RENTON — Mike Macdonald had had it.
He was tired of his middle linebacker, the centerpiece of his defense, getting blocked, run over and run past. Just before the NFL trading deadline Macdonald acquired a new middle linebacker who was far better against the run and unhappy with his contract with another team, the team that drafted him. That new middle linebacker immediately transformed Macdonald’s unit into exactly what the young coach designed it to be.
Roquan Smith arrived from the Chicago Bears to Baltimore in October 2022. He replaced the ineffective Josh Bynes. Smith immediately starred in the middle of Macdonald’s scheme the former linebackers coach designed as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator. Smith’s arrival changed the team and season. The last half of the 2022 the Ravens flipped from being overrun to the NFL’s best defense. They’ve been that since.
Smith became a Pro Bowl linebacker for the first time that season, on his way to a mammoth new contract to stay with Baltimore. Bynes never played another game for the Ravens, or anyone else. He retired following that season.
Last month, Macdonald had had it — again. He was tired of his middle linebacker, the centerpiece of his new Seahawks defense, getting blocked, run over and run past. So just before the league trading deadline he acquired a new middle linebacker far better against the run, who was unhappy with his contract with another team, the team that drafted him.
Former Los Angeles Rams Super Bowl-champion middle linebacker Ernest Jones arrived from Tennessee to Seattle in October 2024. He replaced the ineffective Tyrel Dodson. Jones immediately is starring in the middle of Macdonald’s scheme he’s made as head coach of the Seahawks. Jones has changed the team and season. In three games Jones has played for them the Seahawks have flipped, from being overrun to one of the NFL’s stingiest run defenses. Jones is on his way to a mammoth new contract to stay with Seattle. Dodson never played another game for the Seahawks. Macdonald cut him. Dodson now plays for Miami.
“I realize there’s parallels,” Macdonald said Monday.
More than parallels. Is Macdonald’s first season as the defensive mastermind in Baltimore two years ago the blueprint for this first season as the defensive guru in Seattle?
Both years are the same. Initially, tons of yards and points allowed. Then, after Macdonald realizes he has the wrong guy in the most vital spot, the coach replaces him. The new system takes hold. The defense and team take off.
With six games remaining, this whiplash season for the last-to-first-place Seahawks (6-5) is trending like Macdonald’s first season did running the Ravens’ defense in 2022.
Former NFL and University of Washington quarterback Hugh Millen, a league analyst for KJR radio and The 33rd Team football analytics outfit compiled the numbers for The News Tribune. In games one through eight of the 2022 season, before they traded for Smith, Macdonald’s Ravens were 25th in the league in yards allowed on defense. With Smith, they finished third. The unit went from 19th in points allowed per game to first over the final nine games. The Ravens rose from 20th in the league in allowing offensive touchdowns to first. Baltimore went from 26th in first downs allowed to third, and made the playoffs.
A transformation.
In games one through eight this season the Seahawks were ranked 28th in the league in rushing defense. They allowed San Francisco’ third- and fourth-string running backs 228 yards last month. In September lowly New England and the New York Giants rushed for 185 and 175, respectively.
In three games after acquiring Jones they have allowed their two lowest rushing totals against this season, 68 by the Rams and 49 by the Cardinals. Seattle’s defense that allowed Detroit 42 points, the two-win Giants 29, San Francisco 36 and Buffalo 31 points through eight games has held Los Angeles to 13 points in regulation, the 49ers to 17 in the rematch and Arizona to six points last weekend.
A transformation.
This is why Seahawks chair Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde hired Macdonald in February to replace fired Pete Carroll.
Comparing Ravens, Seahawks under Macdonald
Jones has been a revelation. He has 47 tackles in his first three Seahawks games.
That in itself isn’t shocking. Middle linebackers usually are and should be the leading tacklers. Dodson’s was Seattle’s when the team cut him.
But Dodson got dragged through the first seven games. Jones’ tackles have come immediately after he hits a ball carrier. Foes go straight down, or backward.
Monday, The News Tribune asked Macdonald about the similarities between how his Ravens improved dramatically midway through his first season running their defense and how these Seahawks are U-turning their season now.
