Who makes Mike Macdonald’s defense so good? Seahawks to watch in Super Bowl LX

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Seattle Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald was standing on stage during a news conference Tuesday, five days before Super Bowl LX, when a reporter asked him about the importance of good defense in winning games in the NFL.

«Well,» Macdonald said before a brief pause, «right up my alley.»

Macdonald, 38, is the architect and playcaller of the Seahawks defense that enters Sunday’s championship game against the New England Patriots (6:30 p.m. ET, NBC) allowing a league-low 17.2 points per game. Including the playoffs, it has held opponents to 10 points or fewer five times.

It’s the biggest reason the Seahawks won a club-record 14 games during the regular season and will play for the second Lombardi Trophy in the franchise’s 50-year history.

But Seattle’s defense hasn’t always been the dominant unit it is today. Macdonald recalled the growing pains it experienced over the first half of 2024 — his first season in Seattle after replacing Pete Carroll — and how it took a turn once everyone began pulling in the same direction. He cited a seminal defensive meeting going into a post-bye game in Week 11 against the San Francisco 49ers at Levi’s Stadium, where they’ll face the Patriots on Sunday.

«We just made kind of a pact with each other: We’re going to be a great defense no matter what it takes,» Macdonald said of that 2024 meeting, «and they bought in. It didn’t happen overnight, but that’s the type of stuff and the dedication it takes, moving in the same direction to actually make this thing come to life.»

Micah Parsons or Myles Garrett. There are multiple difference-makers at all three levels.

They include cornerback Devon Witherspoon, whose hard-nosed approach brings a heightened level of physicality to the back end, and Nick Emmanwori, the versatile rookie safety/nickelback who gives Macdonald flexibility while roaming the middle of his defense. DeMarcus Lawrence is the veteran outside linebacker who has continued to make game-changing plays in his 12th season — including one in the biggest moment of the season, when he went freelanced on a crucial fourth-down play against the Los Angeles Rams in last month’s NFC Championship Game.

Let’s take a closer look at those three key defensive players and how they helped Seattle reach Super Bowl LX.

Richard Sherman and the rest of the Legion of Boom secondary that helped the Carroll-era Seahawks win Super Bowl XLVIII. It’s easy to forget that he weighs only 185 pounds when you watch him hurl his body at ball carriers or sometimes throw them to the turf.

Late in his rookie season, Witherspoon did that to Jaylen Warren, the Pittsburgh Steelers’ 215-pound running back. Williams hasn’t forgotten.

«He picks up another grown man and just slams him,» Williams said. «Since then, I call him one of us D-lineman. He plays in the trenches like he’s a big guy, and I love to see that.»

The Seahawks allowed an NFL-low 3.7 yards per carry in 2025 despite leading the league in snaps played with at least five defensive backs on the field. It’s a testament to how good Witherspoon and others in Seattle’s secondary are against the run.

Matthew Stafford threw into the end zone on consecutive plays, first to receiver Konata Mumpfield and then to tight end Terrance Ferguson, Witherspoon broke up both passes.

«That’s Devon Witherspoon, that’s him,» Macdonald said after the Seahawks hung on for a 31-27 win. «We didn’t execute that play well on the fourth down, but he just covered his guy forever and just refused to let his guy catch the ball. … That’s who he is every day.»

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Baltimore safety Kyle Hamilton, a do-it-all defender whom Macdonald helped develop into an All-Pro during his two seasons as the Ravens’ coordinator.

On the Seahawks’ roster, Emmanwori is listed as a safety, the position he played at South Carolina. He is also referred to as a nickelback while playing almost every down as one of five defensive backs on the field. But Macdonald has called him «a crazy athletic» linebacker.

«I think the cool thing that our front allows us to do, what Nick allows us to do, is we get some front variety that normally you wouldn’t get out of a true four-down team,» Macdonald said, «and I think that’s been pretty cool what we’ve been able to create.»

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Whereas he was mainly a deep safety at South Carolina, he now moves around the field, and because of his varied skill set, he hardly ever has to leave it, regardless of the personnel the offense brings out.

On any given play, he might be lined up next to linebacker Ernest Jones IV on the second level. That’s where he came from to drop San Francisco 49ers tight end George Kittle in Week 18 for one of the nine tackles for loss he made during the regular season.

Or he could be lined up in the slot opposite a receiver. One of Emmanwori’s 11 passes defensed in the regular season came while covering speedy Minnesota Vikings All-Pro Justin Jefferson in Week 13. He added three more passes defensed in the NFC Championship Game against the Rams, including two while lined up against Davante Adams and Puka Nacua.

Macdonald doesn’t blitz often, but Emmanwori can do that as well. He had 2.5 sacks in 14 games, missing three and most of a fourth after suffering a high-ankle sprain in the opener. The Seahawks listed Emmanwori as a limited participant Wednesday after he left practice with an ankle injury.

«Nick is a special, special guy.» Lawrence said Wednesday. «For him to be so versatile and how tall and lean he is. I think it’s every coach’s dream to have that one player that you can move all around the field. I look down the line sometimes and I look out and I’m like, ‘Bro, why are you so close to me?’ He’s down there in the trenches trying to play like a D-lineman.»

