Seahawks' recent changes imply Mike Macdonald distrusted leadership

The Seattle Seahawks roster belongs to general manager John Schneider. But the locker room and communication directly to the team belong to Mike Macdonald. While the new head coach might not be in charge of any final roster decisions, his job is to make the players given him into a cohesive unit that trusts each other and maximizes Schneider's roster.

Macdonald obviously has to trust what talk happens between players is for the greater good of the team as well. While there is no real thing as a players' council in the NFL, Macdonald and his coaching staff can only do so much. Players need to have great communication on the field to be efficient and inside the locker room, a player needs to feel a kinship with their fellow guys who are natural leaders.

I bring all of that up because the Seahawks have made a lot of changes this offseason. In is Macdonald and out is former head coach Pete Carroll. Seattle has released such players as Jamal Adams and Will Dissly. Both players had spent multiple years with the Seattle organization. But a more important change has also occurred.

Mike Macdonald might want changes among Seahawks players leadership

In 2023, the team voted their captains to be Geno Smith, Tyler Lockett, Bobby Wagner, Quandre Diggs, Nick Bellore, and Jason Myers. Wagner is a free agent who might not return if Macdonald wants to get his defense to be younger and better in pass coverage. Lockett, though, had his contract reworked recently and will be playing for less money in the next two years than he originally thought. The other option was to release Lockett.

Diggs and Bellore have been released outright. Both could re-sign, of course. Bellore was released by Seattle in 2020 and then re-signed the next day. He is a great veteran voice in the locker room but only truly productive as a special teamer. Pete Carroll might have been a bigger Bellore supporter than Macdonald if the base argument as to whether to keep Bellore or not is strictly financial.

The fact remains at this point that of the Seahawks' six captains in 2023, only three are expected to return in 2024. This might just be a matter of money, sure. But there is as much a likelihood that Mike Macdonald took a look at his team and told John Schneider, "I need to be able to make this team in my image and that means changes among player leadership." That is Macdonald's right, of course, but the question now is, Who are the leaders on the field for the Seahawks?

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