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Head Coach Mike Macdonald Discusses The Upcoming Season Debut vs. 49ers · Seahawks Press Pass

0:00
Speaker 1: It's been a minute since we've been back here together,
0:02
Speaker 1: which is exciting. Hopefully like the new decorations or auditorium,
0:08
Speaker 1: I think it's pretty sweet. But yeah, excited and off
0:13
Speaker 1: to a great start this morning, and our first Wednesday
0:17
Speaker 1: in season coming up and about an hour but yeah,
0:23
Speaker 1: just really, I mean, look really excited. San Francisco is
0:25
Speaker 1: a great football team. But you know, we got our
0:29
Speaker 1: plenty of work to do this week and told the
0:31
Speaker 1: teams today that the game will come on Sunday. Let's
0:35
Speaker 1: have a great day to day, great day tomorrow and
0:37
Speaker 1: keep stacking them and then go go play oursel ball
0:41
Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoon. So just hav any division.
0:45
Speaker 2: Of polling up right out of the gate, change anything
0:47
Speaker 2: about the way the opener feels.
0:52
Speaker 1: No, I mean, the first game is always gonna be
0:56
Speaker 1: really exciting. You're doing all this work throughout the whole
1:00
Speaker 1: offseason and then you're okay, how do we get calibrated here?
1:04
Speaker 1: Where where are we? You have a feeling for where
1:06
Speaker 1: you're you know what you're good at and things like that,
1:08
Speaker 1: but you don't really know until the first game. So
1:11
Speaker 1: you know, there's a lot of guys doing things for
1:13
Speaker 1: the first time. In that type of atmosphere. But that's
1:15
Speaker 1: why we practice the way we do, That's why we
1:17
Speaker 1: train the way we do. So we're trying to simulate
1:19
Speaker 1: those environments the best we can. So we're really just
1:22
Speaker 1: going out there and trying to play our best best
1:24
Speaker 1: ball on Sundays.
1:25
Speaker 3: How much time do you spend during the off season
1:28
Speaker 3: scouting divisional opponents?
1:32
Speaker 1: Significant amount? Significant amount? I would say it's all it's
1:37
Speaker 1: you kind of you work, you work through like big picture,
1:43
Speaker 1: and then you kind of keep opening and widening and
1:47
Speaker 1: narrowing the lens. I wouldn't say, like, hey, this day,
1:51
Speaker 1: I do that, but it's it's a consistent you have
1:54
Speaker 1: to you have to keep a pulse on the league.
1:55
Speaker 1: You have to keep a pulse on your division. Those
1:57
Speaker 1: are the guys that tie breakers come down to. Oviously,
2:00
Speaker 1: wins the division mean a lot for your end goals,
2:02
Speaker 1: but it's both.
2:06
Speaker 4: There's obviously a lot of overlap in what you guys
2:08
Speaker 4: do offensively and what they do and Shanahan Kubiak coaching
2:12
Speaker 4: trees going back generations. What about that system? You know,
2:15
Speaker 4: coming at from a defensive mindset like you are, what
2:17
Speaker 4: about that offensive system is so challenging?
2:21
Speaker 1: Well, I think I think that the principles of it
2:23
Speaker 1: of taking stress off, letting the letting the a line
2:26
Speaker 1: be aggressive, giving the quarterback answers to you know, quick
2:30
Speaker 1: answers where you can play decisively is good. You know,
2:36
Speaker 1: the condensed splits, the motions, that's really evolved over time.
