Seahawks training camp preview: Mike Macdonald’s all-new defense has 2 starters missing

The bell is about to ring for Seahawks Summer School.

For their previous dozen NFL training camps, Seattle’s players and coaches knew pretty much what they were about to train for the next month. They knew all the play calls, the terminology, the whys and hows of their schemes.

That’s because for 14 years they had the same head coach doing it the same way in Seattle. The Pete Carroll Way.

This Seahawks summer couldn’t be more different.

It’s now Mike Macdonald’s team. The new coach’s players are studying and cramming and installing all that is new on offense, defense and special teams. When training camp begins Wednesday, Macdonald and his 21 new assistant coaches will accelerate changing the way the Seahawks do everything on the field.

Macdonald will install his new defense during five weeks of preseason practices. It’s the tricky, disguised scheme the new coach used the last two years as the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator.

On offense, first-year coordinator Ryan Grubb is installing the system he’s brought from his previous two seasons across the lake at the high-flying University of Washington.

Plus, the league’s new kickoff rules, first-time special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh will pile new on top of new within Seattle’s kicking and kick-coverage teams.

Even the practice uniforms are new. Macdonald has the Seahawks wearing their navy, white and (for the quarterbacks) throwback-blue game jerseys for practices.

About the only thing that’s not new this Seahawks training camp: Where they are having it. This is the 16th consecutive summer the team is having its training camp at its Virginia Mason Athletic Center headquarters in Renton.

“I think we’re on our way,” Macdonald said of his new Seahawks regime.

The defense has the farthest to go this training camp.

It needed to change.

Seattle ranked 30th in total defense last season, and 31st against the run in 2023. It’s why the Seahawks missed the playoffs for just the third time in 12 years.

It’s also why Carroll is no longer Seattle’s coach, and why Macdonald is now the NFL’s youngest head man.

Macdonald, 36, is seeking in this training camp to make his defensive players experts at changing positions and roles on the fly. Sometimes that will happen by the snap. Sometimes guys will change at the snap.

That’s how Macdonald’s Ravens defenses confused opposing offenses. In 2023, Baltimore became the first unit to lead the league in points allowed, sacks and turnovers produced in a single year.

“We obviously have a new defensive coordinator and a new scheme and all that type of stuff. Ad we have a lot of guys up front, which I really love,” 10th-year veteran tackle/end/everything Leonard Williams said.

“So that’s even harder, in a way, because we’re all being able to play multiple positions. At the same time of learning the defense, we’re not just learning one position, we have to learn multiple positions at the same time.

“It’s kind of a lot of a load on us right now,” Williams said, “but I think it’ll pay off in the long run.”

The Seahawks do not have all the defense installed as training camp begins. Macdonald estimated in May during organized team activities about 20% of the defense was in. He said he was going to judge how well and quickly the players were grasping the new concepts and adjust the pace of installation accordingly.

His goal is to have base concepts down by the early days of training camp.

“I would say — I would hope — we are more than 50% (installed), because it feels like there’s a lot that we can do out on the field,” Jon Rhattigan, the team’s inside linebacker and defensive signal caller for OTAs and minicamp last month, told The News Tribune on KJR-FM radio.

“There’s just so much that we have learned, as individuals and as a defensive unit.

“Knowing Mike, a lot of our defense is in so that (entering) training camp we are hopefully going to be kind of re-introducing stuff that we experienced over the spring.”

But, Rhattigan added: “I’m sure there’s going to be some new stuff.”

The five weeks of preseason practices will focus most on setting the foundation of Macdonald’s defensive scheme. Then when the season begins with the first game week Sept. 2-7 before the opener Sept. 8 against Denver, Macdonald tailor game plans off those base schemes for that week’s opponent.

“Once the season comes, it’s usually a game-by-game basis,” Rhattigan said. “You just tweak around the stuff you already have installed.”

Macdonald said at the end of offseason practices June 12: “Got a good part of the defense in now for quite a while.”

Here are what the starting positions and depth chart on the 90-man roster look like on this new defense entering camp (The News Tribune’s projected starters in bold, rookies with an asterisk *). Seattle must cut the roster to 53 for initial regular-season roster by the league deadline of Aug. 27:

Defensive line

Tackles: Jarran Reed, Johnathan Hankins, Byron Murphy*, Cameron Young, Matt Gotel

Reed, 31, has become the patriarch of the defense. He’s the longest-tenured Seahawk defender. He arrived in Seattle as a second-round draft choice in 2016 and has been on the team since, save for 2021 when he was Kansas City and ‘22 when he played for Green Bay. He is entering the final year of his contract. Reed will move from over the center to outside the guards and perhaps even offensive tackles in Macdonald’s deceptive, changing schemes.

Hankins is 32 entering his 12th season. He signed to a one-year deal from Dallas. He is likely to stay mostly as nose tackle at 335 pounds.

Murphy, the team’s first-round pick, will be a key to run stopping and pass rush inside. He had the fastest steps off the ball of any Seahawk defender in OTAs and minicamp.

Young, listed as a nose tackle, is coming off an injury-hampered rookie season. Gotel, from Lakes High School, has his best chance in the three preseasons he’s been with the Seahawks to make the roster.

