It’s getting ever closer to kickoff for Mike Macdonald’s second regular season as the head coach of the Seattle Seahawks. All he did in his inaugural year was set the franchise record for most wins by a rookie head coach, surpassing other iconic Seattle coaches like Mike Holmgren and Pete Carroll.
Based on that, we should be in for an even better sophomore
season, propelling the Seahawks to the playoffs and beyond! A new era of Seattle greatness is upon us!
Maybe, but this year might be a bit of a speedbump on that path to championship contention. Both of the aforementioned coaches, Holmgren and Carroll, took steps back in their second seasons. (Jim Mora, of course, had no second season)
Holmgren joined the Seahawks in 1999 and immediately led them to a 9-7 record which was good enough to win the AFC West. In the following year, Seattle’s record dropped to 6-10 as they finished fourth in the division. Holmgren was one year away from finding his franchise quarterback in Matt Hasselbeck, and instead was relying mostly on Jon Kitna with Brock Huard also seeing time. The Seahawks pass defense also got absolutely shredded that season to the tune of 7.63 yards per attempt.
Carroll’s first season in Seattle was memorable due to winning the NFC West in the final week with a 7-9 record, securing a home playoff game. Of course, we all know that the Beastquake game resulted from that and a legendary Seahawks moment was born. The following season, however, Carroll failed to improve in terms of record at 7-9, and didn’t benefit from a weak division as Seattle didn’t make the playoffs. His team was in transition at QB after Carroll jettisoned Matt Hasselbeck and turned to Tarvaris Jackson instead. T-Jack suffered a pec injury in early October and played through it for the remainder of the season. Had he been healthy, the results might have been different, but if “if’s” and “but’s” were candy and nuts we’d all have a Merry Christmas!
Speaking of Christmas, we’re all hoping that around that time, the Seahawks are on a roll with the division title in sight. Yet, maybe looking at the history of Holmgren and Carroll should give us some pause? There is a similarity with the Hasselbeck/Jackson story and Geno Smith/Sam Darnold. Macdonald had to sign off on moving on from Geno and handing the reigns over to Darnold. There’s no guarantee that Darnold will perform better than Geno did.
And what if the defense isn’t quite as good as we think and is closer to the first half of 2024 than the second half where they really turned things up? Oh, and the Seahawks have an entirely new offensive system which looked great in the second preseason game. When the regular season begins, that doesn’t mean squat. Vegas certainly seems to be thinking along these lines, giving Seattle a 7.5 win total. They’ve been predicting a slip-up like this for the Seahawks pretty much every year recently, but they could actually be right this time.
Now before you start planning vacations during the NFL playoffs, there’s another famous Seahawks coach we can look at to see the other side of the coin – Chuck Knox. In his first season as Seattle’s coach, Knox brought “Ground Chuck” to the Emerald City, leading the Seahawks to a 9-7 record and the first two playoff wins in franchise history. The expectations were through the roof for the 1984 season. Despite losing star rusher Curt Warner in the opening game of the season, Knox guided the Seahawks to a 12-4 record and one playoff win.
As excited as we are for the 2025 season to start with visions of a deep playoff run in our head, there are a lot of factors – new QB, new offense – that could put a detour in the race to the top. Recent Seahawks history with Holmgren and Carroll provides cautionary tales of that very thing. Going back farther to Chuck Knox’s time, however, provides a glimmer of hope for Macdonald’s second season. As the 2025 season is upon us, let’s knock on wood that Macdonald’s second season looks a whole lot more like Knox’s…I bet Chuck would approve of the mission to “run the damn ball”!