“I think the learning curve in Baltimore was very much my responsibility. I didn’t have a clear enough vision of what we were trying to do early enough,” Macdonald said. “And when we traded for Roquan and we decided to play a certain way, it kind of forced our hand.
“So I realize there are parallels in when it’s happening in (this) season, but it was just under a little bit different circumstance. I think here we have a vision. We have a very clear vision of what we’re trying to achieve. And we’re just hammering away at it and trying to make incremental improvements until it’s kind of coming to life.”
Unlike in Baltimore in 2022 when long-time Ravens coach John Harbaugh hired him to run his defense, all is new in Seattle. Macdonald is new. His 21 assistant coaches are new. So are all three Seahawks systems of offense, defense and special teams.
One of those 21 new assistant coaches is Bynes. That former Ravens Super Bowl-winning middle linebacker Macdonald benched and eventually sent into retirement when he acquired Smith in Baltimore during the ‘22 season is the Seahawks’ assistant linebackers coach. To show replacing him wasn’t personal, Macdonald has given Bynes his first coaching job.
“Again, it’s a new crew of folks, staff, players, coaches, and so there’s a process to this thing,” Macdonald said. “I would much rather have it come to life and stay that way the whole way and there’s just going to be an expectation here and a standard of playing elite defense. And if we’re doing that, great. If we’re helping our team win, then that’s good for us. And when we’re not, we’re not holding our end of the bargain on defense, then that’s not the standard we want to be.
“We want to be an elite unit, and we want to be an elite football team. So if we’re not playing at an elite level, then everybody knows that’s not the standard. And we’re going to have to grow up to it.”
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Ernest Jones’ effect
The NFL’s youngest head coach at age 37 wants you to know general manager John Schneider was instrumental in acquiring Jones, and in drafting new inside weakside linebacker Tyrice Knight. Knight has replaced Jerome Baker. Baker is the other starter Macdonald and Schneider discarded midseason, by trading him for Jones. Knight’s becoming a starter also has coincided with Seattle’s defense vastly improving the last three games.
“These decisions aren’t just like me just sitting there being like ‘I need a linebacker,’” Macdonald said.
“In Baltimore, the player acquisition is unique to them versus how we do it here. I think how we handled it here was ‘Hey, there’s an opportunity to get a great inside backer that will really help our defense move forward. Talk about force multiplier, things like that, and a person that we really feel strong about in Ernest. It just so happened that adding a great player at that position at that point in time was going to be great for us.
“Obviously, given returns for both units, it’s been good. I think the mentality of always trying to get better, always chasing these edges of how to how to improve.”
He’s improved these Seahawks.
Dodson was making his tackles 6, 7, 9 yards from the line of scrimmage. When Jones had a game-high 13 stops at San Francisco two games ago, six of them were for gains of just 2 or fewer yards.
That’s the difference between drives extending and drives ending, between points and punts, losses and wins.
The win over the 49ers ended Seattle’s six-game losing streak to its top division rival. The Seahawks have won two straight division games. They’ve vaulted from last in the NFC West to first entering their game Sunday at the New York Jets (3-8) in East Rutherford, New Jersey (10 a.m., channel 13).
“We can beat any team in this league,” Jones said last weekend after throttling Kyler Murray, James Conner and the Cardinals.
“I think we’re out there communicating better,” Jones said before that win. “We all (are) on the same page, know what the purpose is, know what we’re trying to get done, and I think we’re doing that.”
But Jones isn’t satisfied. This man won a Super Bowl three seasons ago. He wants the rest of his new Seahawks teammates to join his way of thinking.
“We all have a high standard here. We want more. We need more,” he said. “We want to win games in a more impressive fashion, and get teams out of there when we have to.”
As for that new contract, to follow the path Roquan Smith paved after joining Macdonald’s defense midway through a season and parlaying that into a $100 million deal, Jones said again last weekend he wants to stay with Seattle. His rookie contract the Seahawks inherited in trading for him ends with this season.
“One hundred percent. These boys make me happy, man,” Jones said. “I’m excited to be here.”
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