Head Coach Mike Macdonald On Sam Darnold's Performance In Week 9 And Building The Team's Culture

Mike Macdonald (0:01)

All right, I appreciate your patience. All right, everybody, Andrew, kick us off.

Andrew (0:09)

Mike, just wanted to ask you, not just in light of yesterday's performance from Sam, but generally speaking, midway through the year, is this what you had kind of expected for or hoped from him, or has he perhaps even exceeded expectations for what you had from him at the quarterback position coming into the year?

Mike Macdonald (0:24)

Yeah, I don't think we had expectations. We have a vision for what we felt like he could do. And it's a pretty big vision, how he's playing right now. And he's doing a great job. But the things that we thought he could do, he's definitely doing that and probably then some. We brought him in to be our quarterback, be a leader, win games, be efficient, all those things he's doing.

John.

John (1:06)

Yeah, Mike, you touched on this a little bit yesterday, but as you look at the film, how much with what Jaxon's doing this season, are you seeing, like, maybe as each week goes on, more opportunities coming up for other players as teams do more to try to take him away?

Mike Macdonald (1:20)

Yeah, it's interesting. I think there's different, like, I think there's different, like, mechanisms based off of the defensive systems you're in that teams can get to to take receivers away based on the situation.

First, give credit to our offensive coaches for moving them around and making them a moving target. But if, you know, if you're going to spend a lot of resources on making sure he doesn't catch the ball, then our guys are showing that they can take advantage of those opportunities and those one-on-ones, and Sam can deliver the ball to them. So it's great. You know, it's great. It's something that we're going to still have to take it. You know, I know if we were game-planning against us, you know, that would be one of our top priorities, is taking care of Jaxon. I'm sure the teams are thinking the same thing, because that's something we need to be taking into account moving forward.

SPEAKER_4 (2:12)

Greg. Sir, I'm going to shine a light on you and your coaches a little bit. Last night after the game in DC, a lot of the players were talking about how you guys, the coaches, want to set a culture. And then they talked about the things you do preparation for a game, like the Brandon Pili on the kickoff and preparing guys that are coming in, like Tyrice Knight and guys like that. How much pride do you take in your players? Maybe not even just talking to us about that, but just responding to the things you're teaching and showing them week to week?

Mike Macdonald (2:49)

Yeah. Man, I haven't really thought about it through that lens.

I think it probably reflects that our staff is aligned and we're going towards the same vision, which is important. You start straining in different directions. I think the players sniff that out. And then to build trust, I mean, you have to show that you can help guys out and that when you're making these decisions, it's the best interest for the team and the players. And so it's great to hear that they believe in us. And I know, I sure as heck hope that they can feel that we believe in them. And I think that's what happens, you know. That you can take some of these chances about using personnel a little bit unconventionally. And sometimes things aren't going to work, but I can definitely tell you that we can look our players in the face and tell them it's coming from a good place. And we think it's the best for them and the team.

SPEAKER_4 (3:49)

As a first-time CEO, who or what have you leaned on to build this? To get the messaging right, to reflect the staff cohesion?

What was the magic soup to do that?

Mike Macdonald (4:01)

Yeah, I think it's something that has evolved over time, you know. As you start as a young coach, you think you know everything, you think it's all about X's and O's, you start to gain some more responsibility, you realize it's definitely not just you, it takes the whole team. Then you start to realize alignment is really important. Again, around coaches like the Harbaugh's, about how principled they are and kind of those old school principles, that's something that I learned from those guys. Then you come here and you feel like you got a lot of great ideas, but it's probably a little too scattered.

Creating the alignment is easier said than done. It takes a lot of conversations, it takes some decisions that might not be easy to do in those moments. But I think I can speak for our coaching staff and the rest of our building. It's like, I think we've generated an idea of who we want to become, and what we want to be as an organization. And a lot of that groundwork has been here. And so that's probably what's made the transition fun. You know, it feels like it's not just me coming in saying, hey, this is the way we have to do everything. It's, hey, this is the vision that we want to create. What's the best way to get there on all these different decisions? So it's, yeah.