One former Seahawks coach already under pressure with new team

Being any kind of professional head coach means you have decided to take a job with an employer that you will not work for the rest of your life. If a coach can last four seasons that seems like success most of the time. Former head coach Pete Carroll last 14 years with the Seattle Seahawks, but that is an extreme oddity and even Carroll was fired at the end.

New head coach Mike Macdonald got it a bit easy. He was so sought-after that as part of the enticement to come to Seattle, the team gave Macdonald a six-year contract. That is a long time for any coach, but for one who has never been a head coach before, that could lead to financial disaster. Macdonald gets paid for the next six seasons whether he is successful or not.

That should mean that Macdonald has quite a bit of pressure on him. He is taking over a team that didn't have a losing season the past two years, and one that retained a lot of its offensive talent. Macdonald just needs to fix the defense. Should he fail at the one thing he has proven he can do as a defensive coordinator before coming to Seattle, Macdonald could feel the pressure by year two or three.

Former Seahawks coach Dave Canales facing a lot of pressure in year one with new team

One former Seahawks coach, according to CBS Sports, faces the fifth-highest amount of pressure for any non-quarterback in the league. That coach is Dave Canales. Canales has had a sharp trajectory as far as his job title over the last few years. After being a Seahawks offensive coach from 2010 through 2022 - Canales coached quarterbacks and wide receivers at different times with Seattle - Canales became the offensive coordinator for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023.

A year later, he was hired to be the head coach for the Carolina Panthers. According to CBS Sports, Canales has one job he must do beyond all others: Get second-year player Bryce Young to be a great QB. Carolina was likely embarrassed by what happened last year because they chose Young with the first pick in the 2023 draft and the Houston Texans took C.J. Stroud second.

Young finished with a Total QBR of just 33.4 and had 11 touchdown passes versus 10 interceptions. Stroud led Houston to the playoffs, made the Pro Bowl, and had the sixth-best quarterback rating in the league. Stroud looks like a long-term leader. Young could be out of the league in five years, unless Canales can fix him.

If CBS Sports is correct, Canales is already under too much pressure. Mike Macdonald might be under too little. After all, Macdonald inherited the better overall roster with the Seahawks.

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