Head Coach Mike Macdonald On The Quenton Nelson Trade, Preparing For Week 8

Mike Macdonald (0:01)

All right, great to see everybody. Welcome to our Football Wednesday. I don't want to hear any otherwise. But we've had a couple of good days here, and then it will be exciting for today's practice. I feel like we haven't been out there in a minute. But a great opportunity. Really the message of the team is how fast we can evolve, move forward, and stack wins. And it starts with today's practice. So obviously, we're really excited to have the opportunity to acquire Quentin Nelson. I think John and his team did a great job of making that happen. And we're excited for him to join our squad, join the 12s. Also, I just felt like it's necessary saying, I think our offensive line probably played their best game of the season this past Sunday night. And I just want to be clear, this isn't like a commentary on any of our personnel or anything like that. We love our guys.

It's a situation where you understand how it affects the guys that have been here and working really hard and have earned a great role in our team. But also, two things can be true at the same time. It's an opportunity to bring along, in all time, probably a surefire Hall of Fame guard and with a great track record and understanding about the type of person he is to join our locker room. It's just an opportunity that is going to make the Seahawks better.

So today is kind of day two with him in the building and it's exciting to be out there practicing today.

SPEAKER_2 (1:37)

As a defensive coach who's seen plenty of his tape over the years preparing for them, what does he bring to the game?

Mike Macdonald (1:45)

Well, I think the style of play is the first thing you think of when you think of Quenton. Obviously, he's got incredible ability, but the physicality, the relentless play.

We always talk about decisive shock and relentless. I think that's probably a good way to sum up what it looks like on tape. So it's going to be like again, we've put a lot of time and effort into the chemistry of our offensive line. And we've got a couple of things shaking up right now, but the guys will do a great job of meshing and getting on the same page. And I think we'll be better for it.

SPEAKER_3 (2:20)

What was your reaction like when you found out that the trade went down?

Mike Macdonald (2:25)

I think the way I summed it up earlier is the way to go. As the head coach, you wear two hats. You understand how it's going to affect your team in the short run. But you think in the long run how great it is for the Seahawks. So it's really exciting.

Call me crazy. I don't like to react as things are happening in the wild because we like to be active in a lot of things. And so to put your eggs in one basket. And then to me, emotionally, it's just like, hey, let's just stay the course. And we'll coach the heck out of whoever ends up on our team. So that's really how I choose to look at it. But it's definitely an exciting opportunity for us.

SPEAKER_4 (3:10)

What's the plan?

SPEAKER_3 (3:11)

Does he play left guard?

Mike Macdonald (3:13)

Yeah, he's going to play left guard. And Grey's going to slide to the right.

SPEAKER_4 (3:18)

How does the number of games that Quentin has played help with this fairly quick transition, as we would expect?

Mike Macdonald (3:23)

Well, I think it's definitely going to help. I mean, he's a really sharp guy. He's been working really hard since he got here. He got caught up to speed.

You know, there's a lot of things that we do that is a lot of carryover from what he's familiar with. And there's some things that are different. So he'll do a great job. Our coach has done a great job of kind of getting up to speed. But he's going to be fine. He's going to be great.

SPEAKER_5 (3:49)

It wasn't that long ago that Guard was considered a pretty low value position in the NFL hierarchy. Why is someone like Quenton valuable?

Mike Macdonald (4:01)

Why is he valuable? Well, he's a great player. I think when we're looking at people to join our team, I think it's the whole package too of what they're like every day in the building and how they approach, what kind of teammate they are. And then, I mean, it's going to help us in the run game, the pass game.