Last February, the Seattle Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald became the 13th head coach to win the Super Bowl within his first two seasons with his team. To be honest, I was a little surprised the number was that high. Only 37 coaches have won a Super Bowl. That means more than one-third of them did it in their first two seasons.
It is still a remarkable achievement, but it by no means guarantees future success. But I can make Macdonald’s triumph look more impressive if I start identifying a few caveats.
For instance, four of the twelve previous coaches inherited playoff-caliber teams.
How will Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald fare coming off his Super Bowl season
George Seifert, Barry Switzer, Jon Gruden, and Gary Kubiak all took over teams that had been to the playoffs in the previous year. Macdonald did not. The first man to achieve this milestone, Don McCaffrey, took over a Baltimore Colts club that had been to the Super Bowl just two years before. Mike Macdonald did not.
Then there is Bruce Arians. The Tampa Bay team he began coaching in 2019 was not very good, going 10-22 in the two previous seasons. But before his second year, the Bucs signed Tom Brady and won a Super Bowl.
Before Macdonald’s second year, the Seahawks signed Sam Darnold. Nobody was mistaking Sam Darnold for Tom Brady.
So maybe what Macdonald managed is a little more special than I initially made it sound. I just weeded out half of the coaches. That leaves six more whose achievements more closely resemble those of the Seahawks head man.
But if you’re looking for trends or consensus amongst those six, you will be disappointed.
It is true that half of the remaining six coaches are in the NFL Hall of Fame, while a fourth probably will be once he is eligible. Two of the four – Joe Gibbs and Bill Belichick – are among the greatest of all time. The other two – Tom Flores and Mike Tomlin – aren’t exactly slouches.
But I'm going to give you a minute to see if you can think of the other two. Both assumed leadership of struggling teams and, within two years, claimed the Lombardi Trophy. One had a very respectable coaching career, though he never made it back to the Super Bowl. The other has a career losing record as a coach.
All right, that’s enough time. The correct answers are Brian Billick, who won the Super Bowl in his second season with Baltimore in 2000, and Doug Pederson, who took the Eagles to the title in his second season in 2017.
The year after Billick won his title, a retread coach with Billick's initials in his second season with New England claimed his first of six Super Bowls. So the question is, will Mike Macdonald’s career more closely resemble that of Brian Billick or that of Bill Belichick?
On the encouraging side, Macdonald superficially resembles Belichick. Both came from defensive backgrounds. Neither spoke all that much to the media. Macdonald certainly appears more welcoming and more willing to engage, but he is still young. Maybe he'll grow crotchety like Belichick. For now, he seems a bit more low-key.
Billick was an offensive genius. He loved to talk. Still does. If anything, he more closely resembles current Rams coach Sean McVay. Of course, those are merely superficial similarities.
It would be insane to suggest Mike Maconald will one day equal Bill Belichick’s record for championships. However, 13 coaches have won at least two Super Bowls, and Macdonald could obviously join that list. He has a lot of things going for him.
This became clear during his first season. Heading into their bye week, the team had dropped two straight games and five out of their last six. Macdonald, who had never been a head coach at any level, was facing his first major crisis. He used that bye week to reassess everything. The team promptly won four straight, including three divisional matchups. They closed the year on a 6-2 run.
Then, in the off season, Macdonald jettisoned several ineffective assistant coaches who he had hired less than one year before. The most important was offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb. Like Macdonald, Grubb had no NFL experience at his new job. Unlike Macdonald, he did not have the wherewithal to adapt.
The decisiveness with which Macdonald has owned his mistakes may be the greatest asset he has shown as a coach. He clearly has a very creative defensive mind. But being a head coach requires more than that. At this point, he seems to have that perfect balance of confidence and humility that allows him to lead his team.
You see it reflected in his most trusted assistants – especially defensive coordinator Aden Durde. Durde presided over one of the league's two best defenses in 2025 and won a Super Bowl. How many people outside Seattle have even heard of him?
In the middle of the 2025 season, as it was slowly dawning on the league that the Seahawks might be for real, veteran DeMarcus Lawrence summed up his head coach best: “He’s a calculated hothead.”
Lawrence went on to say how the coaches and players shared a mutual respect. They trusted each other. There is nothing more important on a football team. X’s and O’s, sound bites, public reputation – none of that matters as much as trust.
It’s too early to know where Mike Macdonald’s career is heading. According to at least one major oddsmaker, Seattle is currently the fourth choice to win the Super Bowl this year, trailing Buffalo, Baltimore, and the consensus top choice, McVay’s Rams.
All I know is that Mike Macdonald is not yet 40, has won more than 70 percent of his games, and has a Super Bowl. He seems to be in lockstep with a first-rate general manager. I like his chances of claiming another championship or two down the road.
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