2:38
Speaker 1: That's really the NFL nowadays. And I think the interesting
2:41
Speaker 1: thing is how these guys have put their bluep their fingerprints,
2:48
Speaker 1: their identity on, you know, the their respective offenses, which
2:53
Speaker 1: is really cool, you know, and it's it's probably through
2:55
Speaker 1: a lens in a function of the people that are
2:57
Speaker 1: on their team, you know, the personnel. You think about
2:59
Speaker 1: the Ramsey more, I'm an eleven team, you think you
3:01
Speaker 1: think San Francisco, you're thinking more twenty one? Are you
3:04
Speaker 1: thinking us? Probably a little bit more multiple personnels. How
3:08
Speaker 1: they deploy those people is really interesting. But yeah, I
3:13
Speaker 1: think those things are common threads in dense splits. What
3:16
Speaker 1: does that allow those offenses to do well, It's a
3:20
Speaker 1: lot of things. I mean, the run game allows you
3:21
Speaker 1: to count for extra hats in the box a lot
3:24
Speaker 1: of times. It's free access in the past game, and
3:28
Speaker 1: like the action game, it's to create some of the
3:30
Speaker 1: same angles that you have in the run game, man, say,
3:35
Speaker 1: access timing hats in the run game. Probably the most
3:40
Speaker 1: those are challenges on defense like hey, how do you
3:43
Speaker 1: how do you play these things? And when your count
3:45
Speaker 1: changes in time, like how do you? How do you
3:46
Speaker 1: apply your rules? And unfortunately we get a lot of
3:49
Speaker 1: time on task that type of stuff.
3:51
Speaker 2: Clay Koubia moving into that OC rule that you're does
3:54
Speaker 2: that change anything about how you're evaluating what the Niners
3:57
Speaker 2: have put on tape offensively? I know it's still Shanahan system,
4:00
Speaker 2: but does that change anything?
4:02
Speaker 1: It's an interesting question. I don't. I don't see I don't.
4:05
Speaker 1: I haven't looked at it through that lens. It's tough
4:09
Speaker 1: to tell off Like in preseason nowadays, everybody just runs
4:12
Speaker 1: their base stuff and then you're gonna get some funk.
4:15
Speaker 1: I mean, there's gonna be a little bit of things.
4:17
Speaker 1: Things you're gonna pay attention to, maybe like you know,
4:20
Speaker 1: big big shifts in philosophy, or how they're using people
4:23
Speaker 1: or people that haven't played, maybe what positions they're playing,
4:26
Speaker 1: things like that. But you can't put too much stock
4:28
Speaker 1: into it, so that there's really not any sample size
4:31
Speaker 1: for us to go off of h from this year's
4:34
Speaker 1: you know, going into from last year. So that's that's
4:38
Speaker 1: one of the challenges you have. And a new coordinator
4:40
Speaker 1: like on their you know, their defense and their special teams.
4:43
Speaker 1: It's just hard to say, hey, it's different than like
4:45
Speaker 1: being in Week six, Hey we have a five game
4:47
Speaker 1: sample here where they've had enough time to kind of
4:50
Speaker 1: declare how they're going to operate, So you have to
4:53
Speaker 1: take down account as your game plan as you call
4:55
Speaker 1: the game.
4:56
Speaker 3: Has that changed a lot more in the last few
4:58
Speaker 3: years with the way teams are approaching the preseason.
4:59
Speaker 1: Now, I think so. Yeah. I mean normally, like when
5:02
Speaker 1: you had the you used to have the third preseason
5:04
Speaker 1: game that you'd use, you'd use those snaps as far
5:06
Speaker 1: as your breakdown or whenever their starters are in there,
5:08
Speaker 1: you'd have a higher sample size. So yeah, it's definitely shifted.
5:11
Speaker 3: Years ago, the forty nine ers were thirty first in
5:13
Speaker 3: the NFL and early down passing rate, and then the
5:17
Speaker 3: last few years they've reson up to thirteen. How do
5:20
Speaker 3: you kind of separate trends that you can trust and
5:23
Speaker 3: what's going on with a different team versus maybe aberrations?
5:25
Speaker 3: Are the things that that cost them to change there.
5:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's interesting. It's probably personnel driven. Uh probably speaks
5:32
Speaker 1: to their confidence in the quarterback party and how well
5:35
Speaker 1: he's playing and how decisively he plays. It's probably the
5:38
Speaker 1: number one thing, probably driver behind it. I think it's
5:41
Speaker 1: it's also different based on the team. You know what
5:44
Speaker 1: type of run pass tendencies, things like that. There's you
5:48
Speaker 1: can you can go down some deep holes now when
5:51
Speaker 1: you're trying to research, you know whether they're going to
5:54
Speaker 1: throw it or pass it, and those are those are
5:57
Speaker 1: like the risks that you're weighing in your mind as
5:59
Speaker 1: you're as you're calling games. And uh, yeah, it's interesting.
