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Mike Macdonald: "There Is A Lot Of Room For Growth" · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: All right, Uh, good to see your buddying. It's great
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to be home.
• 0:05
  Speaker 2: But we we bet a great practice today. I wasn't
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: wasn't that hot, but guys, get after I thought we
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: practiced fast and started. You know, this is a big week
• 0:14
  Speaker 2: for us, kind of molding our team here before before
• 0:16
  Speaker 2: we played Cleveland and and then we'll move up forward
• 0:21
  Speaker 2: from here.
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: It's important to get Connor Williams out there. Started getting
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: a look at him in practice setting.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah. Like I said, you know, we have a plan
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: form to ramp them in and uh, it's good to
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: see him get a few reps today, and uh hopefully
• 0:32
  Speaker 2: we'll keep that that process growing as we Uh as
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: we head towards the season.
• 0:38
  Speaker 3: Did the film show you it looks like what did
• 0:41
  Speaker 3: the film show you?
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: The game? I think it was consistent from what we
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: said after the game. There's a lot there's a lot
• 0:48
  Speaker 2: of room for growth, which is optimistic way of saying,
• 0:51
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that we screwed up. Uh.
• 0:54
  Speaker 2: And you know, if you look at a positives like good,
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: all right, we know we got to work on let's
• 0:59
  Speaker 2: let's get after it.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: But uh, time sticking. There's a sense of urgency behind it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: We've got to make We've got to make some of
• 1:05
  Speaker 2: these things, Uh, make some of these mistakes go away
• 1:07
  Speaker 2: as we move forward. The guys know that and expect
• 1:10
  Speaker 2: some some big time jump here this week.
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: What did you think of christ And I thought it
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: looked good.
• 1:16
  Speaker 2: I look good. Thought Ab played well. I thought Christian
• 1:18
  Speaker 2: played well. They got a great battle going. But I
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: was pleased with the with the with the crew that
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: started out the.
• 1:24
  Speaker 3: Game for Respawn last week when he didn't start the
• 1:28
  Speaker 3: second day.
• 1:28
  Speaker 2: Off Aby Aby has been a pro about it. Uh,
• 1:32
  Speaker 2: just commended his attitude. Uh. Just I think you've seen,
• 1:36
  Speaker 2: uh he's he's stacked a couple of good practices and
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: in some good reps throughout the game. So uh, but
• 1:41
  Speaker 2: you know, we're still we're still we're still in it
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: right now. So you know, their competitions yet to be settled.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: Cursed are you.
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: Bellows and the friends? Throughout the preseason? Well, I'm pleased
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: with where we're on offense. Defensively not so much. I
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: don't know what the actual numbers where I think they're
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: like thirty something percent, but you know, count penalties and
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: then I think there's another stat like you know, the
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  Speaker 2: convert to like four to seven third and ten pluses,
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: which is like a huge no no.
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: So you know, we looked at our execution in those situations.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: You know, you can't be getting man penalties on third
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: and long in the fringe area, so you know, there's
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: there's a lot of room for growth on defense. I
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: thought we took a step back this week, so you know,
• 2:21
  Speaker 2: we gotta we gotta improved in that area moving forward.
• 2:24
  Speaker 3: On Bradford, there's a play that you may have shown
• 2:27
  Speaker 3: in the team film when he stuffed the pulling tight
• 2:29
  Speaker 3: end in the hole. And I'm sorry, I'm just.
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: Sharing, Derek, Okay, I was.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: I was trying to I was trying to put the
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: play together, and I was like, yeah, when Hall.
• 2:43
  Speaker 3: Breaks down a tight end or a league blocker like back,
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  Speaker 3: what how much it makes samples that exactly what you
• 2:49
  Speaker 3: get outside lineback.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: That's just talk about talk about how the style of
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: how we want to play.
• 2:54
  Speaker 2: That's it right there, art of contact, all the above.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Just just an all time great play from him and
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: just talking about how he just just eliminating space. That's
• 3:05
  Speaker 2: probably the best way to do it is to knock
• 3:07
  Speaker 2: the guy out.
• 3:08
  Speaker 3: That's the first road trip and h the first thirty
• 3:10
  Speaker 3: four years for the Seahawks, they only won ten AM games.
• 3:14
  Speaker 3: Under p Carelly won sixty percent. I'm curious if you
• 3:16
  Speaker 3: learned anything from traveling from Seattle to his first time
• 3:19
  Speaker 3: and anything you pick up from Pete Carroll.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Well, we do.
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  Speaker 2: I was very well aware of that stat and it's, uh,
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's a commend everybody involved in how they
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: how they've done it around done at a high level.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And we're trying to implement a lot of the same
• 3:33
  Speaker 2: methods that they've done in terms of when we're traveling,
• 3:36
  Speaker 2: the sleep you know, the sleep schedules, things like that.
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: So you know, hopefully we keep the trend going and uh,
• 3:41
  Speaker 2: hopefully we improve on it.
