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Head Coach Mike Macdonald Previews The Upcoming Week 7 Matchup vs. Chiefs · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: All right.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: Good to see everybody. Hope we're doing well. Happy Wednesday.
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: Really looking forward to today's practice. I feel like it's
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: been a while since we've been really out there.
• 0:18
  Speaker 2: Expect a great practice today. Should be fun.
• 0:21
  Speaker 3: Mike, screens. Andy Reid's known for them. Obviously K9 is
• 0:26
  Speaker 3: known for them as well. You guys have had some
• 0:28
  Speaker 3: challenges there. How do you How do you take steps
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: against that part.
• 0:31
  Speaker 4: Of the game?
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: Yeah, we looked at the screens over the weekend.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: I think there's a couple big plays that distort the–
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: it's like every old school defensive coordinator is like, if
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: you take out all the bad plays, you're playing great defense.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: So it's part of the– offenses are allowed to run
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: any play they want to, and our job is to
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: stop it.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: So it will always be a point of assist for us.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: It's a team play.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: It's not any individual player, and we've got to do
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: a great job identifying it and getting everybody to the party.
• 1:06
  Speaker 5: With Ken, what do you think of the start he's
• 1:07
  Speaker 5: off to in Kansas City?
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Off to a tremendous start. Stats back it up. Tape
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: definitely backs it up. He's playing great football.
• 1:18
  Speaker 3: Did they use him in a different way than you did?
• 1:23
  Speaker 4: Did you notice anything that's not what you saw him
• 1:26
  Speaker 4: use in Seattle?
• 1:27
  Speaker 2: They're They're executing their offense, and he's moving the ball.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: He's scoring. He's doing a great job.
• 1:36
  Speaker 5: They're under center a lot more this year than last,
• 1:39
  Speaker 5: or at least more frequently.
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: Yeah, probably more frequently than they have in the past, yeah.
• 1:42
  Speaker 3: How does that help a running back, and how does
• 1:44
  Speaker 3: that hinder a defense in a run game?
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: I think it's a methods principle saying I think there's
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: been really effective teams that have run out of the gun.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I know that the trend nowadays is for more under center.
• 1:59
  Speaker 1: Certain runs are probably better out of certain sets. It
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: also sets up different parts of your game. You move people,
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: and that provides limitations on things that you can and
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: can't do. It's just how everything's set up. They're blocking
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: it well under center. Ken's seeing it great, and he's
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: running at a high level.
• 2:27
  Speaker 4: Coached against Andy several times and they brought Eric Biennemi
• 2:30
  Speaker 4: back this year. How do you see him having an
• 2:33
  Speaker 4: impact in their offense returning there? How do you see
• 2:37
  Speaker 4: him having an influence.
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: On what they're doing?
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  Speaker 1: It's been a couple years since we went up against
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: the Chiefs. I have a lot of respect for Coach Biennemi.
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: He's a great football coach. Andy Reid's obviously probably the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: best there is football coach.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: It's a It's quite a tag team. I can speak
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: for this year.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: They're playing really complimentary football. They're playing team football. They're
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: staying ahead of the sticks. They're very, very efficient. They're
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: also the most explosive offense in the league. Very few penalties,
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: very few takeaways. They're a great unit.
• 3:17
  Speaker 5: Mahomes is obviously coming off the injury and all that.
• 3:20
  Speaker 5: Does it seem like he's doing any different stylistically or
• 3:22
  Speaker 5: anything than he was when he was younger, when you
• 3:23
  Speaker 5: faced him before?
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Well, I I mean, if he didn't know, it'd be
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: hard to tell off the tape that he's dealt with
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: what he's dealt with, which is impressive.
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: You know, he's kind of like Zach in terms of
• 3:34
  Speaker 2: the timetable. He's playing at a high level.
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: He's very decisive on early downs, getting the ball out
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: of his hands, executing their RPO game at a high level.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: All the stuff they're doing under center, like Greg was saying,
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: is not saying new, but probably a little bit more emphasized,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: which is impressive. Understand, like, you know, you've got to–
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: probably physically tougher on the QB to, um, work from
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: under center. So that, that speaks to his health. So, um,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: then he's, then he's doing his thing and when it's
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: time to pass. So, um, it's like the Pat Mahomes
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: to me.
