Seahawks' Mike Macdonald getting national support for NFL Coach of the Year

Call it the Sam Darnold effect?

Last season Darnold led the Minnesota Vikings to a 14-3 record and Kevin O'Connell won NFL Coach of the Year. This year? Darnold has led the Seattle Seahawks to 14-3 and now there is building momentum for Mike Macdonald to win the coaching award.

As Wild Card Weekend looms, the NFC West champion and No. 1 seeded-Seahawks are resting and awaiting their opponent in the Divisional Round. During the lull, Macdonald is being mentioned as a strong Coach of the Year candidate.

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It's the 14-3 record. The versatile, dominant defense that suffocated the San Francisco 49ers' offense last weekend. And it's the tough mentality that has led Macdonald's team to going 15-2 on the road in his first two seasons.

ESPN NFL writer Bill Barnwell is casting his ballot for Macdonald, over runners-up Kyle Shanahan of the Niners and Ben Johnson of the Chicago Bears.

"Macdonald is a defensive wizard," he writes this week. "For the second year in a row, the Darnold-led offense is just on the right side of average, as the Seahawks are 14th in the league in EPA per play on offense. They finished just behind the Texans for second in EPA per play on defense, a figure only enhanced by what they did to Brock Purdy & Co. on Saturday night, holding the 49ers to three points -- the first time that has happened to a Shanahan-coached team since his first game as a head coach in 2017."

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Barnwell makes note of the rise of players such as Byron Murphy, Devon Witherspoon, Ty Okada and Drake Thomas. And also of Macdonald squeezing even more out of aging veterans such as Ernest Jones, DeMarcus Lawrence and Leonard Williams.

"Darnold and the offense have turned the ball over 28 times, the sort of figure that usually sinks a team by failing to come away with points and putting the defense in compromised positions as it tries to protect short fields," he writes. "But Macdonald's defense has been more than up to answering the bell. He has been the best coach in the league this season."

Mike Macdonald | Sergio Estrada-Imagn Images

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