Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald named among NFL's biggest Week 10 winners

When the Seattle Seahawks fired Pete Carroll after 14 successful years as head coach, it came as a shock. How would the Seahawks possibly find somebody who could not only keep the strong culture that Carroll had going but modernize their scheme to keep them competitive? How could they not end up missing Carroll and everything he accomplished?

Turns out, general manager John Schneider had somebody in mind. While the rest of the league hurried to fill their head coach vacancies, the Seahawks waited patiently. When the Baltimore Ravens were finally eliminated from the playoffs, they got their guy.

Fast forward a season and a half, and Mike Macdonald has proven better than advertised and has exceeded even the wildest expectations anyone might have had coming into the job.

Macdonald's latest win puts Seattle at 7-2 on the season and sets them up for a showdown with the Rams with control of the NFC lead on the line. For his efforts, Macdonald has been named one of the league's biggest winners from Week 10 by CBS Sports.

"One thing we don't talk enough about:, not only as new NFC West frontrunners but possible Super Bowl contenders. Maybe that will change after Sunday... Macdonald and his staff are making the most of a balanced lineup across the board."

In addition to making the most of his talents, Macdonald has the Seahawks competing at a high level every week despite a flurry of injuries on defense. Their secondary has had five healthy snaps together all season, their defensive line has had multiple pieces out and even without Ernest Jones in the lineup this week they still destroyed their competition.

Schematically Macdonald is brilliant, and he's obviously continued building on the culture Carroll had going, while tying up some of the messier ends like penalties, which are no longer a problem.

Aside from being too conservative on fourth and short - a flaw that Macdonald shares with Carroll - we can't even really think of something that Macdonald has control over that he could be doing better.

For a game as complicated as this, for a coach to have just one minor weakness is an incredible feat. The Seahawks made a grand slam hire, here - and we'd be surprised if Macdonald doesn't last 10 years and win a Super Bowl at some point - proably sooner rather than later.

Aug 15, 2025; Seattle, Washington, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald stands on the sideline during the second quarter at Lumen Field. | Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images

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