Seattle, WA
Mike Macdonald is drawing praise as Seattle's new coach but the test starts this week vs. Denver
RENTON, Wash. (AP) — Mike Morris saw the field for all of one game because of an injury in his rookie season. Not a lot of time to make an impression on his teammates.
When word leaked out about Mike Macdonald becoming the new coach of the Seattle Seahawks, Morris’ phone erupted making him maybe the most popular player in the locker room.
“It was like, ‘Mike, did he coach you in college?’ And I was like, ‘yeah.’ I got a bunch of those text messages,” Morris recalled. “My mom and dad called me and was like ‘how do you feel about it?’ I was like, ‘I’m really excited.’”
Morris isn’t the only one excited about Macdonald and the possibilities of what could happen in his first season as the Seahawks head coach.
The franchise that employed Pete Carroll for 14 seasons and who had the oldest head coach in the league last year, went the opposite direction hiring Macdonald as the youngest coach in the league at age 37 and with no head coaching experience at any level.
Macdonald is a football nerd, in the most complimentary way. He worked his magic as a defensive coordinator at Michigan — where he coached Morris — before returning to the place where his NFL career started in Baltimore and turned the Ravens defense into one of the most successful and difficult to decipher in the league the past two seasons.
“Yeah, he’s smart. He doesn’t know how smart he is,” Seattle linebacker Tyrel Dodson said. “That guy is just so smart. I thought I was smart. He blows me out of the water.”
But running a team is far different than running a defense. And despite his relative inexperience, those around him in Seattle have been impressed thus far with how Macdonald has taken to the role.
“I just think Mike’s a great listener. He really is, he can take that information in and make decisions,” Seattle general manager John Schneider said. “It’s been really impressive to watch. Like I said, he’s a very direct communicator. He’s going to give me the information, I got it, I’m going to take it over here and I’m going to have the conversation and we’re going to move on.”
Macdonald will make his head coaching debut on Sunday when the Seahawks open at home against the Denver Broncos. He’s now the face of the franchise, although he doesn’t seek the spotlight that comes with being the youngest coach in the league.
He’d rather be in a film room or on the practice field “chasing edges,” — one of the tag phrases he’s latched onto describing what he’s trying to create with the Seahawks.
“We’re always trying to push the envelope. We want people chasing us,” Macdonald said. “So to kind of get to the mentality of we’re not copying anybody it’s going to be our style of play, it’s going to be our team, our way of doing things, never satisfied with where we’re at, no complacency. Kind of a relentless pursuit of creating the vision that we want to create. I think that kind of paints a nice picture.”
While Macdonald is more out front now as a head coach, his defensive mind is what put him on the radar of every team that was seeking a new leader this past offseason.
The Ravens led the league in fewest points allowed and sacks, and were tied for the league lead in takeaways last season. They held six teams to 10 points or fewer in the regular season, including a 37-3 thumping of the Seahawks.
Disguise and creating confusion were the keys to the success in Baltimore, and what Macdonald is trying to implement now with a Seahawks defense that ranked near the bottom of the league in nearly every category last season. The system isn’t overly complicated, but there is a high level of communication and understanding of what everyone else is doing to make the coverage disguises work.
Seattle played an overwhelmingly vanilla defense during the preseason. The first test of how successful it could be comes Sunday.
“I enjoy this defense because I think it’s fun,” Seattle safety Julian Love said. “It’s not monotonous, you’re not just getting to the post. You’re doing different things. The flip side of that you have to be on your stuff.”
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AP NFL: https://apnews.com/hub/nfl
Thanks to Carrie Brown for the westward view of our Saturday night sunset. The high today hit 68 at the airport – eight degrees above normal – but nowhere near the record for this date, which was 89 degrees back in 2016. The forecast suggests two more days of partly sunny, almost-70-degree weather, before the chance of rain returns.
CHICAGO (AP) — The struggling New York Mets placed former Seattle Mariners second baseman/designated hitter Jorge Polanco on the 10-day injured list on Saturday with a right wrist contusion.
