Macdonald: ‘Everything’s on table’ to change Seahawks. What that likely does, doesn’t mean
Mike Macdonald has said it, multiple times in the day since their latest loss.
"Everything's on the table."
What exactly does that mean for his sinking Seahawks? What actually will change?
Is it players losing starting jobs after five losses in six games that has ruined the 3-0, first-place start to this season?
Is it coaches changing the plays they run? Is it Geno Smith, the NFL's leader in interceptions through nine games, throwing less and Kenneth Walker running more? Is it the other way around?
Is it a change in how they practice? Because what the coaches feel they've perfected from Monday through Saturday sure isn't working on Sunday.
Is it a trade before the league's deadline for trading arrives at 1 p.m. Tuesday?
"All the above," Macdonald, the rookie head coach and league's youngest, said Monday morning.
He was speaking before a team meeting the day after Seattle (4-5) lost its four consecutive home game, 26-20 in overtime to their NFC West-rival Los Angeles Rams at booing Lumen Field.
The players scatter. The coaches-and Geno Smith-don't
The Seahawks began their bye week Monday. They next play on Nov. 17, at division-kingpin San Francisco (4-4).
The players left Monday afternoon to a six-day vacation. They aren't due back to the team's facility until next Monday, Nov. 11, for a practice to begin to play a 49ers team that's beaten Seattle convincingly six consecutive time including in Lumen Field last month.
It's become customary in today's NFL for players to get the entire bye week off as their only in-season chance for a full week of rest and relaxation.
Smith said-while apologizing publicly to his teammates and the city of Seattle following his three interceptions to go with three touchdowns and 363 yards passing against the Rams-that he isn't going anywhere this bye week.
The 12th-year veteran quarterback was asked following Sunday's game if he was looking forward to "getting away" this week.
"I'm going to work," Smith, with 11 touchdowns and 10 interceptions through nine games, said. "I know it's good to have the days of rest, but I've got work to do. "And I'll be working.
"I"m going to do my thing. I'm going to get better."
Macdonald says he and his coaches aren't going anywhere, either. They're got too much on that table in team headquarters.
"I think we're doing a lot of good things, but if you go in kind of just with a myopic view of, 'Hey, it's only over here,' then you might miss something. I don't want to miss something," Macdonald, 37, said. "So, let's go through it with a fine-tooth comb and let's be honest and let's go."
Macdonald and his 21 assistant coaches who are in their first season with the team might need hazmat suits to handle the team's game films.
The Seahawks have the league's fourth-worst turnover margin, minus-6. No team in the NFL has a winning record with a turnover margin worse than minus-3.
Seattle's 74 penalties are the most in the league. A whopping 22 of those are pre-snap penalties, false starts and delays of game. That plus five failed snaps between Smith and center Connor Williams that has resulted in 70 lost yards and a ruined fourth and goal from the 1-yard line in the last two games, losses to the Bills and Rams, have made the Seahawks looked utterly unprepared and uncoached at times recently.
"A lot of it is self-inflicted adversity," Macdonald said, "and great football teams don't do that. They eliminate drag. They go forward fast together.
"We're going together. We're just not going fast right now. So it's our job as coaches to really eliminate that drag and make it clear for the guys.
"And like I said (Sunday) night, you got to go into these things with the mentality that everything's on the table."
Geno Smith at quarterback
Does "everything on the table" include possibly replacing Smith with backup Sam Howell, Washington's starter last season, at quarterback?
"Everything" does imply that, too.
Macdonald wasn't asked specifically about that Monday. That has not been audible talk about it within Seahawks headquarters.
The coach says it's on the porous offensive line, the coaches designing and calling the plays, the rest of the offense more than it's on Smith.
The Seahawks have allowed 144 pressures in pass protection, the most in the NFL, according to Pro Football Focus. Seattle's 103 quarterback hurries are 12 more than any other team.
Smith has taken the fourth-most sacks in the league this season, 28. Only Deshaun Watson (for Cleveland), C.J. Stroud (Houston) and Caleb Williams (Chicago) have been sacked more.
"Really, we've got to do a better job of taking care of Geno throughout the course of the game," Macdonald said when asked Monday to assess Smith's play. "We have to be more efficient on those early downs so teams aren't teeing off on us on second long.
"And, it's hard."
But he's not absolving Smith of blame.
"Now in those situations we do have, at the end of the day, we've got to be ball-dominant. We can't put the ball in harm's way," Macdonald said. "Geno knows that."
Smith's first interception against the Rams came in the first half when Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who had a career game with 180 yards receiving, had Smith's accurate pass over the middle go off his hands into those of a defender at midfield.
Smith's second interception, into the end zone in the fourth quarter, was into five Rams. Kamren Kinchens ran that back 103 yards for L.A.'s go-ahead touchdown. Smith said later he was trying to throw the ball out of the back of the end zone but held onto it too long and Los Angeles Byron Young hit his arm as he threw.
"There's no excuses to be made. I can throw that away, get it out sooner. Be faster in my decision-making," Smith said. "Trying to make a play down there. Held it a second too long and it didn't turn out well."
Smith's third interception, also inside the 10-yard line in the fourth quarter, came when tight end AJ Barner tried to run across and behind the offensive line into the right flat. Williams, right guard Anthony Bradford and rookie fourth-string right tackle Mike Jerrell all got pushed back by the Rams' defensive front, into Barner's path. Braden Fiske, one of the defensive linemen who beat Seattle's offensive line on the play and all day, then grabbed Barner's arm as the tight end tried to get outside to Smith's pass. Barner never got there.
Finchens got his second interception.
"I thought he got grabbed. Again, that's not an excuse," Smith said. "The ball's in my hands. I get the chance to make a decision and ultimately my decisions affect everybody, not just myself. And so I've got to be better.
"I'm not just saying that to say it. I really know that I can be better. And so it hurts me. It hurts me that I wasn't able to get it done (Sunday)."
Or the previous Sunday in a 21-point home loss to Buffalo .
Or last month at home against the 49ers.
Or four days before that at home against the New York Giants .
Or in the end of a shootout at Detroit the last day of September.
Macdonald isn't putting that all on Smith.
"I know that's why he's really hard on himself right now," Macdonald said. "But, it is more of a reflection of us as a football team than just Geno when the quarterback's getting hit. So we've got to do a better job.
"We've got to protect him better. And I'm sure he's going to tell you that he's going to take ownership of the three picks. We've got to make smarter decisions in that way. We've got to finish drives. We've got to take care of the football. You guys see it. We see it. We have to be better if we're going to win."
This bye week is an obvious time for Macdonald and his coaches to assess and make changes.
"I think, yeah, you have a little bit more time to take a breath," the coach said. "And some things you're not path-dependent on either schematically personnel-wise, you feel like you can maybe take more of a detour than you would on a normal week's schedule.
"We have an opportunity here this week to attack the heck out of this bye week. Our players get a chance to really recover and take care of their bodies. And coaches-wise, we got some work on our hands to go attack this thing and really continue to streamline what we're doing, how we're coaching it.
"We have to start producing better results. Everybody knows that, and onward we go, but we got a big week ahead of us."