6:03
Speaker 1: I mean that's that's We spend a lot of our
6:05
Speaker 1: time on how you how you, how we call defenses
6:07
Speaker 1: and how they're going to operate. But youes my exposures
6:11
Speaker 1: with San Francisco in the last couple of years, it's
6:14
Speaker 1: very evident how confident they are in their quarterback.
6:17
Speaker 3: What stands out about Shanahan not necessarily the designer.
6:21
Speaker 1: Of an offense, but just the play caller on game days, Well,
6:24
Speaker 1: he just does a great job of keeping you off balance.
6:29
Speaker 1: They deploy their people different than probably any other team.
6:33
Speaker 1: So that's something that you have to It's a focal
6:35
Speaker 1: point of how you focus on them. Uh, people don't
6:39
Speaker 1: do conventional things out of their form out of like
6:41
Speaker 1: their respective formations. Mean, McCaffrey's are great, you know, use check.
6:45
Speaker 1: Those guys are great examples of moving They had depot
6:48
Speaker 1: great examples of how they use their people in unorthodox manners.
6:51
Speaker 1: You know. So, but he does a great job. I
6:54
Speaker 1: mean the stats prove it, the tape, the tape proves it.
6:56
Speaker 1: The discipline club, they played tough, they play physical, they
7:01
Speaker 1: do a lot of great stuff.
7:02
Speaker 4: How's Tory Horten doing?
7:04
Speaker 1: Still great? It's still great.
7:06
Speaker 4: You expect him to be full or limited ramp up
7:10
Speaker 4: or do you know what.
7:12
Speaker 1: We'll see We'll see today on how he ends up being.
7:18
Speaker 1: I guess described his practice participation.
7:21
Speaker 3: When you look back at a defensive game that you
7:24
Speaker 3: felt went well, how often is it the game plan
7:27
Speaker 3: you had going in that you think you credit that
7:29
Speaker 3: to versus adjustments.
7:31
Speaker 1: You make during the game. Well, I think initially the
7:33
Speaker 1: function if we can go in with a very simple,
7:36
Speaker 1: clear objective of what we're doing, that get that helps
7:38
Speaker 1: us get off to a fast start. But the NFL
7:40
Speaker 1: these days you have to do You have to do
7:42
Speaker 1: a great job at diagnosing of Hey, this is what
7:44
Speaker 1: they're trying to attack, this is what we're playing. Well,
7:46
Speaker 1: those are the things that we need to avoid. You're
7:48
Speaker 1: not gonna be perfect starting games out record shows that
7:52
Speaker 1: we're not perfect starting games trying to be better. But uh,
7:57
Speaker 1: it's both. It's it's it's how you start the game.
7:59
Speaker 1: The clarity can you start fast? And that's not just
8:04
Speaker 1: like whether or not you're in right places, it's you know,
8:05
Speaker 1: guys being There's a lot of things that go into
8:07
Speaker 1: how you start a game, how well your guys are playing,
8:09
Speaker 1: how well they execute, et cetera. But it's a lot
8:12
Speaker 1: of I would say it's there's decisions that are made
8:15
Speaker 1: throughout the game too that are critical and how well
8:17
Speaker 1: you end up closing games out.
8:19
Speaker 3: You need to see how you China doesn't practice this
8:21
Speaker 3: week to know if he's where he's gonna be for Sunday.
8:23
Speaker 1: Or Yeah, we'll just kind of like Chinna's situation play
8:27
Speaker 1: itself out right. Now, back to the starting with games.
8:30
Speaker 4: Do you tend to simplify and let the guys do less?
8:38
Speaker 1: I wouldn't say so. I don't want to call it
8:40
Speaker 1: like it's me it's simplifying, is more if you rephrase
8:44
Speaker 1: that like clear what we're trying to achieve, what we're
8:47
Speaker 1: calling that's that's we want to be really clear to
8:50
Speaker 1: start the game. But we're not gonna We're gonna do
8:54
Speaker 1: what we do.
