Richard Sherman believes Seahawks are ready to pounce under Mike Macdonald

Having a new head coach does not mean a team is going to struggle in year one. Nearly half of new head coaches since 2000. In 2022, five first-year head coaches led their team to the postseason. Mike Macdonald is definitely capable of getting the Seattle Seahawks back to the playoffs this season.

Seattle has quite a bit of talent on both sides of the ball. Macdonald's defensive scheme should be good enough to help greatly improve the defense. New offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb inherits a lot of veteran offensive weapons. Plus, the best phase of Seattle's team might be their special teams group.

Former Seahawks cornerback turned NFL commentator Richard Sherman thinks any pundit saying the Seahawks will not be good this year is wrong. In fact, he said on his podcast that he believes Seattle could be a "dark horse" team to contend for a championship in Macdonald's first season.

Richard Sherman effusive in his praise of the Seattle Seahawks

Sherman was especially effusive in his praise of quarterback Geno Smith saying, "Geno looks as good as he's ever been. If you can keep him upright and protected, he's as good as anybody right now." In other words, Sherman would argue with anyone saying Smith was a bad quarterback.

The biggest difference for Seattle this season, according to Sherman, will be the defense. He said, "The biggest leap is going to be defense. They are stockpiling on a lot of defensive lines. Jarren Reed, Leonard Williams. Byron Murphy and Boye Mafe at the EDGE... Chenna. Byron Murphy is going to fit into this system very well. Such tremendous depth. Riq and Witherspoon are going to have great years. The team is going to be a dark horse."

Sherman still lives in the Seattle area, but he is no homer. If that was the case, he would have never signed with the rival San Francisco 49ers after leaving the Seahawks in 2017. While the cornerback has been seen helping at Seattle practice in recent training camps, his tie to the team was Pete Carroll and now, of course, Carroll is gone.

Sherman has no reason to praise Seattle as much as he did, but 12s should hope he is correct. And there is no reason to suspect Sherman is wrong. Seattle went 9-8 in the past two seasons and made the playoffs in one of them. The talent is there but the coaching direction wasn't. Now, hopefully, it is.

The good thing is we will know how good the Seahawks are quite soon. Week 1 will be at Lumen Field on Sunday, September 8, against the Denver Broncos.

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