• 3:43
  Speaker 3: That's Derek call. How have you seen he talks about
• 3:45
  Speaker 3: the pass rush being somewhere he wants to grow the
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  Speaker 3: most from last year. Have you seen him improved as
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  Speaker 3: a pass rush?
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  Speaker 2: Well, I'm I just I'm glad that he's improved his
• 3:56
  Speaker 2: entire his entire game as a football player. And then
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: you can play them all three downs. You know, his
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: fastball is power on the edge, so use it. You know,
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: it's okay, It's okay to do things that you're good
• 4:08
  Speaker 2: at and then have a change up. I mean, people
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  Speaker 2: have all these moves these days off the edge, and
• 4:13
  Speaker 2: that's good, but there's only so many that you're able
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: to throw. So we encourage guys to have their fastball,
• 4:18
  Speaker 2: then you know, have a change up or two off
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  Speaker 2: of it. But I think you've seen the power and
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: then you know how we're running our games and how
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  Speaker 2: we're kind of rushing. For as one, I think he's
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  Speaker 2: generating a feel for what we expect and the timing
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  Speaker 2: of some of the movements and things like that. So
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: as a whole, I thought our pass rush has improved.
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  Speaker 2: You know, we have to we have to be careful
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  Speaker 2: getting past the quarterback and they'll step up lanes, which
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  Speaker 2: have happened a few times in the preseason, but.
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  Speaker 1: Not unnatural right now.
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  Speaker 2: And where that you're at with the learning curve and
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  Speaker 2: guys rushing the way that we're rushing contact, that was
• 4:53
  Speaker 2: a Jay harbaught teach the game right there in training camp.
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  Speaker 1: So shout out to Jay.
• 4:57
  Speaker 3: How have you seen three Russell birds? It's really keying
• 5:01
  Speaker 3: special teams district.
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: Kind of the tight ends the same thing as well.
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  Speaker 2: There's been some opportunities there with guys being banged up,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: and I think, talk about a guy that just forces
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: his way on at the field. I mean, just keep
• 5:13
  Speaker 2: making plays. Man, Steve Smith Senior make a play a day.
• 5:17
  Speaker 2: Seems like the ball finds him in areas and he
• 5:19
  Speaker 2: makes the play when it came to him and we
• 5:20
  Speaker 2: had to drop on the sideline, but he made it
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: right there at the end of the half. And then
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: just being able to play in line too and do
• 5:27
  Speaker 2: some of the movement stuff we're doing with the tight ends.
• 5:29
  Speaker 2: Hopefully that hopefully we find a role for him, you know,
• 5:31
  Speaker 2: if everything shakes out with.
• 5:33
  Speaker 3: Most of the starters obviously.
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: Not playing this upcoming dame this weekend.
• 5:38
  Speaker 2: Was kind of the plan for the week and well
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: I didn't necessarily say that yet, So we'll see about.
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: We'll see about this weekend. Sol still up in the
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: air right now.
• 5:48
  Speaker 3: Coach, you have a chance to make here fourth down
• 5:50
  Speaker 3: you call at the end of that game. I'm curious
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  Speaker 3: if that's the same process you go through for a
• 5:54
  Speaker 3: regular season game or anything you would change mon.
• 5:56
  Speaker 2: Uh, same process, Yes, same decision. Don't don't know, you
• 6:00
  Speaker 2: know how how things change. You know, there's all the
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: numbers involved, we've debriefed on it. It turned out to
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: be about even whether to go go forward or not.
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  Speaker 2: But you know when you go backwards on you know
• 6:12
  Speaker 2: after a half yard line, figured give a jade my
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: another shot and put it in the defensive hands to
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  Speaker 2: go close it out.
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  Speaker 1: And we didn't do that in a situation like that.
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  Speaker 1: Do you have somebody in your ear telling you the
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  Speaker 1: probabilities or is that all we have?
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  Speaker 2: Like we have language that we share, so you're not
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  Speaker 2: you know, it's not this convoluted like math equation or whatever.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: But Brian Airs gives me that, give.
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  Speaker 2: It to me in real time, and those are things
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  Speaker 2: that you know going into that series of downs. So
• 6:37
  Speaker 2: I kind of knew what we were going to do
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  Speaker 2: based off the result of the play and based on
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  Speaker 2: how it shakes out.
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  Speaker 1: Then you make a final decision, like.
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  Speaker 2: I said, like we'll let the data drive a lot
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  Speaker 2: of the information we're gonna do, but at the end.
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  Speaker 1: Of the day, you gotta make you get to make
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  Speaker 1: a call.
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  Speaker 2: It's what you feel is best for your team and
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  Speaker 2: what's your what's best to you know, win the game.
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  Speaker 2: So it's gets a balancing act. It's not one thing
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  Speaker 2: or another all the time in that.
• 6:58
  Speaker 3: Moment, did you want to give bas My if you
• 7:00
  Speaker 3: could give Jason I another shot?