• 4:09
  Speaker 4: When you look at Kansas city's defense, what do you
• 4:11
  Speaker 4: see in pressure rates versus the sacks?
• 4:13
  Speaker 5: Cause those, I think those numbers.
• 4:15
  Speaker 3: Aren't quite matching up.
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I'll just, I can speak to my experience with,
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: with coach bags. Um, He's a heck of a football coach.
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: His track record speeds for it.
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: They're very aggressive. He does a great job game planning.
• 4:31
  Speaker 2: His team plays on one accord.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: They have an identity and style of play that you respect.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: And they definitely have.
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  Speaker 2: Chief's fingerprints on their tape, which is a compliment to them.
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  Speaker 3: When you've studied all the defensive great coordinators over the years,
• 4:51
  Speaker 3: When you look at Spagnuolo, what does he do that
• 4:53
  Speaker 3: allows him to create pressure in all these big games
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  Speaker 3: and big moments?
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  Speaker 1: I think he has a great understanding of systematically how
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: to approach a team rather than just.
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: You know.
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  Speaker 1: I think sometimes when you turn the tape on, there's
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of pressures and there's a lot of things
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: like flying and magic. You can mistake it by saying
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: that they're just kind of throwing paint against the wall,
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: but I think I think really the opposite is true
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  Speaker 1: on how targeted he is.
• 5:23
  Speaker 2: So it speaks to Spaggs.
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: I know a few other guys on his staff, they
• 5:27
  Speaker 1: have a great staff, and they've been doing it really
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: at a high level for a long time. So again,
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: nothing but respect for those guys.
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  Speaker 3: They've kind of killed outside zone defensively. You guys major
• 5:41
  Speaker 3: in that. You've actually had more success with some of
• 5:43
  Speaker 3: the man runs when you've done it, but it's not
• 5:45
  Speaker 3: your major. How do you kind of balance sticking with
• 5:49
  Speaker 3: your major versus adjusting to opponent? How does that work?
• 5:53
  Speaker 2: I think it's a scale.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: I think just systematically, our philosophy is we always want
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: to keep it within our wheelhouse, and then we'll kind
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: of target within the wheelhouse towards our opponent. From really
• 6:08
  Speaker 1: reviewing our run game this weekend, I think we can
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: still run wide zone at a high level It's a
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: little bit more, there's a little bit more variance than
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: you probably want, but it does kind of come with
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: the territory to a certain extent.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: But we're.
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  Speaker 1: Going to be able to, I mean, we're going to
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: run wide zone against everybody. How much, you know, it
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: goes into each game plan, obviously. And then, you know,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: how you sprinkle in all the other types of run
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: concepts is both a matter of, you know, who we
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: have structurally, where they go, what you expect from them
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: in terms of how they're going to defend certain sets,
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: that sort of thing.
• 6:43
  Speaker 5: Speaking of that, what's been your assessment of the offensive
• 6:46
  Speaker 5: line so far?
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: I think you could fill in the blank for our
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: football team right now. I think the effort is there.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I think the attitude is there, intense there. But there's
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: room for growth. So I'd like to see us take
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: another step this week, really just in terms of decisiveness
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: and targeting and then going to let it rip. you know,
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: and trust in our guys' ability because we've got some
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: good players.
• 7:18
  Speaker 5: How do you do that?
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  Speaker 4: Do you go back and look at plays from earlier
• 7:21
  Speaker 4: in the season or from last year, or.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Is it just a conversation? Individual conversations, that could be
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: on the table for sure.
• 7:31
  Speaker 3: When you see a player who you've seen for a
• 7:34
  Speaker 3: season or longer play a certain level and then they're
• 7:38
  Speaker 3: not playing on that level over the last, you know,
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: however many games.
• 7:41
  Speaker 2: Yep.
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: Where does your mind go to try to figure out
• 7:43
  Speaker 3: why there's a change in performance?
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: As a coach, our natural inclination is that we can
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: do something about it. We take a lot of pride
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: in being able to get the best out.
• 7:55
  Speaker 2: Of our players.
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: If we're not achieving that or it's not congruent, then
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: the first thing we're going to do is look at
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: what we're doing, what we can do better to help
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the player out. Obviously, having a relationship with the player
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: and having that connection to understand what are their– what's
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: going on input-wise on their end, I think that goes
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: a long way as well.
