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Seahawks hire Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as next head coach

brian wacker, baltimore sun
·6 min read
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After masterminding a historic defense for the Ravens in 2023, Mike Macdonald will get a shot to run his own team next season.

The Seattle Seahawks hired Baltimore’s defensive coordinator to be their next coach, the team announced Wednesday night. At 36 years old, he will be the NFL’s youngest head coach. NFL Network, which was first to report the news alongside ESPN, reported Macdonald has signed a six-year deal.

He replaces Pete Carroll, 72, who stepped down earlier this month after 14 seasons in Seattle, where he led the Seahawks to their only Super Bowl title in 2013. This season, Seattle finished 9-8 and missed the playoffs.

Macdonald is the fifth former Ravens defensive coordinator to land a head coaching job elsewhere, along with Marvin Lewis, Mike Nolan, Rex Ryan and Chuck Pagano.

His departure also means that, for the second time in three years, the Ravens will be looking for a new defensive coordinator after the team parted ways with Don “Wink” Martindale following the 2021 season before hiring Macdonald. They have a few potential candidates in their own building.

Should they stay in house, potentially next in line would be associate head coach/defensive line coach Anthony Weaver.

Weaver, 43, is a former defensive end who was a second-round draft pick by the Ravens in 2002. After rising to defensive coordinator with the Houston Texans in 2020, he returned to where his career began, joining the Ravens as their run game coordinator/defensive line coach under coach John Harbaugh. The following year, the team parted ways with Martindale and brought back Macdonald, who’d been the team’s linebackers coach from 2018 to 2020 before leaving for Michigan to be the defensive coordinator for the Wolverines under Harbaugh’s younger brother Jim, to replace him. The Ravens also promoted Weaver to associate head coach.

Weaver has since become a head coaching candidate himself, interviewing with multiple teams this year, including the Washington Commanders, who brought him in for a second interview for their opening earlier this week. He is also reportedly interviewing with the Miami Dolphins for their open defensive coordinator job.

Other potential candidates within the Ravens’ organization include defensive backs coach Dennard Wilson, who came to Baltimore from the Philadelphia Eagles this season, passing game coordinator Chris Hewitt and inside linebackers coach Zach Orr.

But interest by other teams in each of those coaches could complicate matters. In addition to Weaver interviewing elsewhere, Wilson is also being considered for multiple defensive coordinator openings, including with the New York Giants and Tennessee Titans.

That Seattle tapped Macdonald, however, is not a surprise.

The Seahawks are in need of defensive facelift, having ranked 24th in the NFL in points allowed, 30th in total yards allowed, 27th in yards allowed per rush, 31st in rushing yards allowed per game and 22nd in passing yards allowed per game in 2023.

They got a first-hand look at the defensive wizard in Week 9 as well when Baltimore blew out the Seahawks, 37-3, at M&T Bank Stadium. In that game, quarterback Geno Smith was sacked four times, Seattle was held to just 151 yards of offense, had two turnovers and was 1-for-13 on third down.

Macdonald had also become one of the hottest candidates in the league, interviewing this year with at least a half-dozen teams after helming a Baltimore defense that over the past two seasons ranked in the top five in scoring, total yards, rushing yards, red-zone touchdown rate and third-down conversion rate. Along the way, he also drew high praise for his intelligence, high-level defensive schemes that wreaked havoc for opposing offenses, as well as his ability to connect with players.

“Mike is going to do a really good job,” Ravens outside linebacker Kyle Van Noy said Monday. “If he gets a head coaching job, he’s going to be really, really good. Very solid coach, very good at Xs and Os, very good at communicating and getting the team galvanized in the right direction for the main goal — and he loves football. … I expect big things out of him.”

This season, the Ravens became the first team in NFL history to have a defense that led the league in sacks (60), takeaways (31) and points allowed per game (16.1) despite fielding a unit that entered the year with questions about its secondary and defensive front and was without a bona fide pass rusher.

They also ranked first in passing yards allowed per play, first in rushing touchdowns allowed per game, second in overall yards allowed per play and had several players who flourished in his scheme. Van Noy had a career-high nine sacks in the regular season, while fellow outside linebacker Jadeveon Clowney also experienced a resurgence, matching his career high with 9 1/2 sacks. Defensive tackle Justin Madbuike, meanwhile, led all interior linemen with 13 sacks, while inside linebacker Roquan Smith led the team with 158 tackles and inside linebacker Patrick Queen surpassed his previous career high from a season ago with 133 tackles.

Clowney, a 10-year NFL veteran, called Macdonald the smartest defensive coordinator he’s ever been around, and he was dubbed a “mad scientist” by Smith.

He’s also been dubbed in league circles as a defensive-minded version of Sean McVay, who, at age 30, was the youngest NFL coach in history when the Los Angeles Rams hired him in 2017. McVay then became the youngest head coach to win a Super Bowl and be named NFL Coach of the Year when the Rams won the title in the 2021 season.

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Like McVay, Macdonald’s rise has been rapid.

He first arrived in the Ravens’ Owings Mills offices in 2014 as a coaching intern after serving as a graduate assistant and safeties and defensive quality control coach at the University of Georgia, and his brilliance and tireless work ethic quickly paid off. Macdonald was promoted to a defensive assistant the following year then continued to work his way up the ranks, serving as defensive backs coach in 2017 before being promoted to linebackers coach the next year.

When the University of Michigan had an opening for a defensive coordinator after its 2020 season, Harbaugh suggested Macdonald to his younger brother Jim. In his first and only season in Ann Arbor, the Wolverines went from ranking 84th in total defense the year before to 20th. Michigan also routed Ohio State and went on to the College Football Playoff, with three of its defensive players being selected in the first 45 picks of the NFL draft.

After the departure of Martindale after Baltimore’s 2021 season, Harbaugh lured Macdonald back for the opening, and in his first season as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator, only four teams had more sacks.

This season, Baltimore’s defense produced two All-Pros — Smith and safety Kyle Hamilton — and four Pro Bowl selections, including Queen and Madubuike.

“Nobody does it like him,” Queen said Monday. “Nobody cares like him. Nobody will do what he does. He will not rest until he has everything right. Whoever gets him if he leaves is probably getting the best candidate out there.

“The guy’s all around just the best person I’ve been around coach-wise, person-wise. He really cares. He truly cares about the players, the people around the organization, and the fans.”

With Macdonald having departed, the Ravens will now turn their attention to finding his replacement. Harbaugh, along with general manager Eric DeCosta, will meet with the media Friday.