Seahawks’ Mike Macdonald drops savage message on being NFC West ‘afterthought’

For nine months, the Seattle Seahawks were treated like background noise in their own division. The NFC West conversation centered on the star-studded Los Angeles Rams and the perennial powerhouse San Francisco 49ers, and little else. That’s all in the rear view mirror, though. Seattle just punched its ticket to Super Bowl LX with a gritty 31-27 NFC Championship win over Los Angeles. As such, Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald was asked how it felt to conquer a division where his team had long been dismissed as an ‘afterthought.’

His response was cold, concise, and instantly iconic: “We did not care.”

That measured indifference is exactly what made the moment sting. Sure, pundits framed the NFC West as a two-horse race between Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan. Macdonald, though, was quietly building what he calls ‘a style nobody wants to play.’ That means physical, relentless, and unbothered by outside noise. The Seahawkes didn’t argue with the narrative. They just ignored it.

The results speak loudly. In only Macdonald’s second season, the Seahawks authored a franchise-best 14-3 regular season. They secured the NFC’s No. 1 seed and unleashed a defense that finished as one of the league’s top units. In fact, Seattle has allowed the fewest points per game (17.1). After a statement Divisional Round dismantling of San Francisco, Seattle outlasted the Rams in a tense championship game to return to the Super Bowl for the first time in 11 years.

Macdonald’s 2025 season has been a masterclass in vision and restraint. His ‘Dark Side’ defense bullied elite offenses. Meanwhile, his steady hand guided a retooled roster through skepticism and change. By the time Seattle reached the league’s biggest stage, the label no longer mattered.

The truth is that the Seahawks didn’t care until everyone else had no choice but to.

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