• 8:14
  Speaker 2: So that's our approach.
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  Speaker 1: And then it's just, you know, it's just through and
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: not around type conversations of, you know, instead of just
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: being like, you're going to play better, it's like, well,
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: how do we help you play better? You know, what
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: are the things that we can do that are under
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: our control to nail it, you know, and take those steps.
• 8:32
  Speaker 5: Mike, do you expect Drake to practice today?
• 8:35
  Speaker 2: Drake's not going to practice today, no.
• 8:37
  Speaker 5: This is a very basic question, but I hope you
• 8:39
  Speaker 5: give a detailed answer or somewhat detailed answer.
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: What makes a run defense good or what makes a
• 8:45
  Speaker 2: team good at stopping the run? Fundamentals.
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Blocking and tackling. There's different ways to do it. Kansas
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: City defends the run. They have a different kind of
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: structure than we do and they do it at a
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: high level. I think it's a thorough understanding of of
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  Speaker 1: how they're going to fit things and what they're going
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to call and what type of structures they want to
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: be in. And that's probably predicated off of things that
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: they believe in and their, their personnel for us, you know,
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: I think it's the same thinking, what our personnel is,
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: some of the things that we believe in and what
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: we feel comfortable teaching. I think that the through line though,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: is just fundamentals like, you know, block destruction, how you're
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: going to play blocks, how you're going to leverage the football.
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: It's not just the front, you know, I mean, you see,
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: ball gets out it's either a missed tackle or multiple
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: missed tackles or a bad leverage or a bad angle
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: by the third level player so it's got to be
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: team defense I think.
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  Speaker 4: It's that it's just you say you want to start
• 9:45
  Speaker 4: fast that's a that's a product of being decisive.
• 9:48
  Speaker 2: And controlling I think it's that.
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: You say you want to start fast, that's a product
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: of being decisive. You can't control starting fast. You can
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: control your mentality, how well you're on your assignments, how
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: well we're aligned to what we're going to call and when.
• 10:08
  Speaker 2: Those are the things that we can take a step in.
• 10:12
  Speaker 4: I'm sorry, go ahead. You guys have been in two
• 10:16
  Speaker 4: back personnel, less than 10 plays the last couple games.
• 10:19
  Speaker 4: Has that been more about just the product of who
• 10:21
  Speaker 4: you guys are playing and game planning, or is it
• 10:23
  Speaker 4: something where you guys are trying to figure out how
• 10:26
  Speaker 4: you can filter that more back into the offense, especially
• 10:28
  Speaker 4: since Robbie hasn't been available this year?
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: I think it's been multiple things. I wouldn't discount it.
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: That's something that we're not going to go back to.
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: So that's definitely still on the table to be in
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: 21 and have Brady be out there.
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: Brady's played good football for us.
• 10:45
  Speaker 4: We know the why, Mike, the why of Kenneth Walker's
• 10:48
  Speaker 4: in Kansas City, but from a football perspective, have you
• 10:51
  Speaker 4: had second thoughts or what-ifs or anything about that?
• 10:56
  Speaker 2: I'll just say, like, I.
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: Love Ken. I thoroughly enjoyed him being on our football team.
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: We've had some great, like, one-on-one conversations. I feel like
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: we have a great relationship. I respect the heck out
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: of him. I'm happy for him. Obviously, we have to
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: do a great job of stopping him this week. But
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: I think there's mixed emotions in terms of, like, you're
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: happy for him, but also, hey, we're trying to figure
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: out ways to stop this guy, too, because he's playing
• 11:29
  Speaker 1: at a really high level.
• 11:31
  Speaker 4: How did it end? Because you went to Disneyland with him,
• 11:34
  Speaker 4: if I remember, after the Super Bowl.
• 11:37
  Speaker 3: Was there a departure, a chance to say goodbye, or
• 11:40
  Speaker 3: any of that?
• 11:40
  Speaker 5: Or did he just leave with his decision, and that
• 11:42
  Speaker 5: was that?
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: I think for everybody after the Superbowl, no one's really
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: hanging out, but yeah, we, we drove, we had this big,
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: we had a media session.
