Is current Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald a better defensive coach than Pete Carroll ever was? Maybe, or maybe not. What appears to be the case is that Macdonald is a better defensive coach now than Carroll has been in several years.
Macdonald appears to have a way of augmenting a player's ability through excellent coaching and great scheme. Safety Coby Bryant, for instance, struggled to find his place for about two and a half years in Seattle, and then the second half of 2024 was great. That probably wouldn't have happened under Carroll.
Macdonald might be in the process of rebuilding another player's confidence in 2025 training. Defensive lineman Mike Morris, who played under Macdonald for one season of college at Michigan when Macdonald was the defensive coordinator there, is seemingly having the best training camp of his career.
Mike Morris could be Mike Macdonald's latest Seattle Seahawks rebuilding project
Morris was taken in the fifth round of the 2023 NFL draft and suffered an injury in Week 1 of the regular season. He missed the rest of the season. The problem before that was that Morris was lost a bit in the rotation and had Carroll stayed as head coach, Morris might have remained that way.
Last year, Morris played in 15 games, but only saw 70 snaps on defense. He was mostly a special teams player. But often, players make a big jump in Macdonald's second full season coaching them. While Morris and Macdonald worked together at Michigan, things tend to change drastically in the NFL.
The defensive lineman made an impact on the first day of pads coming on at Seahawks training camp, and he made an impact on a series when the second-team offense was facing the second-team defense, which was overshadowed by a later play when rookie safety Nick Emmanwori intercepted rookie quarterback Jalen Milroe.
Prior to the Emmanwori pick-six, Morris made a quick move to burst through the offensive line and tackled running back George Holani for a safety. It was the kind of quickness that Mike Morris has not shown in games before, but he hasn't had a real chance to do so.
After practice, Macdonald told the media, "This is where (Morris) needs to prove his worth is when we’re in pads. There’s a big role for him that we expect out of him. We’ve got a vision for him, he’s on his way to making it come to life. But he’s in a battle, too.’’
Morris still has an uphill battle to make the team, simply because the Seattle Seahawks' defensive line is stacked. The line was made even better by the addition of free agent signee DeMarcus Lawrence. Morris could be part of a solid rotation, however, and that he is getting second-team reps in practice is a good thing.