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  Speaker 1: That was part of the decision making.
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  Speaker 2: I don't think that was probably not the biggest, uh
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  Speaker 2: biggest reason behind it, but yeah, that was part of it,
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  Speaker 2: and I had confidence. Who's gonna make it now? I
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: like the Pharaoh timeline I think is still the same
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: from what I told you after the game.
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  Speaker 1: I don't think anything else has changed.
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  Speaker 3: What do you see for being.
• 7:28
  Speaker 2: Yeah, any anytime you get more reps, especially you know,
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  Speaker 2: you kind of club up there with the ones and
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: show what you can do. That's those are those are
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: viable reps, so treat them like gold and take advantage
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  Speaker 2: of them. And and Brady's done that, so expect them
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  Speaker 2: to keep doing it.
• 7:40
  Speaker 3: You've gotten some live reps in their turn game, which
• 7:42
  Speaker 3: is where do you feel like you're out in those
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  Speaker 3: competitions for fun.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: And kick return there? Oh yeah, that's a great question.
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  Speaker 1: We're not there yet.
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  Speaker 2: On special teams, our our return units, we've generated a
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  Speaker 2: couple of explosive returns which are exciting, but our cover
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  Speaker 2: teams need to improve.
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  Speaker 1: Just it's football as pure ast form man like.
• 8:02
  Speaker 2: Our fundamentals need to be better how we leverage the football,
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  Speaker 2: how we get off blocks.
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: Uh, we need to improve in those areas. You've hinted
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: at it. But can you clarify what your plan is
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: for this weekend? For who you plan to play.
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: I'm gonna I'm gonna talk to some of the guys today.
• 8:15
  Speaker 2: I have a pretty good idea, but I don't want
• 8:16
  Speaker 2: to confirm it with them before I say anything publicly.
• 8:20
  Speaker 3: Do you plan on hav an aibe for the opener?
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Who's that abe? Right now? I probably don't want to
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: answer that question. In general?
• 8:28
  Speaker 3: How do you feel about where your whole line is?
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Feel good? I mean they're coming, they're coming together.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: You know, we're still we're still bounding out there at guard.
• 8:40
  Speaker 2: But I think I think you've seen improvement throughout, especially
• 8:43
  Speaker 2: in the last week from Wednesday to Thursday to Saturday.
• 8:46
  Speaker 2: So I'll expect that that growth here over the next
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: couple of weeks.
• 8:50
  Speaker 3: Hypothetically, if one of your right guards shows he's a
• 8:53
  Speaker 3: better pass blocker and one shows he's a better run blocker,
• 8:55
  Speaker 3: is there any preference about which is a higher priority
• 8:58
  Speaker 3: for you?
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  Speaker 2: Uh?
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: Uh, I don't think so.
• 9:02
  Speaker 2: What is Williams given you didn't have it.
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: Center about Connor. Yes, I don't think it's anything we
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: didn't have.
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: It's just I guess I said, when we're talking about
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: bringing any player, you're you're saying, hey, we think this
• 9:14
  Speaker 2: is a heck of a player that can help us.
• 9:16
  Speaker 2: And that's the way we feel about Connor, you know.
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: But we also expect him to do the things that
• 9:21
  Speaker 2: he does well on the move, block past block, making
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: the calls, you know, taking charge up there. So it's
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: not it's not anything against the other guys. It's it's
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: more of a vote of confidence in him and what
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: kind of guy we think he is at the field
• 9:35
  Speaker 2: of Sam.
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: What do you put it differ from Sam hall Man.
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: I thought he was efficient with the ball.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: There's a couple of decisions, you know, we looked at
• 9:42
  Speaker 2: and we said, hey, we could have made another decision,
• 9:44
  Speaker 2: you know, pre snap.
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: But for the for the most part, Man, we moved
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: the ball. I thought pretty well. I thought we could
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: start drives a little bit better, but.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: Just getting it out of his hand, getting to the playmakers,
• 9:54
  Speaker 2: making good decisions in the run, game protections. I thought
• 9:57
  Speaker 2: he was sharp, kind of excited to see play this
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: up kind of game That's an easy one. Everybody, bro, everybody.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Did did you learn anything?
• 10:08
  Speaker 3: Uh when you from the debrief with AD orl after
• 10:10
  Speaker 3: they got a chance to call the game, maybe learned
• 10:12
  Speaker 3: something about your scheme or how you wanna address certain things.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: I think you're just you're constantly saying, hey, what was
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: the thought here? And sometimes you know, like you're calling
• 10:25
  Speaker 2: the game in your head. I am, at least while
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: while they're calling it. And there's a lot of a
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: lot of things that were congruent. And there's some things
• 10:31
  Speaker 2: where I was like, hey, you know, what were you
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: thinking in those situations? And and uh, to the guy's credit,
• 10:35
  Speaker 2: they had reasons and thought there were sounded just you know,
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: just kind of manifests itself a little bit differently.
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: Everything out okay, alright, thanks guys,