Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald has become a popular interview since winning the Super Bowl. Macdonald was most recently on the ManningCast alt-broadcast of the Kansas City Chiefs and Denver Broncos, and there’s a fascinating new article out on The Athleticabout how he defines “chasing edges.” Over the summer, Macdonald had his most personally revealing interview to date on In Depth with Graham Bensinger
.Coach Macdonald went into great detail about his mental state after leaving the Baltimore
Ravens to become the Seahawks head coach in 2024. He opened up in a way we’ve never really seen before, particularly as it pertained to his mental health.
“It was paralyzing,” Macdonald said. “I’m a procrastinator, which I think has helped me do good work because you feel like you’re kind of elevated when you need to go. But the trade-off of that is, like, it was hard to move. It was even hard to get out of bed. I put a ton of pressure on myself. I have massive expectations for what we’re trying to create.
“It’s not good enough to not be the best. But that takes time to get there, and it’s a process, and if you’re not willing to take it incrementally and take some punches along the way because you made decisions quickly — I just wanted to be right all the time and I didn’t know what right was, and I put a lot of pressure on myself to be right.
“That was the weight that I was carrying. There’s a burden that I felt like I was holding because we weren’t where we wanted to be, and I wasn’t clear on what to do. That can be a lonely, tough feeling.”
Between a move across the country from Baltimore to Seattle, the sudden passing of his beloved 4-year-old dog, and the aforementioned pressure he put on himself, Macdonald talked about how there were days where he wouldn’t leave his bed, much less the house.
“It was an extremely difficult time. I’ve never felt like that in my life. I was sick. I’d go home, I’d get in bed and I wouldn’t get out. I’d get in bed as soon as I got home, I wouldn’t get out of bed until I went to work. I’d be late going into work. In the weekend – I wouldn’t get out of bed all weekend. I’d just sit in bed. It was crazy. But, is it depression? I don’t know, maybe. I find it hard to self-diagnose depression. There’s, like, serious cases of depression, like clinically diagnosed… Like it’s kind of irresponsible to say.”
During this period, Macdonald said he only spoke to his wife, Stephanie, and his two sisters, about his struggles. But Macdonald pinpointed some lifestyle changes that benefited him.
“It was like a through not around thing, ” Macdonald said. “I have to prioritize the routine and the health part of it… If I could get some physical, personal wins, then I could just start stacking those things. But, I’d take two hour-long walks. I’d call some of the players. But I need to get out. So I’d work out, walk, try to try to eat better. I was drinking a lot. Yeah, that was probably the toughest, most difficult stretch of my life, honestly – that first few months.”
Toward the second half of the 2024 season, Macdonald said things started to turnaround for him, but he also confessed his belief that he wasn’t as good a leader as he could have been in the Seahawks locker room.
“It was in that year, but I actually remember at one point going up to John Schneider and being like, ‘Feel like myself again.’ … I think it might have been in the season, the second half of the season.
“I joke with the coaches now, I was not a great leader my first year. It sucks to say that, but I just fell short in so many different ways – in awareness and in trust and a communication style. Just wasn’t the best version of myself. Yeah, it’s not easy to say that, but it’s the truth.”
You can watch more from the Macdonald interview in the playlist below. There’s a lot more to unpack and it’s the best insight you’ll get into Macdonald as a person, not just Seattle’s outstanding head coach.