8:56
Speaker 3: For the most part, guys created more on the blow
9:00
Speaker 3: pressures then most teams in the league last year, and
9:02
Speaker 3: against the forty nine ers, you got a particularly high
9:04
Speaker 3: rate of unblocked pressures.
9:06
Speaker 1: Does that mean like rushers that weren't accounted for or
9:09
Speaker 1: guys that won rushes? So is it boh, sorry, guys
9:13
Speaker 1: that had no blockers that there was no there was
9:15
Speaker 1: no one accounting for.
9:16
Speaker 3: To block them. Okay, So are all pressures created equal?
9:21
Speaker 2: You know?
9:22
Speaker 3: Pressure that way versus pressure?
9:23
Speaker 1: I think that that's a little bit of a I mean,
9:25
Speaker 1: it sounds cool, it sounds like we're doing cool stuff,
9:28
Speaker 1: but like I think it's a little misleading because the
9:34
Speaker 1: quarterbacks know when there's un block guys and if they
9:37
Speaker 1: have answers for it a lot of time that might
9:40
Speaker 1: not be the best thing for that situation. So sometimes
9:43
Speaker 1: it is. The better play is designing something where you
9:47
Speaker 1: can create a matchup or create a movement where you're
9:49
Speaker 1: gonna win and the quarterback thinks he has time, and
9:52
Speaker 1: it's really a function situation and the play that the
9:55
Speaker 1: offense is in. So it's cool to have guys and
9:58
Speaker 1: put pressure on quarterbacks be the clock up that. There's
10:00
Speaker 1: definitely a time and a place for that, and there's
10:02
Speaker 1: a time and place for Russian coverage or simulators or
10:07
Speaker 1: five man pressures where you're anticipating getting blocked and then
10:10
Speaker 1: you're trying to take advantage of how they're gonna block you. Protocol, yes,
10:16
Speaker 1: him clearance. Yeah, well we'll see how the protocol goes.
10:21
Speaker 2: When it comes to your run game, what do you
10:23
Speaker 2: like about where it is coming out of the preseason.
10:28
Speaker 1: Well, it's it's hard to judge. Off of the latest
10:31
Speaker 1: exposure in Grant City. I felt like we we that
10:34
Speaker 1: was the run game that we envisioned. For the most part,
10:37
Speaker 1: Green Bay felt like we could have ran in a
10:39
Speaker 1: little bit better in some spots. I think our practices
10:42
Speaker 1: have been on point sharp. So you know, today's a
10:45
Speaker 1: big day to kind of get a feel for we're at.
10:47
Speaker 1: But the guys are confident, Uh, just like I do
10:51
Speaker 1: feel like we continue to stack and move forward, which
10:54
Speaker 1: is which is all you can ask for at this
10:56
Speaker 1: point in this season.
10:57
Speaker 2: You mentioned that things are still getting calibrated and we
10:59
Speaker 2: want given all the unknowns. Does that change anything about
11:02
Speaker 2: the play calling or how you set up the game
11:04
Speaker 2: plan for Week one in particular?
11:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, sure, we want to. We wanna if you, if you,
11:11
Speaker 1: if you, if you practice stuff from April to August
11:15
Speaker 1: thirty first, then you say September one, All right, guys,
11:18
Speaker 1: we're gonna we're gonna take a right turn here and
11:20
Speaker 1: we're gonna go operate over here because it might be
11:24
Speaker 1: the best, you know, because these team operates a certain way,
11:27
Speaker 1: Like I think you're jacked up. You know you gotta
11:29
Speaker 1: you gotta keep it and you gotta keep it in
11:31
Speaker 1: your in your in your wheelhouse, so to speak. So
11:36
Speaker 1: of course you're gonna of course you're gonna have wrinkles
11:38
Speaker 1: and things that are towards the other team. But our
11:40
Speaker 1: philosophy is we want to we want to throw our
11:42
Speaker 1: fastballs as much as we can.
11:44
Speaker 5: In uh, in adjusting or analyzing how you did stuff
11:47
Speaker 5: last last year and maybe making changes for this year,
11:50
Speaker 5: did you alter anything about your week in terms of
11:52
Speaker 5: how you spend your time for a game week.
