Mike Macdonald: The secret sauce behind the NFL’s fastest rising coach

Macdonald’s career trek started in Georgia’s Terry College of Business, where he earned a finance degree in 2010 and a master’s degree in sports management in 2013 while working on coach Mark Richt’s Bulldogs’ staff as a graduate assistant coach and football analyst.

Macdonald, who played at Centennial High School in Roswell before enrolling at UGA, launched his football career in Athens, too, coaching linebackers and running backs at Cedar Shoals High School (2008-09) soon after starting college.

A really bright guy

“I just remember Mike being a really bright guy, and obviously he has turned out to be a pretty damn good leader, too,” Richt said, recalling Macdonald coming on board at Georgia. “He was a student assistant (graduate assistant) for us working in the building after coaching at Cedar Shoals.

“It was an entry-level job, but if you trusted him with something, it was going to get done, and it was going to get done quickly and get done well,” Richt said. “It didn’t take long to trust him enough to give him more.”

Tee Martin, a former Tennessee national championship quarterback (1998) who coached with Macdonald on John Harbaugh’s Baltimore Ravens coaching staff in 2022 and 2023, said Seattle’s success comes as no surprise.

“The first thing about Mike that sticks out to me is his organization and intelligence,” Martin told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “The way he ran that defense, he knew how to paint the picture of how they would need to play to be successful, and then he had his methods to get into that and make sure it worked.

“Mike knew how to adjust because he understood his defense really well, and in his second year, we had the No. 1 defense and set records.”

The 2023 Ravens defense became the first in NFL history to lead the league in fewest points allowed, sacks and takeaways in the same season, also allowing an NFL-best 191.9 yards per game.

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Falcons passed on Macdonald

The Falcons interviewed Macdonald, then the Baltimore defensive coordinator, for the head coaching opening Jan. 12, 2024, before hiring the recently fired Raheem Morris.

Macdonald was hired by Seattle less than three weeks later (Jan. 31) after the franchise moved on from Pete Carroll’s 14-year tenure.

Macdonald carried over six defensive starters from Carroll’s unit and overhauled the inside linebackers room.

Seattle improved from 30th in the NFL in yards allowed per game to 13th in Macdonald’s first season at the helm, and from 25th in points allowed per game to 12th.

“Same in Baltimore, Mike was able to get the best players to play at their best levels, guys like Jadeveon Clowney, Roquan Smith, Marlon Humphrey, were at their optimal level under his leadership,” Martin said.

“When you can lead like that, you have the opportunity to advance in the NFL coaching ranks.”

Macdonald, in preparation for the 6:30 p.m. showdown with NFL passing leader Stafford and the Rams, shared some of his approach to getting his defenders ready.

“Make it so it’s simple and clear for the guys they can play the right way …” Macdonald said. “It’s different for different players. Some guys, it resonates more by giving more detail and getting in the weeds with them.

“Some guys they play their best ball when you make it a one-track mind and go wreck stuff, and that’s how we choose to operate.”

The ‘Dark Side’

Macdonald’s approach obviously works, with the self-styled “Dark Side” defense leading the NFL in scoring defense (17.2 points per game) while limiting offenses to the league’s lowest yards-per-carry (3.7) and fewest points per possession (1.48).

“The best way to describe Mike is he’s old school with new-school principles,” Seattle linebackers coach Chris Partridge told the AJC. “He has an old-school mentality with how he wants the team to look, with the toughness, and how we play the game on both sides of the ball, starting with the trenches and building out, running the football, stopping the run.

“He’s always constantly chasing edges and find the advantages, not only schematically, but program-wise.”

Stafford, the favorite to win NFL MVP honors, has seen Seattle’s defense twice already this season, winning the first meeting 21-19 in Los Angeles, and losing the most recent at Lumen Field on Dec. 18, 38-37 in overtime.

“It’s a big test playing against their team, they are able to build a bunch of structures in the back and in the fronts with a, quote unquote, nickel defense, out there,” Stafford said, referring to Seattle’s penchant for utilizing five defensive backs in its base formation.

“It is a little bit different in the fact they feel like they can create front and coverage structure issues with their grouping, where a lot of teams if you are getting nickel defense, you are getting their nickel pass fronts. They do a nice job changing things up.”

Credit: AP

Credit: AP

Players love him

Macdonald explained his approach to the sorts of adjustments needed to slow the sort of high-powered offense Stafford runs.

“You’re always watching plays through the lens of what that team is known for doing, and what their stuff is … that’s always part of the thinking,” Macdonald said this week. “You go in thinking every play is for a reason, and you can string together some logic.”

Partridge, who like Macdonald spent time coaching under Jim Harbaugh at Michigan, said part of the genius is in the authenticity.

“What Mike does, is he’s just himself, and that’s why the players love him and want to play for him,” Partridge said. “There’s nothing fake there — he’s got similarities to the Harbaughs in that way, for sure.

“But he does it his way, and he’s been able to navigate through putting that vision out of what he wants it to look like, building it his way, and getting his coaches on board sending the same message over and over to the team.”

Richt said he couldn’t be happier for Macdonald.

“I’m excited for him, there’s just one problem, he’s playing Stafford, it’s hard to pull against either one of them,” Richt said with a chuckle. “The good news is one of them is guaranteed to be in the Super Bowl, and they’ll probably win it.”

The Macdonald file

Coaching experience