Mike Macdonald doesn’t have a quick fix for Seahawks’ defensive struggles

Hey, Rome wasn’t built in a day — nor was the Seattle Seahawks’ defense.

The Seahawks hired former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald to lead the team after moving on from longtime head coach Pete Carroll this past offseason. The Seahawks, ideally, wanted Macdonald to turn around their defense quickly so that they could get back to being a real player in the NFC instead of a fringe playoff team. But it’s clearly going to take some time for Macdonald to get the Seahawks’ defense moving in the right direction.

Seattle beat up on some really bad offenses to start the season before playing offenses that can compete in the playoffs. The results have been underwhelming to say the least for Seattle. The Seahawks’ 36-24 loss to the 49ers on Thursday night at home showed it’s tough to fix a bad defense in one offseason.

They were steamrolled by the 49ers, allowing 7.9 yards per play as they’ve been arguably the worst defense in football over the past few weeks. Since Week 4, the Seahawks rank 31st in expected points allowed per play (0.233), according to rbsdm.com. They’ve been cut through with ease as their early season performances against Bo Nix, Tim Boyle, Skylar Thompson and Jacoby Brissett appear to be a total facade.

This should have been expected.

The Seahawks had one of the worst defenses in the league a year ago, which is what led to Carroll’s ousting. What’s disappointing for Seattle is that it actually put resources into this defense — and it’s still bad. The Seahawks spent a top-five draft pick on Devon Witherspoon, paid Dre’Mont Jones in free agency, traded for Leonard Williams and have spent other high-value picks on this defense. It still is not any good.

That means the Seahawks are likely going to have to strip pieces from it for the eventual rebuild because what they have going now isn’t working. General manager John Schneider has put this defense in a bit of a hole with some of his personnel decisions and the team as a whole is feeling the ramifications of it.

As the Seahawks’ game against the 49ers showed, this team has a small margin for error when it comes to playing the better clubs on its schedule. Geno Smith and the Seahawks’ offense need to be near perfect, which they absolutely weren’t Thursday night. They can’t afford to have sloppy turnovers and miscues because their defense is nonexistent right now. This doesn’t mean their season is over, but Seattle’s ceiling is severely capped as long as this is how its defense is going to perform.

The run defense is abysmal, the pass defense is giving up too many big plays and the Seahawks aren’t physical at the point of attack. The 76-yard run by rookie Isaac Guerendo to ice the game in the fourth quarter encapsulated all of Seattle’s issues on defense. Blown off the ball by the offensive line and poor angles from the second-level defenders doomed the Seahawks. They likely need better players in upcoming offseasons.

Macdonald isn’t doomed as the Seahawks head coach. Remember, the Ravens had a steep learning curve under Macdonald with far better players. This defensive rebuild is going to take time, possibly multiple seasons. That’s disappointing to realize for Seahawks fans, but it’s way too early in Macdonald’s head coaching career to decide whether he’s a success or failure. Hopefully for their sake, Smith and the offense can play cleaner games to alleviate pressure they can’t really handle.