Second-year cornerback Devon Witherspoon is the undisputed future of the Seattle Seahawks’ defense. As such, it’s important to find a coach that works well with him.

Luckily, new head coach Mike Macdonald fits the bill. The young, defensive-minded coach has built a strong relationship with his players in the months since his hiring, and ahead of the season opener on Sunday, it appears his bond with Witherspoon is among the strongest of any player.

“I’ve enjoyed it a lot,” Witherspoon told reporters Thursday. “Me and Coach [Mike Macdonald] get along very well. I ask all the questions I need to. He gives me all the details, whatever I need. The relationship, as far as you can ask those questions, the way he asked and he can explain it to me in a way that I can understand it. I think that’s what makes our bond special.” 

A cornerstone of that relationship is Macdonald involving Witherspoon in game planning, a process they hope pays off come game day.

“We always think about it different ways so we can get to something,” Witherspoon said. “Say, if we’ve seen something on film and they might pick up on it, what we would say, ‘If they do this we could switch it,’ and ‘Run it this way,’ and stuff like that. We always come up with different schemes just in case a team get a tendency on us so we could just switch it up.”

Witherspoon, the No. 5 overall pick in last year’s draft, had a great rookie season with 79 total tackles, 16 passes defensed and an interception he returned 97 yards for a touchdown. The Illinois product finished fourth in Defensive Rookie of the Year voting, though many believe he should’ve won the award.

Now with Macdonald’s fresh perspective, WItherspoon expects a big year not only for himself, but for the team as a whole.

“I think that’s very important because a lot of players learn in specific ways, everybody doesn’t learn the same,” Witherspoon said. “You’ve got to be able to talk to your players one-by-one, each differently.

“One way may be a visual learner or a walkthrough learner. Everybody has got their own flavor that they like to do. For him to be able to break it down in a meeting and then be able to go out and walk through just to show us both sides of it is very dope. Then that’s easy for us because we can learn better.”