After Sam Darnold threw his fourth interception in an eventual Week 11 loss to the Rams, players on Seattle’s defense, led by linebacker Ernest Jones IV, went to their quarterback while he was still on the field to make sure he knew they had his back. Later, after the game, Jones put that support into words rather emphatically.
“Man, Sam’s been balling,” Jones IV said in a postgame press conference. “If we want to try to define Sam by this game—man, Sam’s had us in every (expletive) game. So for him to sit there and say, ‘Oh, that’s my fault,’ no it’s not. There were plays that defensively we could have made, there were opportunities where we could have got better stops. It’s football, man. He’s our quarterback, we’ve got his back, and if you’ve got anything to say, quite frankly, (expletive) you.”
It’s no coincidence that, in a game where multiple mistakes by Darnold and the offense were a big factor in a loss, defensive players were quick to back up their quarterback. Just as it’s no coincidence that the Seahawks haven’t lost since that game in L.A., running their winning streak to six with last week’s victory in Charlotte.
“The connection and the positivity and the love we have for one another here is unmatched,” outside linebacker Derick Hall said. “I’ve never seen it before. And I told somebody else, I thought I really knew what a connection was until [this season].”
Said veteran outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu said, “This is the first time I’ve really been this close in the locker room before.”
So many of the same traits that make Schneider such a good, egoless leader have rubbed off on the team, and as players have said all season long, that selfless approach shows up on gameday.
“Everybody is just selfless,” defensive tackle Byron Murphy II said. “We’re not just playing for ourselves. We’re playing for one another, each man on the field, on the team. That’s a good thing to have.”
Macdonald, meanwhile, has done his part to help create an environment that, since OTAs in May and June, has stood out to players as unique. Whether it was encouraging players to get up in front of teammates to explain their “why” for playing the game, or sending players from different position groups on walk-and-talks around the Virginia Mason Athletic Center, or organizing off-the-field team bonding outings, Macdonald has found ways to make this team feel particularly connected. Macdonald came to Seattle best known as a Xs and Os genius who can make life miserable for opposing quarterbacks and offenses, and this year’s defense has definitely done just that, but he is also proving to have a very strong grasp of what it takes to connect with players on a human level in order to help them be at their best.
“One of our key phrases is loose and focused, and if you build a culture of just hammering a wall all day, that doesn’t create a loose and focused environment,” safety Julian Love said. “You’ve got to throw us a bone every now and then. So yeah, those events, Top Golf, team dinners, all that kind of fun stuff that he promotes, it creates buy in, like, ‘OK, he believes in the loose and focused culture.’ On top of that, obviously he’s the catalyst for allowing it, but it’s also the people we have in this building. The players themselves are a ton of big kids, but when it’s time to lock in and feel a certain way, they do, and pretty much any other time, we’re just constantly messing around with each other, so it’s a pretty cool vibe.
“This team now is extremely close. It’s uncomfortable how close we are—the constant roasting, the constant messing around. Literally I was just talking to one of our coaches out there today, and said that, pretty much this is middle school, and when we go out there it’s recess. In the locker room, it’s just messing around in the hallways. That’s the kind of energy we bring, but then obviously when it’s time to focus, we focus.”
Players have been sensing that this team has a special bond as far back as in May when the team was first on the field for voluntary organized team activities. And it isn’t revisionist history to say the connectedness of the team helped them get to where they are. Before they had won a single game, let alone 13 of them, Leonard Williams, one of team’s best players as well as a leader on defense, explained it in early June.
“I’m going into Year 11, so I’ve played a lot of football and been on a lot of teams, and not only am I seeing that we have a very talented team right now, one thing that stands out above the talent is just the connection,” Williams said. “That’s something I’ve been trying to talk to the guys about, that’s really going to take us to that next level where we want to go. I’ve told them that I’ve been on tons of talented teams that we had great players at all positions, but we just didn’t have that same connection. Those small things like having connection and being able to communicate on and off the field kind of helps you get to that next level.”
Six months after Williams said that during offseason workouts, Darnold who is on his fifth team in eight seasons, doubled down on that sentiment days before he and the Seahawks will play with a division title and the NFC’s No. 1 seed on the line.
“Just having some of our competition things that we did (during OTAs), with the coaches involved as well on the field, when we had those competition periods, it was so fun, and the guys were so close, especially guys that had been here for multiple years together,” Darnold said. “Then you go into the locker room, and you see the kind of love that we have for each other, that’s unlike anywhere I’ve been, and it’s special to see.”