According to NFL Next Gen Stats, he was one of only six defensive backs to log over 80 snaps on the line of scrimmage (86), at linebacker (284) and at slot corner (326), along with Hamilton, Derwin James Jr., Jaquan Brisker, Jeremy Chinn, and Nick Cross.

It has taken a group effort among Macdonald’s staff, on the field and in the classroom, to get Emmanwori ready to play multiple positions at a high level as a rookie. He gets extra work in with Howard, defensive coordinator Aden Durde and outside linebackers coach Chris Partridge, among others.

It also took a decision to keep him in his unique role early in the season, when Julian Love suffered a hamstring injury that would sideline him for nine games. Instead of temporarily moving Emmanwori into that spot, the Seahawks had Ty Okada slide in at safety, and the former undrafted free agent validated that decision with starter-level play.

It allowed Emmanwori to continue to grow — and flourish — in his versatile role.

«It’s crazy all the stuff that he’s done, and it’s really just a credit to him,» Howard said. «It’s hard to niche him into a position group because the things you’re asking him to do are almost positionless. He almost has to be coached by multiple position groups and coaches so that he gets time on task on what you’re asking him to do. But he’s definitely made us a better defense because we can be so multiple out of a single personnel grouping.»

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Kyren Williams out of the backfield — but Lawrence, unscripted, did the same. Once the ball was snapped, Williams beat Love off the line and would have been open for the go-ahead touchdown. But when Stafford looked Williams’ way, Lawrence was there to deter the throw. When Stafford tried to hit Ferguson in the back of the end zone, Witherspoon broke it up.

Speaking to reporters afterward, Rams coach Sean McVay said the Seahawks lucked into the stop, calling it a «fortuitous bust» that led Lawrence and Love to cover the same player. Lawrence, however, said it was instinct, explaining that he correctly read that Stafford would try to throw hot to Williams based on how quickly the back released.

«Playing as long as I’ve played it, I’ve seen so many formations and schemes,» he said, «you start to pick up on those things.»

As unexpected as it was, the season-saving play was the latest example of Lawrence’s impact on Seattle’s defense in 2025.

After signing a three-year, $32.5 million contract in March, the longtime Dallas Cowboys defensive end made a strong impression from the get-go, bringing out superlative praise from the usually measured Macdonald, who called him «the best drill player I’ve ever seen in my life.»

«You could ask him to do any drill known to mankind,» Macdonald said, «and just the trust he has in why you’re doing it, it is 1,000 percent every rep.»

Macdonald uses the word «shocking» to describe the effort he wants to see out of his players. In Seattle’s Week 13 game against Minnesota — a 26-0 Seahawks win — Lawrence provided perhaps the best example. While rushing quarterback Max Brosmer in the third quarter, he detoured to disrupt Aaron Jones’ release out of the backfield. The running back knocked him off balance, sending him to the turf several yards upfield as Jones caught a swing pass and headed the opposite direction. Lawrence was out of the play, and then suddenly he wasn’t. After springing back to his feet, he chased down Jones in a full sprint and forced a fumble that Okada recovered.

It wasn’t even the most impactful play Lawrence made in that game. He also pressured Brosmer into a desperation throw that Jones intercepted and returned 85 yards for a touchdown. But the forced fumble impressed Macdonald most.

«Probably my new favorite play of all time,» he said postgame.

In a 44-22 win over the Arizona Cardinals in Week 10, the 33-year-old Lawrence became the fourth player in NFL history to return two fumbles for touchdowns in the same game. He recorded six sacks in 16 regular-season contests on his way to the fifth Pro Bowl nod of his career, then he added two more in the playoffs. One of them forced a Brock Purdy fumble that Emmanwori recovered.

«He’s changed our defense a lot,» defensive tackle Jarran Reed said. «He can stop the run, he can rush the passer, he gets turnovers.»

Lawrence has also helped change Seattle’s pressure plan this season. Despite Macdonald’s plan of blitzing more in 2025, thanks to the pass-rushing production Lawrence and the rest of the front four have generated, the Seahawks finished the regular season with the sixth-lowest blitz rate but the fifth-best pressure rate in the NFL, putting opposing quarterbacks under duress on 35.2% of their dropbacks.

Injuries on their back end might have further deterred Macdonald from blitzing since taking a defender out of coverage to rush would have further taxed the secondary. But Macdonald also simply didn’t have to. Lawrence and the rest of his front four — led by Williams, Byron Murphy II and Uchenna Nwosu — was good enough to get to the quarterback on their own.

Upon signing with Seattle, Lawrence told Seahawks blogger Brian Nemhauser that he «knew for sure» he would not win a Super Bowl in Dallas.

Now he has a chance to do it in Seattle.

When the Seahawks’ charter touched down in San Jose on Sunday, Lawrence was the first player to deboard. Whether intended or not, one of the Seahawks’ best defenders leading the team off the plane was a fitting visual given that Macdonald’s unit, more than anything, led them to Super Bowl LX.