Macdonald set to become NFL’s youngest head coach at 36 as Seahawks swoop
The Seattle Seahawks are hiring Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald as their new head coach, according to multiple reports.
Macdonald, 36, will become the youngest current head coach in the league and is half the age of the man he’s replacing – Pete Carroll, who moved to an advisory role with the organization after 14 seasons in charge in Seattle.
Macdonald spent the past two years running Baltimore’s defense, including this past season when the Ravens finished with the NFL’s best regular-season record and reached the AFC Championship Game before losing to Kansas City. Baltimore held Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs to 17 points in the AFC title game, conceding zero points in the second-half and halting KC on six successive drives.
This will be the first head coaching position at any level for Macdonald. But he has been surrounded by successful coaches as he has moved up the ranks, starting with an extended run on the staff of John Harbaugh in Baltimore before spending a season on now-Chargers’ coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff in college at Michigan.
Macdonald was responsible for overhauling Harbaugh’s defense at Michigan, building a group that led
Michigan to their first berth in the College Football Playoff in 2021. He had previously worked as linebackers coach for Harbaugh’s brother, John, in Baltimore before his stint in college football.
Macdonald returned to Baltimore prior to the 2022 season and installed the progressive defense that he had pioneered with Michigan. It quickly turned the Baltimore defense into one of the top units in the league, with the Ravens finishing second in the league in EPA per play in 2023, a measure of down-to-down efficiency. They also led the league in sacks, takeaways and points allowed.
Seattle made it clear that Macdonald was one of their top candidates when they didn’t move forward on a hire before to the conference championship games. Dan Quinn seemed a clear frontrunner because of his past connections running Seattle’s Legion of Boom defense, but the longer the Seahawks went without moving ahead
with Quinn, the more it became obvious there were other options being considered.
Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson was the other finalist for the job, with Seattle conducting a final interview with both candidates before making a decision.
ESPN reports Macdonald will receive a six-year contract.