Football nerd: Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald blends tradition and innovation

It has to do with 10 mins right into my meeting with Mike Macdonald, and I obtain the feeling that the Seattle Seahawks head instructor is a little geeky.

” Nerd is a praise,” he claimed. “I have actually been called a football geek.”

Macdonald, 38, ended up being the NFL’s youngest head instructor when he signed up with the Seahawks in 2015. He was likewise a straight-A pupil in senior high school and finished summa orgasm laude with a money level from College of Georgia.

So it’s not a huge shock that Macdonald welcomes ingenious devices and techniques.

In a meeting with GeekWire previously this year at Lumen Area, Macdonald explained his technique as a crossbreed of conventional football basics and modern-day innovation.

” We have an ideology in Seattle: traditional concepts, brand-new institution techniques,” he claimed. “We’re mosting likely to improve a solid structure, yet whatever we can do to offer us a side– we’re going to obtain after it.”

Many thanks to innovative monitoring and analytics, NFL groups have even more information than ever before– and it’s transforming exactly how the video game is played. One clear instance: exactly how trainers approach fourth down decisions.

” We have a method to gauge the benefit you obtain for going all out on 4th down,” Macdonald claimed. “Every group has that.”

That information can change play-calling not simply on 4th down yet throughout a whole drive, Macdonald claimed.

Macdonald does not see analytics and impulse as equally special– rather, he sees information as a decision-making device to sustain what trainers currently recognize from movie, technique, and experience.

” It’s a continuous equilibrium,” he claimed.

We talked with Macdonald as component of an occasion showcasing Microsoft’s collaboration with the NFL, which currently consists of use the firm’s Copilot AI software program for scouting, enabling groups to obtain instant understandings by just asking concerns versus awaiting experts to crisis spread sheets.

” Earlier details is much better,” Macdonald claimed.

Macdonald, that was formerly the Baltimore Ravens protective planner, in 2015 ended up being the initial instructor in franchise business background to get to 10 success in his initial period. He’ll attempt to cover that mark as the Seahawks start their 2025 period following month.

We finished our conversation with a little quick-hit Q&A.

Mac or Computer? ” I had a computer in university. I changed to Mac. Yet since I have actually been operating in football, I have actually gotten on a COMPUTER.”

Preferred computer game: “Madden. I have actually quit playing the last pair years, yet I like Madden. Enjoyed NCAA in the past. MVP Baseball 2005 was a fantastic video game.”

Preferred application: “Text application. I obtain even more text currently, divine smokes.”

What should GeekWire viewers find out about you? “I’m an open publication on this things. I believe it’s awesome to be right into things that is sophisticated, data-driven. You’re informing me you’re clever and you’re searching for sides and searching for brand-new frontier– that’s awesome to me. It seems like a winning formula.”