• 11:50
  Speaker 2: We, it was just us in the, you know, in
• 11:52
  Speaker 2: the band for like an hour.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: I mean, we're talking all sorts of stuff, you know, um,
• 11:57
  Speaker 1: really nothing about football. So that, that's, that's what I'm
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: referencing is just, um, I have nothing but great memories for,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: can we appreciate the heck out of them guys?
• 12:05
  Speaker 2: Superbowl MVP helps win a championship.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Um, these things happen, you know, we just gotta, we
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: have to move forward now, but, um, Got nothing but
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: great things and great memories of Ken.
• 12:18
  Speaker 5: Mike, to follow up on Tim's question about their run defense,
• 12:21
  Speaker 5: you talk about everybody doing their 1.09 for 12-1. The
• 12:25
  Speaker 5: style of defense you play, a lot of too high safeties.
• 12:29
  Speaker 5: The work the guys have to do up front and
• 12:30
  Speaker 5: run defensive, I guess it's kind of how intricate is
• 12:33
  Speaker 5: that and what they're able to do that allows you
• 12:34
  Speaker 5: to play the way you want.
• 12:36
  Speaker 2: Well, I'd say it's not as intricate as you might imagine.
• 12:40
  Speaker 1: It's just a hard ask, you know, and It takes
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: great players to do that. It takes great coaches to
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: get that done and get the guys to buy in
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to play that way. We try to take stress off,
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: believe it or not, we do try to take stress
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: off our defense, our D linemen as much as we can.
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: But I'd say it's more of like a targeted approach,
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: but it definitely starts up front with how we play.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: We've played our best football.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: Those guys are on fire and they're playing great and
• 13:05
  Speaker 1: they set the tone for the rest of the defense.
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: And I think they're the first ones to say like,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: when we're not meeting up to our standard, they could
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: play better as well.
• 13:13
  Speaker 2: So they're great guys, great attitude. They set the tone
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: for us.
• 13:16
  Speaker 3: This may not be the best question for you, but
• 13:19
  Speaker 3: like in terms of men in the box on defense,
• 13:21
  Speaker 3: you tend to like to have a lighter box there.
• 13:24
  Speaker 3: How much of it is determined by the quality of
• 13:27
  Speaker 3: the run game that a team's going against versus the
• 13:29
  Speaker 3: quality of the backfield? Who's in the backfield?
• 13:32
  Speaker 2: Well, I would say like.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: Not all coverage structures, like more people doesn't equal better
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: run defense. There's ways to manipulate who has.
• 13:45
  Speaker 2: Who and wherever.
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: You put everybody in here, out here is lighter. You know,
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: you drain this guy out, it's the same amount of
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: guys and you're having to split safety. It's not like
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: one-to-one all the time. You know, we used to think like, hey,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: we just blitz the run.
• 14:01
  Speaker 2: We know it's run. Why don't we just blitz 11 guys?
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: Like, well, a guy gets cut out and the ball
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: is out the gate and you thought you were sweet
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: for blitzing it, but somebody, you know. the result doesn't
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: tell you you're sweet. So I think that answers your question.
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: I think it's more of like a what we do well,
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: who we have type of thing. A lot of times
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: the routes drives your front, your coverage opportunities as well.
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: You can look at it from a top-down perspective as well.
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: If you're in split safety, you tend to have a
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: little bit more layers to your defense, a little more overlap.
• 14:39
  Speaker 2: You know, that's why we tend to go a certain
• 14:41
  Speaker 2: certain direction.
• 14:42
  Speaker 5: Well, I'm just curious What was that van ride like
• 14:44
  Speaker 5: to the MVP press conference the morning after?
• 14:46
  Speaker 2: Gonna get any better. You just won the Super Bowl.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: You're hanging out with the MVP life's good Yeah, it
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: was awesome He.
• 14:56
  Speaker 2: Was with us. Okay, and you didn't talk about the
• 14:59
  Speaker 2: game at all.
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: Of course we did Yeah, I mean, but you know,
• 15:01
  Speaker 1: we're not talking about future or anything.
• 15:03
  Speaker 2: Yeah Ends a history buff talk little history.
• 15:08
  Speaker 5: His workload, he's on track for a career high in carries.
• 15:10
  Speaker 5: Is that at all surprising for you that he's able
• 15:12
  Speaker 5: to handle that volume of work so far?
• 15:15
  Speaker 2: No.
• 15:19
  Speaker 4: Thank you.