How Seahawks’ blowout loss to Ravens paved way for Mike Macdonald to succeed Pete Carroll

Recently, it was announced that the Seattle Seahawks would be hiring former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald to be the team’s head coach following the departure of Pete Carroll. Macdonald led what had been a vaunted Ravens defense for the majority of this season and will now fill the shoes that Carroll wore for over a decade at the helm with the Seahawks.

Ironically, a game between the Seahawks and Ravens this past season, which the Ravens won in blowout fashion, at least partially led to the hiring of Macdonald to be the team’s head coach now. Recently, Seahawks general manager John Schneider broke it down.

“I’ve had two really strong feelings [in his career],” Schneider said. “Leaving Pittsburgh several years ago, like we will never, ever look like that again. It was not cool. And leaving Baltimore this year. That was not cool.

“…There’s a feeling that we all were there and felt it,” Schneider said, per Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “But in talking to the players, several of the offensive players were like, ‘What was that? What just happened?’ I tried to pick the players’ brains here and there throughout the season, and that totally stood out. I forget which player it was, but they were like, ‘What was that, who is that? … Who was the coordinator over there, who was that all about.'”

Mike Macdonald will now begin the process of building his staff and hoping to guide the Seahawks franchise back to relevance in the league.