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
Seattle, WA
Seattle weather: Showery and cool weekend ahead
We are wrapping up a cloudy, cool and showery day. Be sure to grab an extra layer if you are heading out for the evening as overnight lows will be cool, dipping into the low and mid 40s.
It will be a cool night across Western Washington with scattered showers. (FOX13 Seattle)
A disturbance sitting off the coast will continue to bring scattered showers on Saturday. There will be some dry periods during the day with the best chances for showers in the afternoon and early evening.
A disturbance sitting off the coast will continue to bring scattered showers on Saturday. (FOX 13 Seattle)
The Washington Huskies are set to play the Trojans at Husky Stadium on Saturday. Scattered showers will be possible during the game against USC.
Scattered showers will be possible during Saturday’s game against USC.
While we will see some breaks in the rain during the day, it will remain cool with highs running below the normal 56 degrees.
Cool afternoons continue for Western Washington on Saturday. (FOX 13 Seattle)
While this weekend will be a bit unsettled with occasional rain showers, a more active storm system will arrive on Monday with wet and breezy conditions. The mountains could see another few inches of snow early in the week. Some drier weather is forecast from Tuesday evening through Thursday.
Scattered showers this weekend with more active weather again by Monday. (FOX 13 Seattle)
Seattle, WA
Seattle Mariners Decline Option of Injury-Riddled Second Baseman
The Seattle Mariners have officially made the first “big” move of the offseason.
After a lot of debate over whether or not the team would opt to bring him back due to his injury concerns, the Seattle Mariners declined the $12 million option of second baseman and 2019 All-Star Jorge Polanco on Friday.
Polanco will receive a $750,000 buyout from the Mariners due to the team declining his option. The team’s 40-man roster now stands at 36 players.
Seattle traded for Polanco from the Minnesota Twins on Jan. 29, 2024, in efforts to figure out the team’s perpetual hole at second base. The Mariners have been trying to find an answer at the position since trading Robinson Cano to the New York Mets back in 2018.
Polanco had a down season by all metrics, even though it wasn’t entirely his fault.
The 11-year MLB veteran was dealing with a nagging knee injury for the second half of the season and had a stint on the 10-day injured list earlier in the year with a hamstring injury.
Polanco underwent surgery to repair a damaged patellar tendon after the season ended.
Polanco averaged just .213 this year with 16 home runs and 45 RBIs. His defense also took a noticeable step back.
Polanco had -10 outs above average, which ranks in just the second percentile in the league according to Baseball Savant.
Polanco is a switch-hitter with 20-home run power. He was reported to be ready to return by spring training after his surgery.
Seattle will now look to find an answer at second base while Polanco will try and find a new home.
The Mariners have several avenues they can explore to fill out the gap at second base. And time will tell if one of those avenues includes going after a free agent or pulling off a trade.
MARINERS HAVE TOP-TEN ODDS TO LAND JUAN SOTO, PER SPORTS BETTING SITE: The Seattle Mariners landed on the list to land the biggest superstar in free agency per a popular sports betting site. CLICK HERE
EIGHT-TIME ALL-STAR LINKED TO MARINERS: The St. Louis Cardinals and Seattle Mariners have been tied together in trade rumors for months, could both sides finally pull the trigger? CLICK HERE
MARINERS MAKE MOVES TO TOP BRASS: The Seattle Mariners continued to make some moves in their top brass with the promotion of a long-time employee on Thursday. CLICK HERE
Continue to follow our Inside the Mariners coverage on social media by liking us on Facebook and by following Teren Kowatsch and Brady Farkas on “X” @Teren_Kowatsch and @wdevradiobrady. You can subscribe to the “Refuse to Lose” podcast by clicking HERE.
Seattle, WA
Pregnant mom in 'grave' situation after thieves steal car just before Halloween
SEATTLE – A single mom is asking the community for help after thieves made off with her family’s only vehicle just before Halloween.
The ghastly deed left her without wheels to take her daughter trick-or-treating.
But, perhaps the worst trick of all, the thieves also made off with her ID, laptop, and sentimental items she had stored in the trunk.
Ashley Nygren-Yee has three jobs. During the week, she works at a Seattle funeral home. She often finds some moments of peace by walking through the graveyard.
“I like it because it’s really peaceful. It’s a break from the city life. You get to observe the nature around you,” said Nygren-Yee. “You hear the crows, sometimes you see coyotes out here.”
For Nygren-Yee, it’s not the dead that are the problem this Halloween, but the living.
“It’s like once I feel like I’m a step ahead, something or someone, the living knocks me back down,” she said. “The dead are absolutely not the problem.”
Early Wednesday, someone stole her Volkswagen Passat sedan as it sat parked in front of her apartment complex off of NE 125th Street in Seattle. The car is pictured below:
“I came outside my kitchen door and my car was not there, all that was left was a dry spot where my car had been,” she said.
Ashley used the car daily to commute and take her daughter Anya to daycare.
“I’m a single mom living in Seattle, and I’m pregnant. And, it just feels like every single day I’m working hard to provide for my family,” said Nygren-Yee.
She now has to take the bus there on an hour-long commute. With her car, it took only about 15 minutes. Additionally, besides her job at the funeral home, she also used her car to commute to work at two additional jobs at McDonald’s and for DoorDash.
“Now I don’t even have the option to DoorDash for that extra gap for finances like food or like paying a bill that’s overdue,” Nygren-Yee said. “It’s putting me in a situation where I had plans to use my car to make more money, to pay for items that will be shut off next week. We are always like an incident away, one paycheck away from being out of a home. It makes my anxiety a little bit more.”
Her ID was also in the car along with other family documents. She said she was storing them in the vehicle after a recent break-in inside her apartment. She had planned to change the locks to her apartment, then move everything back in. But thieves got to her vehicle first.
Pictures of her dad, holding her when she was little, also vanished, along with other sentimental items from her childhood in Hawaii.
“My high school varsity letter from cheerleading, pictures of my grandmother who is since deceased,” said Nygren-Yee.
She started a GoFundMe page, hoping to help dig herself out of the mess thieves left her in.
“The dead get to rest, the living have to keep on fighting every day and that’s just what I feel like I have been doing,” she said.
Ashley’s friend told her she spotted her stolen car in the Redmond area at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday night. When the friend tried to take a picture, the driver sped away and fled at speeds of 100 mph. If you have seen the vehicle, contact the Seattle Police Department.
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