11:55
Speaker 1: I think it's the same sequence of things, Mike, but
11:57
Speaker 1: I think it's uh expedited where we're trying to get
12:01
Speaker 1: the solutions quicker so we can get to that end
12:03
Speaker 1: of the week and have a little bit more clarity
12:06
Speaker 1: earlier in the end of the week, which is a challenge.
12:08
Speaker 1: I mean, there's a lot of responsibilities for head coaches
12:11
Speaker 1: on Mondays and that comes with the territory. So that's
12:14
Speaker 1: something that you have to be able to work through
12:15
Speaker 1: and count on your staff to hope us a great
12:20
Speaker 1: ideas and set the table for you so when you
12:21
Speaker 1: start meeting together, you can make decisions quicker. And I
12:23
Speaker 1: think I think we're on that track.
12:25
Speaker 3: There's a pretty big disparity between home and road records
12:27
Speaker 3: last year. I'm curious when you look back at that,
12:29
Speaker 3: how much of that do you credit the opponents versus
12:32
Speaker 3: anything you guys could control to change that up.
12:34
Speaker 1: Well, we spent a lot of time studying it, and
12:37
Speaker 1: we're we're mean, we're constantly we're squeakers, you know, we're
12:41
Speaker 1: kind of we say, chasing edge. We're always trying to
12:43
Speaker 1: figure out what's the best way to do stuff. So
12:46
Speaker 1: I mean, we're tweaking our our way schedule too, we're
12:48
Speaker 1: treating our We've looked at our home operation from Friday
12:53
Speaker 1: to Sunday as something is different, as like how do
12:57
Speaker 1: we get the guys to eat more frequently? Like how
13:00
Speaker 1: do how can we how can we help control that?
13:02
Speaker 1: I mean those we're kind of looking at everything. So, yeah,
13:06
Speaker 1: there's definitely stuff that we've changed, but it's not again,
13:09
Speaker 1: it's not like wholesale shifts. You know, you're you're and
13:13
Speaker 1: I say, moving and shaking all the time about hey,
13:15
Speaker 1: what's what's just the best for us in this team?
13:18
Speaker 1: So yeah, we're making those decisions all the time, especially
13:20
Speaker 1: at home.
13:22
Speaker 3: Do you ask the team leaders or input play what's
13:24
Speaker 3: the player input on those changes?
13:27
Speaker 1: Uh? You know, Actually I got some great feedback. Hey,
13:30
Speaker 1: they say they they can encourage me to say whatever
13:33
Speaker 1: you feel like we need tell us, tell us on
13:35
Speaker 1: that and we'll do it. So they've they've been awesome,
13:38
Speaker 1: which is normally it's a little different than how you
13:39
Speaker 1: normally operate. Normally, you kind of give them a couple
13:42
Speaker 1: options and they picked the best one, or you run
13:44
Speaker 1: it by them first. But they encouraged me to just
13:46
Speaker 1: make the decision on this one.
13:47
Speaker 3: Did they changing your pregame routine that you guys are doing.
13:50
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's part of it. Yeah, absolutely, Yeah, it's been
13:52
Speaker 1: it's been fun like that. I mean, what you guys
13:56
Speaker 1: have great feedback, guys, guys really like it. What was
13:59
Speaker 1: the main perpose? I mean, I can't share the secrets, Bob.
14:03
Speaker 1: I mean there's there's some there's reasoning behind it. You know,
14:07
Speaker 1: there's we've done studies on other other sports and studies
14:11
Speaker 1: about like high performance and what allows you to you know,
14:15
Speaker 1: be at your best as soon as possible, and that
14:17
Speaker 1: that's that's those are the things that went into those decisions.
14:21
Speaker 3: Do you have a leadership council like you had last
14:23
Speaker 3: year and how much has that changed from who's on
14:25
Speaker 3: it last year?
14:27
Speaker 1: It's changed pretty big turnover. I mean the usual suspects,
14:31
Speaker 1: the vets that were here, you know, the the Leo's,
14:34
Speaker 1: the Jay Reeds of the world, they're still there. But
14:37
Speaker 1: there's it's it's a young group and it's really cool.
