The Baltimore Ravens lost their playoff game Sunday.
They lost their prized defensive coordinator Wednesday.
According to multiple reports, the Seattle Seahawks are hiring Ravens DC Mike Macdonald as their next head coach. As ESPN’s Adam Schefter notes, Macdonald will become the league’s youngest head coach at 36 years old.
The deal is still being finalized but expected to be completed soon. Per NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero, it’s a six-year deal.
Macdonald will replace Pete Carroll, who had been one of the NFL’s longest-tenured coaches before getting pushed out of his role by the Seahawks’ front office after failing to make the playoffs. It led GM John Schneider to conduct his first head-coaching search, one the team was careful and patient about. The Seahawks become the second-to-last team to hire a head coach with the Washington Commanders now having the only vacancy.
Macdonald has been a masterful coordinator and did his best work in 2023. Baltimore led the NFL in scoring defense, giving up barely more than 16 points per game, while leading the league with 60 sacks. They had talent at all three levels and his aggressive scheme and solid game planning made life difficult on opposing offenses. Even in Sunday’s loss in the AFC Championship Game, the Ravens held the Kansas City Chiefs to just 17 points, the second-fewest Patrick Mahomes has ever posted in a playoff game (his lowest came in a 31-9 Super Bowl loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers).
Macdonald broke into the NFL as a coaching intern with the Baltimore Ravens in 2014. He’s been with the team ever since save for a stint with Michigan as the Wolverines’ DC in 2021 when he joined John Harbaugh’s brother Jim in Ann Arbor. Macdonald returned to the Ravens in 2022, replacing Wink Martindale as the team’s new defensive coordinator. Now, Baltimore must replace Macdonald. Perhaps that will be done by DL Coach Anthony Weaver though he remains a candidate to become the Commanders’ next head coach.
Macdonald’s hire is the second loss the Ravens’ staff has suffered in recent days. Joe Hortiz left to become the Los Angeles Chargers’ next general manager, pairing with Jim Harbaugh out west. With the departures of Macdonald and Hortiz, a longtime member of the Ravens’ front office, Baltimore has suffered critical losses that will be tough to replace.
