Albert Breer's Notes: How the Macdonald-Schneider Partnership Works for the Seahawks

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Seattle Seahawks
Drake Maye and Sam Darnold
Charlie Weis Jr.
Matt Nagy
Hall of Fame
Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Atlanta Falcons
18-game schedule
Tom Brady

Five days to go …

Seattle Seahawks

Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald dropped an interesting nugget in his Tuesday press conference when he was asked about his GM, John Schneider. Macdonald offered up that as he was going through the head coach interview circuit in 2024, sitting down with the Falcons, Panthers, Chargers, Titans, Commanders and, of course, Seattle, the mentors he was leaning on were consistent on one particular thing.

“They said, to a man, ‘You gotta go work with that guy,’” Macdonald recounted.

It’s interesting, too, because both Super Bowl rosters were born of these sorts of arranged marriages, with Eliot Wolf being a holdover from the old regime when Mike Vrabel arrived in New England. And if you go back to the conference championship round, the other two finalists were as well—with GM Les Snead having predated Sean McVay in Los Angeles, and GM George Paton having predated Sean Payton in Denver.

The key, to me, to all this working has been that the head coach came in with a defined vision in what he was looking for, which gave the GM a clear roadmap in how to build the football operation up. And in Seattle, that really came together this year.

In fact, back in the summer, that was one of the things you heard over and over again—that Seattle’s roster has become a reflection of what Macdonald was building, much more so than it was in 2024. And that’s manifested, of course, with what’s played out on the field, with an incredibly connected and cohesive team, and one that added guys like Sam Darnold, DeMarcus Lawrence, Cooper Kupp, Grey Zabel and Nick Emmanwori to fill the vision out.

There’s a good lesson there, too, in that total change isn’t always the best change.

In this case, Seahawks ownership knew the level of GM it had, trusting Schneider to guide the ship forward, which eventually led the team to Macdonald and, now, the Super Bowl.

Drake Maye and Sam Darnold

Wednesday will be a significant day for both quarterbacks from an injury standpoint, in that it’s the first full day of practice of the week—the Seahawks had a walkthrough, and the Patriots had a lighter practice on Monday.

For Drake Maye, in particular, how his right shoulder responds after a light week last week and a normal Monday throwing regimen will be worth paying attention to. He was limited for one practice, and missed another (that one was due to an illness), last week, so getting him back up to full participation (he said he took his normal reps Monday) will be key.

As for Darnold, he’s now nearly three weeks separated from the oblique injury he suffered during practice headed into the divisional, so it’s worth paying attention to whether that one is even on the injury report at all on Wednesday.

Charlie Weis Jr.

LSU offensive coordinator Charlie Weis Jr. got interest from both the Eagles and Giants OC jobs, and respectfully bowed out of both searches to remain in Baton Rouge after following Lane Kiffin there a few weeks ago. And the reason for it, I’m told, is more about players than coaches. Both Arizona State transfer Sam Leavitt and USC transfer Husan Longstreet were coming in under the impression Weis would coach them. So Weis made the decision to keep his word, despite the connections he had with both those NFL teams.

In each of those cases, Weis had worked with the quarterback previously—He was with Jalen Hurts as a young assistant at Alabama in 2015 and ‘16, and he coached Jaxson Dart from ‘22–24 at Ole Miss. The links to the Giants actually even went a step further than that, since his dad, Charlie Sr., got his start as an NFL coach there from 1990–92.

So I’d imagine it was pretty difficult to say no. But credit to Weis for keeping his word to LSU’s new quarterbacks—and put his name down as a guy to watch going forward. He’s only 32 years old. He’s got plenty of time to get to the NFL.

Matt Nagy

I really like the Giants’ hire of ex-Chiefs OC Matt Nagy, for whatever it’s worth. And I know that might not be the most popular opinion in the greater New York area.

To see why, go back and watch some of Alex Smith from 2017. That year, the Chiefs drafted Patrick Mahomes, and implemented a raft of new shifts and motions and spread offense elements to accommodate him—and then applied them with Smith in the lineup. The results, for Smith, were career highs in yards (4,042), touchdowns (26) and rating (104.7).

It was good enough to convince the Bears to poach Nagy, and I think in the details of it you’ll find the basis of what could be a really, really good setup for Dart, who has some skill set similarities to Smith, albeit without near the level of experience.

Hall of Fame

Another day, another Hall of Fame snub. I try not to be critical of voters, because I understand how hard their jobs are. But news of Robert Kraft’s failure to get into the Hall a week after word came that Bill Belchick was kept out makes it tough to ignore the obvious.

The current setup, which is new, isn’t working.

As it stands now, there are three seniors candidates (this year, it’s Ken Anderson, Roger Craig and L.C. Greenwood), a contributor (Kraft) and a coach (Belichick). Voters are then instructed to pick three, with a high likelihood that the candidates cannibalize each other.

Here’s the problem: Senior candidates are almost by definition last-chance guys, on the ballot to right a previous wrong that kept them out. The coach and contributor are not. So on one hand, you may get only one shot to vote for the three senior guys. On the other, you have more runway with the coaches and contributors.

That’s created a system where some voters will wait to vote for a candidate on the premise that they’ll get in eventually. And that, to me, is absurd. The ballot should always be cast for the most deserving candidates. In this case, it’s impossible to believe that anyone would think all three of those players, with all due respect, are more deserving than Belichick. It’s not quite as black-and-white with Kraft, because owners are assessed differently. But the point stands that the last chance-vs.-evergreen dynamic unnecessarily tilts the field.

Hopefully, they fix this one.

Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The Buccaneers landing Indiana QBs coach/co-offensive coordinator Chandler Whitmer is a move worth paying attention to, if for no other reason than other teams eyed him too.

One team linked to Whitmer previously was the Raiders, and that would make a ton of sense, with the likelihood that they take Hoosier Heisman winner Fernando Mendoza with the first overall pick. So it’s a nice get for Tampa, and in particular if he continues to develop as a coach, which would protect the Bucs against losing new OC Zac Robinson (seen by some folks as a future head coach) eventually.

Atlanta Falcons

Falcons president of football Matt Ryan’s tepid response on Michael Penix Jr.—declining to commit to Penix as starter—is understandable. Ryan deferred to Kevin Stefanski, who wasn’t at the podium on that decision, and Penix is rehabbing now, with the hope being he’d return at some point before Week 1. It’d be tough, too, to stage a real competition with Penix not able to make his on-field case through the spring.

Which is to say it’s complicated, but also notable that the Falcons chose not to back Penix in that way from the jump.

18-game schedule

It is at least interesting that acting NFLPA executive director David White summarily shut down the idea of an 18-game regular season, saying, “As it stands right now, players have been very clear that they have no appetite for it”, a day after NFL commissioner Roger Goodell suggested that it’s not a front-burner topic for the league.

Looming over that—Super Bowl LXII in Atlanta, two years from now, still doesn’t have a specific date, which has made a lot of folks think that the 2027 season was one the league circled for going to 18 games.

Tom Brady

And, finally, I respect Tom Brady saying he’s got no dog in the Super Bowl fight. He’s a pretty competitive guy, if you hadn’t heard. He wants to be great at his Fox job, and running the Raiders, and pledging his allegiance to the Patriots doesn’t really serve either of those desires. Especially when folks have already picked apart his potential conflicts of interest.