RENTON, Wash. — John Schneider pleaded for help from a higher power.
That’s how badly the Seattle Seahawks general manager wanted to talk to Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald about the team’s head coaching vacancy. So on January 28, as Macdonald’s Ravens prepared to take on the Kansas City Chiefs in the AFC Championship Game, Schneider spent some time at Mass praying for a Ravens loss.
Only a Ravens loss would allow an interview with Macdonald to take place, due to NFL rules regarding hiring coaches during the playoffs.
“This is pagan s-,” Schneider said with a laugh during a recent conversation with The Athletics.
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But Schneider’s prayers were answered: the Ravens lost to the Chiefs and the Seahawks interviewed Macdonald on Tuesday in Baltimore.
A day later he was hired.
“He absolutely crushed his interview,” Schneider said. “The first two hours of it felt like 20 minutes. It was just a very clear, focused, great plan. He nailed it.”
Schneider had spent weeks preparing for Macdonald, and the coach came as advertised. For Macdonald, the appointment was the culmination of a years-long journey that had nearly been sidetracked several times. In fact, his coaching career was nearly over before it had really begun. But Macdonald kept pushing.
Now the 37-year-old — the youngest head coach in the NFL — is leading the Seahawks in the post-Pete Carroll era. And for Macdonald, who once took out a $20,000 loan to make ends meet and pursue his dreams, the man who bet on himself has hit the jackpot.
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The best kind of mistake
While attending the University of Georgia as a finance major, Macdonald’s high school coach, Xarvia Smith, was hired by Cedar Shoals High in Athens. Smith lobbied Macdonald to jump on board and coach the ninth-grade team’s defense.
“Six games, five shutouts,” Macdonald beamed from the Seahawks’ indoor training facility last week.
Macdonald loved every part of it: the pride nights before games, mopping the floors, maintaining the field, holding up helmets in traffic, asking for donations to help cover the team’s expenses. He discovered a true love for the game within himself as he went from class to practice, led his team to another defensive masterpiece, and returned to campus to brag to his friends.
Macdonald was on track to graduate summa cum laude and was well on his way to a lucrative business career. But football tugged at the heartstrings as Macdonald considered his career path.
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“It was like, you know what, if I turn 40 one day and I didn’t pursue this, I’d be damning myself,” Macdonald said. “And if I do, I have an education that I can fall back on if this doesn’t work out, but this is something I really, really believe in.”
Macdonald said he worked his way onto the Georgia football coaching staff, hanging out at the facility regularly and trying to take advantage of being on campus with one of the top programs in the country.
Eventually, then-coach Mark Richt allowed Macdonald to join the team as a volunteer assistant in 2010. Much to the chagrin of his concerned father, Macdonald took out a $20,000 loan, money he would use to cover basic living expenses.
But the loan turned out to be a wise investment.
A few years later, the Ravens invited Macdonald to interview for then-general manager Ozzie Newsome’s 20-20-20 Club. It was a scouting internship program for twenty-somethings making $20,000 a year with “20” days.
Macdonald made a strong impression during his interview with a loaded team that included current Ravens general manager Eric DeCosta, Los Angeles Chargers GM Joe Hortiz and Chicago Bears assistant GM Ian Cunningham. But he didn’t get the job.
He later pointed out an obvious mistake during the interview, which probably proved fatal to his candidacy.
“I told Hortiz I still wanted to coach,” Macdonald said, “and that wasn’t the right thing to say in a scouting interview. He politely said, ‘Thanks, but no thanks.'”
Looking back?
“The best thing that ever happened to me,” Macdonald admitted.
Instead, Macdonald returned to Georgia in 2013 for his final year as an assistant. With his time nearly up, Macdonald saw no realistic opportunity to continue coaching, so he applied to the accounting firm KPMG for a job in their consulting wing.
It was good money and he could pay off his debts. Macdonald signed the offer letter, but then Ravens coach John Harbaugh called. He started his own internship program on the coaching side.
“I had to call our KPMG recruiter and tell him to fuck off,” Macdonald laughed.
Macdonald seized his opportunity. After a year as an intern, he was promoted to defensive assistant on coordinator Dean Pees’ staff and began his meteoric rise. He served as the Ravens defensive backs coach in 2017, then as linebackers coach from 2018-20 (under new DC Wink Martindale) while continuing to hone his craft.
“It was a fun process,” Macdonald said. “You sit there for four years and all that football you’ve learned (at Georgia), and finally someone is like, ‘Hey, what do you know? What did you learn?’ That was really cool. They’re really interested in my development. That’s something we’re trying to build here (at the Seahawks), trying to grow our young coaches into roles, and those are going to be our guys for years to come.”
Macdonald left for Michigan in 2021 as Jim Harbaugh’s defensive coordinator, before returning to the Ravens as their defensive coordinator from 2022-23. Last season, the Ravens became the first team in history to lead the NFL in points allowed, sacks and takeaways. Macdonald had skyrocketed into the head coaching conversation, and that outcome felt like a formality as they utterly crushed the Houston Texans and quarterback C.J. Stroud in the divisional round.
But each performance left Schneider and the Seahawks in limbo.
Don’t look back
The Seahawks’ search was delayed because they had to make a decision before selecting Carroll, which meant they missed their first opportunity to interview Macdonald.
However, Macdonald interviewed the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and Tennessee Titans. The Falcons and Raheem Morris were a perfect match for a reunion, while the Panthers (Dave Canales) and Titans (Brian Callahan) was looking for a head coach with an attacking attitude.
Macdonald was on the Seahawks’ shortlist from the start, so they did the background work while they waited. Schneider’s friends at the Falcons, Panthers and Titans raved about Macdonald, and Panthers general manager Dan Morgan — who worked for Schneider in Seattle from 2010 to 2017 — said Schneider and Macdonald would be a perfect fit.
Along with the Ravens’ defensive rise under Macdonald’s leadership, the Seahawks respected the way Michigan’s players improved during his season in Ann Arbor. The Ravens also beat the Seahawks 37-3 in Week 9, so they got to see Macdonald firsthand.
When they finally got their appointment, they knew they had found their man.
“There’s going to be a time for (reflection). I just don’t know when that’s going to happen,” Macdonald said. “But I definitely feel very fortunate and blessed. To do this job the right way, you have to serve your team. You have to think about how you can help those people. That’s what’s helped create these opportunities, to be able to impact the people around you in a positive way. People realize that over time, and that’s when those opportunities are created.”
Macdonald could have played it safe and pursued a career in business. He could have avoided the risk of the loan. He could have gone off the rails, broken character and become a scout. He could have stayed with KPMG.
But of course Macdonald didn’t want to turn 40 and wonder what would have happened next.
That’s a burden Macdonald will never have to bear.
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(Photo: Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