They aren’t deep enough here right now. When Seattle’s defense led the NFL and went to Super Bowls in the 2013 and ‘14 seasons, nine or 10 defensive linemen were in games by the middle of the first quarter.

So far, the Seahawks have just two proven, true tackles on this defense.

Ends: Leonard Williams, Dre’Mont Jones, Mike Morris, Myles Adams, DeVere Levelston*, Nathan Pickering*, Rason Williams II*

The Seahawks gave Williams, entering his 10th year, a $64.5 million contract this spring to return. He will play all over Macdonald’s front’ he said he’s learning six jobs. End outside. Tackle inside or outside guards. Nose.

Jones practiced as a stand-up outside linebacker pass rusher at times in OTAs and minicamp. Macdonald and new defensive coordinator Aden Durde, the Cowboys’ former line coach, appear intent to get Jones on the edge more for speed rushing than he did in the first year of his $51.5 million contract with Seattle under Carroll.

Morris, who was primarily an end as a rookie last season, also could play multiple positions.

Sensing a theme with Macdonald’s new scheme?

Outside linebacker

Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Darrell Taylor, Joshua Onujiogu, Nelson Ceasar*, Sunny Anderson*, Easton Gibbs*, Devin Richardson*, Blake Lynch

Nwosu, 27, is back full go from his season-ending pectoral surgery last October. That’s Seattle’s best health news entering camp. He was the Seahawks’ top pass rusher two seasons ago (a career-high 9 1/2 sacks).

Mafe emerged early last year in his second NFL season then tailed off late after Nwosu got hurt, finishing with nine sacks.

Seattle brought back Taylor on a 1-year contract because he’s had 15 sacks the last two seasons as a situational pass rusher. Mafe playing the run better is why he starts.

Ceasar, an undrafted rookie from Houston, was intriguing pass rushing during OTAs and minicamps. His and Anderson’s $110,000 guarantees for this year were the fourth-highest among 16 rookie free agents the Seahawks signed in May.

Inside linebacker

Tyrel Dodson, Jerome Baker, Jon Rhattigan, Patrick O’Connell, Tyrice Knight*, Drake Thomas

The biggest question marks on the defense entering camp.

The starters Dodson and Baker are beginning it on the physically-unable-to-perform list, the team announced Thursday. Coaches expect Baker to replace departed Jordyn Brooks as the team’s weakside (“Will”) inside linebacker. Baker had offseason surgery to repair the wrist injury that limited him last season for the Miami Dolphins. He didn’t practice in Seattle’s OTAs or minicamp. Neither did Dodson. Dodson, like Baker, signed a one-year deal in free agency this spring. Dodson got $4.26 million from the Seahawks. He not been a full-time starter or play caller since Buffalo signed him as an undrafted rookie in 2020.

Macdonald has said the Seahawks’ plan is for Dodson to replace Bobby Wagner as the team’s middle linebacker and defensive play caller.

Ryan O’Halloran, Bills writer for the Buffalo News, told The News Tribune on KJR-FM radio Thursday he was surprised at the amount of money Dodson got from Seattle and the unspecified injury.

But, O’Halloran said of Dodson: “He’s going to get to the football fast, and he’s going to be in a bad mood when he gets there.”

For now, Rhattigan and O”Connell begin camp as the starting inside linebackers, as they were in offseason practices. Rookie Knight, the fourth-round pick who played both inside and outside for Texas-El Paso in college, is getting ramped up fast at inside linebacker. Thomas is also beginning camp on the PUP list.

Cornerback

Devon Witherpsoon, Riq Woolen, Tre Brown, Michael Jackson, Artie Burns, Lance Boykin, Nehemiah Pritchett*, D.J. James*, Ro Torrance*, Carlton Johnson*

The strength of the defense.

In OTAs and minicamp, Macdonald had Witherspoon exclusively inside as the nickel, slot cornerback. Woolen was the starting right cornerback with Tre Brown starting on the left. Macdonald played nickel 79% of the time last season with Baltimore. Witherspoon made the Pro Bowl last year as a rookie starting games at left corner and moving inside to nickel on passing downs.

Jackson has starting experience. So does Burns, the Seahawks’ backup nickel last season. Then Seattle drafted Pritchett and James, Auburn’s starting cornerbacks last year, in the fifth and sixth rounds this spring. If the Seahawks want to make a trade during camp to fill a hole, this is the position from which to do it.

Safety

Julian Love, Rayshawn Jenkins, Coby Bryant, Jerrick Reed, Ty Okada, Jonathan Sutherland

Love made the Pro Bowl in his first Seahawks season, replacing injured and eventually cut Jamal Adams last year. Love could be getting a new contract extension soon to stay in Seattle beyond this last year of his contract. Jenkins, entering his eighth NFL season, signed a two-year deal from Jacksonville. He is replacing the cut Quandre Diggs at free safety.

Macdonald’s coaches list Bryant as both a safety and cornerback. The team tried the fourth-round pick in 2022 as a nickel some last season, too. He needs to find a home with the new staff in this new defense. Reed is starting camp on the PUP list. Sutherland was impressive as a rookie free agent last year before he got hurt, got released and returned to the team’s practice squad.