Mariners Injury Update: Latest on Robles, Vargas and more
The move was made retroactive to Wednesday, a day after Polanco went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts in a 2-1 loss at the Los Angeles Dodgers. The 32-year-old Polanco is batting .179 (10 for 56) with a homer and two RBIs in his first season with New York, which has lost nine straight.
“When doctors first took a look at him, it looked like he got hit by a pitch when he didn’t,” manager Carlos Mendoza said. “In talking to him, it was just a couple of swings that he took that night. … He didn’t think much of it, but just got worse the following day.
“So you just got to let it calm down a little bit and then we’ll go from there. But we don’t have a timetable for how long this is going to last.”
Polanco, who signed a two-year, $40 million contract with the Mets in December, also has been dealing with an ankle issue.
“He was trending in the right direction,” Mendoza said of the ankle injury. “It’s definitely going to help, obviously now with him being shut down. But the biggest thing now is that we’ve got to take care of that wrist.”
Polanco spent the previous two seasons with the Mariners, who acquired him in a February 2024 trade with the Minnesota Twins.
Polanco struggled during his first season with Seattle in 2024, hitting just .213 with 16 homers in 118 games while playing through a knee injury that didn’t become public knowledge until after the season.
But after the Mariners somewhat surprisingly brought him back for a one-year contract in 2025, Polanco rebounded to hit .265 with 26 homers and an .821 OPS in 138 games last season. He then added three homers during Seattle’s playoff run, along with a 15th-inning walkoff single in Game 5 of the American League Division Series that sent the Mariners to their first ALCS in 24 years.
Seattle Sports staff made additions to this post.
Mariners RHP Bryce Miller to begin rehab assignment
Seattle, WA
Brandon Nimmo hits leadoff homer, Jacob deGrom works 4 scoreless as Rangers beat Seattle Mariners 5-0
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON – APRIL 17: Corey Seager #5 of the Texas Rangers tags out Dominic Canzone #8 of the Seattle Mariners during the fourth inning at T-Mobile Park on April 17, 2026 in Seattle, Washington. (Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
SEATTLE – Brandon Nimmo hit a leadoff home run, Jacob deGrom threw four shutout innings and Gavin Collyer earned his first career win as the Texas Rangers beat the Seattle Mariners 5-0 on Friday night.
Seattle lost its fourth straight game, and was shut out for the fourth time in 21 games, falling to 8-13. The Mariners were shut out six times during the 2025 season. Texas won its third straight game.
Nimmo led off the game with a 372-foot shot to right field off Mariners starter Logan Gilbert (1-3). It was Nimmo’s 16th career leadoff homer and second of the season. He also hit a leadoff home run on April 11 in a 6-3 loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers.
DeGrom effectively maneuvered through Seattle’s lineup, and worked out of a one out, bases-loaded jam in the first inning. The two-time Cy Young Award winner recorded two of his three strikeouts after walking Josh Naylor to load the bases. Randy Arozarena fanned on a curveball, and Luke Raley swung through a fastball.
Texas added to its lead after Nimmo’s homer. Wyatt Langford’s single to left scored Corey Seager, who led off the third inning with a double. The Rangers stretched the lead to 3-0 on an RBI single from Jake Burger in the seventh.
The Mariners’ best scoring chance came in the sixth after Collyer (1-0), who worked 1 1/3 scoreless innings, left the game.
J.P. Crawford singled to left off Tyler Alexander with two out, and Mariners third base coach Carlos Cardoza sent Naylor from second base, but he was thrown out by Langford.
Texas added two more runs in the ninth on a sacrifice fly by Andrew McCutchen and an RBI double by Josh Jung.
Seattle third baseman Brendan Donovan left the game early due to a left hip issue.
Mariners right-hander Bryce Miller, who started the year on the injured list with a left oblique injury, was at T-Mobile Park for the first time this season. He will begin a rehab assignment with Triple-A Tacoma on Saturday.
Up next
Mariners RHP George Kirby (2-2, 3.25) will face Rangers righty Nathan Eovaldi (2-2, 5.40) on Saturday afternoon.
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