be completed easily.

Which is just how Macdonald wants it.

As he rose to NFL prominence the past two seasons as the defensive coordinator of the Baltimore Ravens, he did so overseeing defenses that were not easy to categorize

“The offenses out there are too good to just run three things and say, ‘Hey, we’re going to beat you,’ ” Macdonald said when he was hired by the Seahawks.

He cautioned that day that it won’t be as simple as just looking at what the Ravens did schematically last season – when they became the first team in NFL history to allow the fewest points while leading the league in sacks and turnovers – and assuming that’s what you’ll get in Seattle.

“The system that we run is built on concepts that are adjustable, and we can layer it together,” he said.

Macdonald built his reputation in Baltimore on his ability to craft different – and effective – defensive looks each week based on whom the Ravens were playing.

“I’d say it’s adaptable,” Macdonald said. “But we’re always going to be aggressive on how we want to do it. People ask about our blitz rates and all that; that’s not important to me. It’s about putting yourselves in positions to win the down, affecting the quarterback, putting your guys in position to have success.”

Constant adaptability is at odds with how the Seahawks rose to prominence in the Pete Carroll era.

During the heady 2011-17 glory days, the Seahawks were known for primarily running only a few looks, content to line up a slew of potential Pro Football Hall of Famers such as Bobby Wagner, Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas and let them play free and fast and dare other teams to try to figure out how to beat them.

That worked as long as those players were in their primes and before offensive coordinators began finding ways to exploit what few holes the Seahawks’ defense had.

Things began to slip gradually in the latter part of the past decade, and they slipped rapidly the past few years. The Seahawks finished 22nd or worse in yards allowed each of the past five seasons.

Enter Macdonald and the defense he began to build in his years as a grad assistant at Georgia and formalized during his nine seasons working in a variety of coaching roles with the Ravens.

The FTN Football Almanac 2024 offered a good overview of Macdonald’s defensive strategy:

“Macdonald wants you to look at his defense and have no idea what’s going on. To be fair, most defensive coaches would like you not to predict everything they’re going to do, but that’s the entire underlying philosophy of what Macdonald is doing. It’s not that he’s particularly unique or revolutionary schematically, it’s just that his defenses mix fronts and pressures and packages from the same basic presentation. Everything looks the same until it doesn’t and you’re being swept away by a pass rusher from a spot you did not expect. … It’s all misdirection and miscommunication and versatile players being able to play nearly any role from any starting position. … To sum up, Macdonald’s defenses are tough to plan for because his basic strategy will vary wildly from week to week.”

That, of course, asks a lot of the players to learn new game plans each week.

It also requires players to know – and be able – to play multiple positions.

Defensive linemen will be asked to line up at two or three spots. Safeties could be asked to play free safety one snap, strong safety the next. Cornerbacks could be asked to cover specific receivers on certain plays, rather than lining up on one side or the other, as was typical in Carroll’s defense.

That emphasis on versatility is one reason the word “communication” often felt like the overriding theme of the preseason.

It’s a defense, players stressed, that will put a premium on everyone understanding where everyone else is before the snap.

“I think from a schematic perspective, we want to do a lot of things,” safety Julian Love said in the preseason. “I think we have an extreme amount of talent. But that means nothing if you can’t evolve game plan-wise week to week. To have a lot of things you have to communicate a lot.”

After hiring Macdonald, the Seahawks made some significant personnel moves in the offseason to try to solidify the defense.

First, they re-signed defensive lineman Leonard Williams to a three-year deal worth up to just more than $64 million, the highest per-year average salary given to a defender in team history.

Then they selected defensive lineman Byron Murphy III with the 16th overall pick of the draft.

Williams and Murphy can play multiple spots along the line with the hope that they can give the Seahawks the kind of interior pass rush the team has too often lacked of late.

They also remade the back seven, letting starting inside linebackers Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks sign elsewhere in free agency and replacing them with free agents Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker.

The Seahawks hope that will make for a quicker and more versatile inside duo better able to defend the crossing routes in the passing game that have been so troublesome in recent seasons.

The Seahawks also remade the safety spot, cutting Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs and replacing them as starters with Love and veteran free agent Rayshawn Jenkins. Salary-cap savings were at the root of the safety makeover.

The Seahawks think the two can form a cohesive duo that will cut down on communication mistakes in the secondary that led to big plays the last few years.

“The spirit of how we play and the principles of how we play, what you’ve seen on the tape in Baltimore will be the same,” Macdonald said when he was hired. “But I can’t guarantee you the schematics will be the same here, because we’re not sure what we’re good at yet.”

They’ll begin finding out soon enough.