Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald turned training camp into a battleground this week, and the defining moment came when he ejected a player from practice. The confrontation involved defensive lineman Derick Hall, who had been repeatedly warned after getting too close to quarterback Sam Darnold during drills. After ignoring Macdonald’s initial “Stop it” directive, Hall found himself on the receiving end of a blunt command. “You’re out.
” Hall reacted with visible fury, arguing and swearing as he refused to leave. Macdonald stood his ground, responding, “I don’t care what you’re saying. I’m running the effing practice. ” The scene, captured for the upcoming season of Hard Knocks, has Seahawks fans celebrating their coach’s no-nonsense approach, even though it meant a player being dismissed from the field.
Macdonald’s intensity is exactly the message he wants to send toa team trying to defend a championship in a division that keeps getting more dangerous each year. The NFC West has become a gauntlet. The San Francisco 49ers remain loaded. The Los Angeles Rams made a blockbuster move by acquiring Myles Garrett.
And no team can simply conjure up its own version of Aaron Donald from its past. For Seattle, the answer to those threats, in Macdonald’s mind, isn’t trying to match star power for star power. It’s about raising the standard of discipline, violence, and effort every single day at practice. But beneath that ferocious training camp energy lies a set of concerns that some analysts believe could lead to a regression for the defending Super Bowl champions.
NFL analyst Warren Sharp recently outlined why Seattle could be one of the league’s prime regression candidates, and his reasoning has started to circulate among football observers. Sharp pointed to the departure of offensive coordinator Clint Kubiak, who left to become the head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. Kubiak didn’t leave alone. He took two other offensive assistants with him.
That means Seattle’s offensive staff has lost three key voices heading into the new season. Under Kubiak, Seattle’s offense ranked as the most efficient unit in the league when operating out of 12 personnel, meaning formations with one running back and two tight ends. He dramatically reduced the team’s use of 11 personnel, which features three wide receivers, preferring instead the heavier, more physical look. That system allowed Seattle to control games and protect its quarterback.
Now, Kubiak is gone, andreplacing him is Brian Schottenheimer, who has never called plays at the NFL level before. While he comes from the same Shanahan-Kubiak coaching tree and is expected to keep a run-first philosophy, the transition remains a significant unknown. The offense also faces life without Kenneth Walker, the running back who earned Super Bowl MVP honors by becoming a postseason monster. Walker wasn’t necessarily a consistent regular-season workhorse, posting just two 100-yard games during the year.
But when the playoffs arrived, he transformed. He ran for two more 100-yard games and scored four touchdowns in Seattle’s championship run, allowing the team to lean ona rushing attack rather than putting the game on Sam Darnold’s shoulders. Without Walker, Seattle’s backfield depth looks thinner. Zach Charbonnet is coming offa major injury and has never proven himself as a true bell-cow back.
Rookie J’Adarian Price, drafted out of Notre Dame, has talent, but it’s unclear whether he can hit the ground running in his first season. Beyond those two, there isn’t much proven depth. So the offensive identity that carried Seattle through January must now be rebuilt around different personnel and a new play-callerich
Further complicating things is the track record of quarterback Sam Darnold. Last season, Darnold managed the offense behind a defense-first team that returned nine starters.
He didn’t have to carry the load. He was asked to manage games, not win them single-handedly. Still, he committed 20 turnovers over the course of the season. Analysts note that four of his interceptions came ina single game against the Rams, but the overall number remains a red flag.
In situations where Darnold was pressed into doing more, he has historically shown a tendency to become a turnover machine. If Seattle’s defense, as dominant as it was, takes evena small step backward, Darnold will suddenly be asked to do much more. That, combined with the coaching lossesand the changes in the backfield, forms the core of the regression argument. Seattle may still have a terrifying defense,and the team may still be the favorite to win the NFC West.
But history says that defending championships gets harder, not easier, and the margin for error shrinks with every piece lost from the previous roster. The schedule does Seattle no favors either, particularly down the stretch. The Seahawks must face the Rams twice, the 49ers twice, and the Arizona Cardinals twice, as usual in division play. But late in the season, things get even tougher.
There are two cross-country trips, one from Seattle to Philadelphia and one from Seattle to Carolina. Then the Rams appear twice in the final stretch. If Seattle finds itself teetering near wild-card territory in December, those closing games could decide the entire season. For now, Seattle’s focus is on training camp and on the standard Macdonald is setting.
The message coming from Seahawks practices is unmistakable. Nobody gets special treatment. Nobody gets to freelance. And nobody gets to threaten the quarterback’s safety during drills.
Macdonald’s approach has energized the fan base, which was already thrilled to see their coach take command this way. But underneath the enthusiasm, the uncomfortable question remains. What if Seattle’s biggest obstacle isn’t the Rams or the 49ers? What if it’s simply everything the franchise lost since lifting the Lombardi Trophy één?
The coaching staff reshuffled. The Super Bowl MVP gone. A quarterback being asked to carry more than ever before. A new play-caller learning on the job.
Seattle is trying to prove that its championship was the beginning of something sustained. The rest of the NFL is waiting to see whether it was the launch of a dynasty or the high-water mark before a fall.
