Mike Macdonald - Head Coach, seahawks Event: Press Conference | Date: 2026-09-18 | Full transcript (primary source).
Mike Macdonald, Head Coach of the Seahawks, addressed the media during a press conference on September 18, 2026, discussing the team's preparation and player performance ahead of their upcoming game. He emphasized the importance of maintaining offensive cohesion despite player absences and highlighted the team's focus on process and readiness as they approach game day.
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Transcript
Macdonald: So Tory Horton seems like he's ready to make his return towards back. Yep. I had a great week of practice excited to see him play. He's worked really hard.
Macdonald: Effect you guys to have I mean all the different receivers you've got while you're also trying to get tight ends on the field. How do you guys work through?
Macdonald: I think it's You just work through it, I mean you have certain things that You want for certain guys. But the fact of the matter is we have to be able to operate our whole offense no matter who's on the field. Otherwise Teams teams will attack that so Um, but we have a lot of a lot of players want to get out there, which is a good problem. It could be a lot worse. We could not want people out there and then we'd be in trouble.
Reporter: What'd you see from drew just handling the week in the?
Macdonald: Yeah, very process oriented, um cool um Did a lot of great things. So Like part of my message to our team is it's hey, it's friday. It's you know, we're not playing two hours. We it's It's uh, the process goes on, you know, it's very important how we attack the rest of the day as a team Um, you know tonight how we you know how we Sleep get our bodies, right? It's been a long time since we've had a a one day 1 p.m away game so You know how we how we nail this next 24 36 hours is really important.
Reporter: What did you learn last week about your guy's ability to manage tai okada's absence and having to do so again this Sunday?
Macdonald: What did I learn? I love um nothing You saw rodney play great football and And that's what it's going to take. You know, whoever whoever's out there it takes takes playing great football for us to For us to play great football.
Reporter: Sorry, how's the sam donnell progressive rehab this week?
Macdonald: Great great he's uh, on his way back.
Reporter: Is it next week? Is it the week after is it the week after that?
Macdonald: I'm not sure but I'm optimistic. Let's put it that way.
Reporter: With nick, uh, we saw the addition of a hip injury to that as well. Is that is that kind of the the bigger thing though? Or what I guess where where is nick?
Macdonald: Yeah, now we've added a hip and uh, he's doing a great job And uh, and he's questionable for the game.
Reporter: Is he going to show up as full participant today in practice or?
Macdonald: I believe I believe he was limited today in his case.
Reporter: You know, he knows the defense and he knows how you employed him, but does he need a full practice? to be checked off in one of his milestones?
Macdonald: He needs a limited practice enough to be questionable for the game.
Reporter: If anthony can't I said if anthony can't play is christian heinz kind of the next man up there or?
Macdonald: Yeah, yeah.
Reporter: Edge guys outside linebackers are you know, they're usually known for the sacks But you have a bunch of guys who really like to be physical, you know, pick guys in the run game Just how important for what you want to do schematically is is the way those guys can set an edge and be physical?
Macdonald: Yeah, well that's uh, we we play a lot of play a lot of shell defense and uh, You know, there's there's more gaps than people At the line of scrimmage. So we need we need our front six or front seven guys to restrict space and um You know, we talk about playing your 1.09, which is gets you to 12 um that's what we expect from when it starts up front, you know and uh when you're in some of the fronts that we're at like a lot of times the point of attack with Is uh is c gapping out and so we expect a lot of those guys and we ask a lot out of them but um, we have great players And they're up to the task and uh, they understand that If we play first down and second down the right way then we can we can get ops to uh, attack the quarterback.
Reporter: Don't say fowler who's played a lot of football in a lot of places He said he's ever been on a team that really plays Edges the way you guys do and the emphasis on it like what is it about the way you guys Coach it or emphasize that the event makes a difference?
Macdonald: Well, well i'd say uh, i'd say the rest of his position group deserves a lot of credit You know in terms of their buy-in on how we want to play I think uh I think our coaches do a tremendous job of Um, you know, they're not they're not like, you know, they're not like crash dummies out there. They're they're we're trying to We're trying to put them in positions to be effective and be productive. So It's like our it's like our d line like your job not just to Eat up double teams. It's Sometimes we're going to ask you to do that But we also want you to understand the game plan understand when you can be aggressive things like that. So Um, there's a lot of work that goes into it, but guys like I think josh binds has done a tremendous job You know chris partridge, um, justin hines ad obviously leading the charge think those guys They do a great job coaching them up and getting it clean and Clear enough so we can go in the game and you can go You can go play the right way.
