Mike Macdonald Has Interesting Comments on Versatility

The Seattle Seahawks drafted multiple players on day three who can play different positions and that will be important on Sunday's this fall.

Mar 26, 2024; Orlando, FL, USA; Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald speaks to the media / Nathan Ray Seebeck-USA TODAY Sports

The Seattle Seahawks finalized their 2024 NFL Draft class with a draft class of eight players. They also made six selections on day three with a focus on versatility and improving depth at premium positions.

There was also a theme in taking Auburn defenders in selecting cornerbacks Nehemiah Pritchett and D.J. James just one year after taking Derrick Hall in the second round. They both provide some needed depth at the cornerback position. They give the Seahawks some flexibility to end up playing on the back end or allow Coby Bryant to shift to the safety position.

Auburn cornerback DJ James 4 makes an interception as the LSU Tigers take on the Auburn Tigers at / SCOTT CLAUSE/USA TODAY Network / USA

Head coach Mike Macdonald just finished his first NFL Draft with the Seahawks and spoke about the element of versatility being important.

"Of course it's important because you're going to ask guys to do multiple
things on any given down, but I think if you think big-picture, yeah, we want to be able to put
guys in position to do what they want, what they can do best, so guys that have an elite trait,
we're going to try to do that as much as we can, but if you can do more than one thing, now all of
a sudden we can present the same looks and do multiple things out of those looks and create
match-ups that we're trying to create. So, yeah, it's this one big moving puzzle. If you have more
options you can get to more stuff more easily and you're creating better match-ups for your guys and ultimately you're in a better spot to win each situation that's given. So kind of a convoluted
answer but that's how we see it."

This is the direction that the National Football League is moving, as putting players in position to succeed and capitalize on their traits and abilities are more important than fitting into a system. Talent matters a lot more due to the athletic ability that they possess compared to past years.

The fascinating part about the discussion about versatility was the follow up question Macdonald got about intelligence and instinct, which he points out is a couple of convoluted ideas in football terms.

"A couple convoluted things back-to-back there. Yeah, you want smart football players that can adapt and adjust but when we've moved guys and they're playing 17 positions and I come up here and brag to you about how our guys are moving around, it's like, well, is that best for the player? Is he going to be able to play his best football if he's playing 17 positions? I don't think that's the right answer for you. But if he's playing a couple things that he can play really well but it's complementary I think we're in our wheel house there if that makes sense. When we say versatile, it's not like they're doing a thousand things. It's just a complementary menu where you can kind of keep it moving and keeping the offense off balance."

The intriguing part of the Seahawks defense moving forward will be in the back seven. An interesting concept that Macdonald might look to is how Brian Flores used three safeties on nearly every snap in 2023 for the Minnesota Vikings. The group does have talent but unique positional concepts like what Flores used could become the norm for Seattle.