14:39
Speaker 1: I mean, we had a young football team, so you
14:41
Speaker 1: can be in year two or you can be in
14:42
Speaker 1: year ten. We kind of look at it through the
14:45
Speaker 1: same lens. But it's been an awesome group there there,
14:47
Speaker 1: they've been phenomenal.
14:49
Speaker 4: Lines of veteran leaders. Cooper Cup obviously we've fall seen
14:52
Speaker 4: the numbers and the production over the years. What does
14:54
Speaker 4: he bring just like kind of whether it's in the
14:56
Speaker 4: locker room or in the meeting room, Like, what does
14:58
Speaker 4: he bring with this team?
15:00
Speaker 1: I mean, credibility, credibility, A great football player. The probably
15:08
Speaker 1: the unspoken thing is he's been he's been around the
15:11
Speaker 1: block and he's seen it done at a high level,
15:13
Speaker 1: and he has and he has he's an independent thinker,
15:15
Speaker 1: so he's he's kind of like I just love that
15:18
Speaker 1: mentality of hey, like, I know we do it like this,
15:20
Speaker 1: but why can we tweak it or can we make
15:21
Speaker 1: this little better? I've seen it like this and so
15:24
Speaker 1: but it's always coming through a lens of respect and
15:26
Speaker 1: trying to do it the best way. And I think
15:28
Speaker 1: as a coach, if you have the same mentality, you
15:30
Speaker 1: can come up with some really great solutions. And I
15:33
Speaker 1: feel like we've done that several times since he's been here.
15:35
Speaker 1: So he's been an asset to me, he's been an
15:37
Speaker 1: asset to Clint, he's been an asset to our offense,
15:39
Speaker 1: and he's been an asset to our football team. The
15:42
Speaker 1: tweaks that you've made to like your operation is that
15:44
Speaker 1: did you seek the feedback from the leadership council or
15:46
Speaker 1: the team as a whole the operation like the on
15:50
Speaker 1: the like going into the weekend. Yeah, we just let
15:53
Speaker 1: him know we were looking into it, and then once
15:54
Speaker 1: we started to come up with ideas, we ran it
15:56
Speaker 1: by him. And they've been on board.
15:59
Speaker 5: And your talks with uh Shirm mic Rob Marshaw and
16:02
Speaker 5: the podcast stuff, they were interviewing you, But did you
16:04
Speaker 5: learn anything about them that you had?
16:06
Speaker 1: Now, it's weird for me to be on a podcast,
16:11
Speaker 1: not gonna lie like I mean here, you know me,
16:15
Speaker 1: I'm not like, I'm I'm pretty awkward. Like you know,
16:17
Speaker 1: you got a camera going, You're so it's once you
16:20
Speaker 1: kind of get past the fact that you're just having
16:21
Speaker 1: a conversation. Uh, hopefully there's some like but I was
16:26
Speaker 1: thinking a lot about that initially in the conversation. So,
16:29
Speaker 1: but I mean talk about just how luckier we how
16:31
Speaker 1: fortunately we have these Seahawk legends, you know, Hall of
16:35
Speaker 1: Fame guys that are invested in our team. You know,
16:38
Speaker 1: I want to spend time with us, and and I
16:41
Speaker 1: was really impressed by Like normally I was revetting to
16:43
Speaker 1: go on and kind of like shoot the breeze with them,
16:45
Speaker 1: but you could tell they've done their homework. They like thought.
16:47
Speaker 1: I thought the questions were like incredibly thoughtful and insightful,
16:50
Speaker 1: and shoot, I want to I want to go on
16:53
Speaker 1: there and hear what like Marshawan thought about stuff. You know,
16:55
Speaker 1: I want to know what shirm thinks about certain things.
16:57
Speaker 1: So hopefully that came through. But yeah, that was a
17:00
Speaker 1: lot of fun tyres Knight.
17:02
Speaker 5: Do you anticipate him being a full participant.
17:05
Speaker 1: Today, Uh, it'll it'll be either full or not. We're
17:12
Speaker 1: not he'll practice. Yeah, it's like last year. We had
17:25
Speaker 1: the same conversation last year. All right, thanks