Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald reached football’s summit in his second year in Seattle. He now says the beginning of that climb included the “most difficult stretch” of his life.
Macdonald opened up about his personal struggles during his first season with the Seahawks in an interview with Graham Bensinger, describing periods when he would come home, get into bed and barely leave it until he had to return to work.
“I’ve never felt like that in my life,” Macdonald told Bensinger in an interview excerpt provided to Heavy. “I was sick.”
The admission provides a stark new perspective on a 2024 season that looked considerably more encouraging from the outside. Seattle finished 10-7, setting a franchise record for wins by a first-year head coach, and won six of its final eight games as Macdonald’s defense improved down the stretch. The Seahawks nevertheless missed the playoffs on a tiebreaker.
Macdonald says his struggles went well beyond football.
Mike Macdonald Details Difficult First Months With Seahawks
Bensinger asked Macdonald about his sister Maggie’s belief that he was dealing with depression.
Macdonald stopped short of diagnosing himself.
“Is it depression? I don’t know, maybe,” he said, adding that he believed it would be “irresponsible” for him to make that diagnosis himself.
What he could describe was the effect.
Macdonald said there were weekends when he did not get out of bed. His routine deteriorated. He was sometimes late going to work. He also acknowledged, “I was drinking a lot.”
The cross-country move to Seattle and the sudden death of the family dog, Bruce, were among the circumstances Macdonald discussed in the interview.
His wife, Stephanie, and his sisters became the people he leaned on most. Macdonald said rebuilding a routine also mattered: working out, taking long walks, eating better and finding small wins he could begin stacking together.
Eventually, he remembers going to Seahawks general manager John Schneider with a simple update.
“Feel like myself again.”
Macdonald believes that happened sometime during the second half of his first season.
The timing is notable. Seattle’s defense also made significant progress late that year, helping the Seahawks finish 6-2 over their final eight games.
Macdonald Says He ‘Was Not a Great Leader’ in Year 1
Macdonald’s assessment of himself is considerably harsher than his first-year record suggests.
“I was not a great leader my first year,” Macdonald said. “It sucks to say that.”
He pointed specifically to deficiencies in awareness, trust and communication.
There was another adjustment underneath all of it.
Macdonald had spent nine seasons in Baltimore over two stints before Seattle hired him away from the Ravens in 2024. In Baltimore, he told Bensinger, he viewed his job as coaching the defense in the image head coach John Harbaugh wanted for his team.
Then Macdonald became the man ultimately responsible for defining that image.
“I was John’s guy that now doesn’t have John anymore,” Macdonald said.
The question that followed was uncomfortable: “Am I Mike Macdonald? Is Mike Macdonald good enough?”
A year later, the answer on the field was emphatic.
Seattle went 14-3 in 2025, earned the NFC’s No. 1 seed and beat the New England Patriots 29-13 in Super Bowl LX for the second championship in franchise history.
That progression makes Macdonald’s description of 2024 more than an offseason confession. What looked like the foundation of Seattle’s rapid rise was, from the head coach’s perspective, also a period when he was trying to rebuild himself.
Seahawks Enter Year 3 With Macdonald After Super Bowl Title
Macdonald’s Seahawks are now dealing with an entirely different kind of pressure.
Seattle began the 2026 season with a 13-10 win over New England in a Super Bowl rematch despite losing quarterback Sam Darnold to a hip injury on the opening possession.
The Seahawks next travel to face the Arizona Cardinals on September 20.
Macdonald enters that game as a Super Bowl-winning head coach.
His new interview makes clear how far removed that version of him feels from the one who first arrived in Seattle.
Seahawks HC Mike Macdonald Opens Up on ‘Most Difficult Stretch’ of His Life