Reporter: With nick out last week we had the opportunity to get tyrese out there a little bit more packages You use which would you kind of make him jump into that role? And how does he kind of fit into that that adjustment when you get the awesome winner?
Macdonald: Yeah, he's done a great job. I think I think that's just one example of you know, he said you know if If you kind of earn your right to get on the field and make it undeniable for us We'll figure it out. There's different ways that we can do it There's other personnel groups that um other guys may or may not have earned it up to this point. So I think that's Something that like just shows you like third year in the system I think things that we can get to a little bit um less expensive than um, we you know, then kind of the cost of the first our first couple years so Um, that's t-knight's credit zach's credit for coaching it up Um, it's been it's been seamless going in there and as well as the other stuff going on.
Reporter: What do you mean by less expensive?
Macdonald: It's just like less like less investment that like less reps, you know, like hey you're going and you're just doing that like like less transition costs, you know from You don't have to do this like wholesale change. It's within our system and um We can get to it quicker, you know without all the consternation.
Reporter: Mike the new russian coverage you talked about the d-line how important awareness and trust of the back end of that defense so they can play kind of unison?
Macdonald: Yeah, um It's a timing thing, right? It's like The ball's out then we have to be able to deny the ball if the ball's not out then we have to be able to get to the quarterback so down distance drives that kind of formula uh, the type of the type of routes the type of pass drives that formula and that that all that obviously is going to You know drive the types of decisions we want to make schematically on how we want to build it but the front needs to be tied into What we're expecting in the back end and vice versa. So, um It's it's all connected, you know, you just we don't we don't operate in silos. It's all um It's a 12 is one type of thing.
Reporter: We talked about Plays versus players earlier the week. Um, how much of the game plan changes for you after injury reports come out? Either for your game plan who's going to play for you or who's going to play for your opponent?
Macdonald: Well, we're fortunate enough that uh, we don't have to Be coy to our people We're on a common understanding about what it looks like throughout the week now It's frequent that it'll shift throughout week throughout the week, which is sometimes great sometimes not so great but um That's that's uh, that's life in the nfl uh With the other team it just depends just depends on You know Just depends it's probably not as much as you might anticipate Uh, once you get deeper in the week, it's hard to make, you know wholesale changes. So, um But it just it depends it could be it could be it could vary in On how drastic it you know game plan shifts.
Reporter: Any more of an update on zach charmer day?
Macdonald: Um zach's doing great. Uh, we're getting down to him possibly Finding a date where he could start practicing again. So that's that's coming It's coming soon When that when that exact date is, uh, we haven't finalized that yet, but it's coming soon.
Reporter: Like how have you seen darry price attack this opportunity here?
Macdonald: Yeah, he's he's um He's the same guy. It's it's like it's it's a very very process oriented with him I think uh Thomas hammock has done a tremendous job coaching him up the rest of his room. Uh But it's seamless. It's the same thing. It's like Yeah, there's gonna be plays as a first year player that We want to improve on just like anybody else on the roster But it's how you attack it and move on from there and grow And that's really what the you know That's the business we're in right now as a football team is we need to keep growing. We need to keep sacking Jadarian is a great great example of that of just one play at a time one game at a time um Keep attacking it man, you know and the rest of the team we need we need to follow suit.
Reporter: Brady Russell got a couple catches on the backfield last week What'd you kind of see out of him from that? What did he kind of like that?
Macdonald: I think that's he's taken that role Brady's always been a guy that when you Get when given the opportunity he's made the most of it. Um both out of the backfield and And as a titan, I think it gives you some position like some flexibility on where you can align him and things that you can do um get him in more of like a receiving type of role, but uh you know our offense is going to include big people and he's one of the big people that we can put out there and Um, he's done a great job. He's taking advantage of it again. Another example of let's one one's one week's worth of Of good work, you know, let's keep stacking Some plays let's keep rolling and and uh and see what kind of role we can you can carve out for yourself.
Macdonald: Anything else?
