RENTON — Many made a big deal, including nationally, this spring when one of the first things Mike Macdonald did after he became the Seahawks’ coach was take down the wall murals of the team’s greatest moments of the Pete Carroll era that preceded him.
Macdonald’s point of the bare white walls down the main hallway between the locker room and the team’s main auditorium at the Viriginia Mason Athletic Center: We are here to establish new memories, new murals, in a new era.
Wednesday, four days before his first game as a head coach at any level, the NFL’s youngest head man walked onto the stage of that auditorium. He was beginning his first game-week press conference of his first Seahawks season.
“Bright,” he said, squinting into television stage lights he normally leaves off for team meetings in the large room.
The 37-year-old former defensive coordinator walked past a new wall mural he had installed in that team auditorium. That of two large Vince Lombardi Trophies the NFL awards its Super Bowl champion to end each season.
That’s twice as many as Carroll won as Seattle’s coach from 2010 through January.
That’s twice as many as the Seahawks have ever won since beginning play in 1976.
Every day Macdonald talks to the Seahawks from the front of that same room, his players see him flanked by not one but two reminders of why they are all there.
“It’s come full circle, being up on the podium here on the stage. I’m having flashbacks of our intro press conference,” Macdonald said of Feb. 1, when the Seahawks formally introudced him as their new coach.
“Forgot to wear my hoodie,” he joked.
“We told everybody this week how appreciative we were of all the work that goes into it,” Macdonald said of the opening game. “There’s so many people behind the scenes — all the players, all the support staff, everyone in the building. It’s so much work just to try and get it aligned and kind of bring it in the same direction. I’m very appreciative of everybody’s attitude.
“I think we’re on our way to that, I think it’s an ongoing process from here till eternity, hopefully.
“But here we are. … It’s here. It’s time,” Macdonald said of his team’s opener Sunday against the Denver Broncos at sold-out Lumen Field (1:05 p.m., channel 7).
“Guys are excited. We’re excited. Excited to be at home. Excited to be in front of the 12s; it’s going to be loud.
“I hope my ears are ringing,” Macdonald said. “I hope that we have trouble communicating.”
He means on defense. He is going to be calling its plays for over his speaker system to new starting middle linebacker Tyrel Dodson taking over for departed Bobby Wagner.
Dodson, a sixth-year veteran, signed from Buffalo this offseason. He has yet to have in the NFL had the role he now has for Seattle: full-time defensive signal-caller. Dodson must relay Macdonald’s calls and the changes the tricky schemer wants his defenders to make right before or at the snap to confuse offenses.
Sunday, he must do it before 68,000 fans screaming at Denver rookie quarterback Bo Nix making his first NFL start at the dawn of this new Seahawks era.
“That’s a big point of emphasis this week,” Macdonald said.
The coach mentioned communication on the field on defense multiple times in about 15 minutes of talking.
Dodson asked Macdonald to blare the music to volume level 11 this week during Seahawks practices.
It wasn’t quite that loud at the start of practice open to the media Wednesday.
“I told Mike to make it as hard as possible during practice on me: ‘I don’t want to hear music low. I want you to crank the music up,’” Dodson said. “If you make practice (hard) the game is going to be, not necessarily easy, but more simple just on the communication cues and stuff like that.”
Dodson said he would spend Wednesday’s practice working out which hand signals to communicate plays and adjustments to teammates with during the game Sunday.
He said he learned in his time as a part-time inside linebacker for the Bills amid the rowdy fans of Western New York the key to communicating with teammates amid crowd noise.
“Meeting with guys (all week of the game),” Dodson said. “Getting early with guys. Staying late with guys. And kind of having the same brain, in a sense.
“If a team is going no huddle on you and they come out in a certain formation, ‘Hey how do you see this, how do you see that,’ asking J. Love (Seahawks Pro Bowl safety Julian Love) how does he see blah blah blah, this and that.
“And then we’re on the same page (in the game).”
Macdonald can’t wait to see how loud Lumen Field can get for an opposing offense — in his favor for the first time, instead of as a Baltimore Ravens assistant coach.
“It’s a huge difference. Teams have to operate on silent count, which you can go into all the different reasons why that’s tougher,” Macdonald said. “Sometimes on defense, it makes it harder to communicate and get things aligned.
“But those are good problems to have.”
Connor Williams status
Connor Williams remains on track to start the opener as the team’s new center, 8 1/2 months following tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee and a couple weeks after his first practices with the team.
The former Miami Dolphins center was in full pads full go leading the Seahawks’ offensive line to the first drills of practice Wednesday.
The team did not list him on the practice participation/injury report Wednesday. That also signifies he was full go.
Macdonald and general manager John Schneider last week have stopped short of declaring Williams will start Sunday.
“He looks great,” Macdonald said, “and we’ll see how it plays out throughout the rest of the week.”
The 27-year-old signed a one-year, free-agent contract last month. Seattle is guaranteeing him $3 million for 2024.
First practice report
Signs remain linebacker Uchenna Nwosu won’t play this game and perhaps week two at New England. He injured his knee getting cut then chop blocked in the preseason finale against Cleveland.
The Seahawks didn’t put Nwosu on injured reserve to return after a minimum of four games he would have had to miss.
“Well, we didn’t put him on IR, so you can probably put two and two together on when we hope to have him back,” Macdonald said. “There’s no definite time table right now though.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
