Mike Macdonald to keep Seattle Seahawks East Coast travel routines
SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - SEPTEMBER 08: Head coach Michael Macdonald of the Seattle Seahawks looks on after his team's 26-20 victory against the Denver Broncos at Lumen Field on September 08, 2024 in Seattle, Washington. (Jane Gershovich / Getty Images)
RENTON, Wash. - Playing winning football on the East Coast used to be a tremendous problem for the Seattle Seahawks.
But under prior head coach Pete Carroll, the Seahawks have turned an area of weakness into a pretty significant strength for the organization.
So, of course, new head coach MIke Macdonald fully intends on maintaining the same procedures that have made the team so successful on the road in the past.
"We've had a lot of success going east, and there's been some research into it too," Macdonald said on Wednesday. "A lot of it actually is in relation to sleep, believe it or not. We talked about it to the team today. We had sleep specialists come in and try to be thorough in that approach. A lot of it's what we've done here in the past. We've built off of that."
Seattle plays its first road game of the season against the New England Patriots this Sunday at 10 a.m. PT.
In the 10 years prior to Carroll's arrival as head coach in 2010, the Seahawks had won just eight of their 23 games played at 10 a.m. PT in the Eastern Time Zone. Since Carroll took over, the Seahawks have won 20 of their last 29 10 a.m. games on the East Coast. Overall, the Seahawks have won 24 of their last 35 games that kick off at 10 a.m. (including Central Time Zone games), and 16 of their last 21.
A big part of that process is having the team leave a day early on Friday evenings for Sunday morning games back east. Any time the team is traveling to at least the Central Time Zone, they travel on Friday instead of Saturday.
"We're going to go out on Friday. There's some other things going on too, but the main gist of it's going to stay the same," Macdonald said.
Not everything about the team's weekly schedule is the same, however. Players get Mondays off instead of Tuesdays in Macdonald's standard weekly schedule.
"The main thing is really just to take a deep breath after the game and then be able to move on," Macdonald said. "That's the main thing; take the emotion out of it, be able to kind of digest, understand why you won or lost, where you need to improve. The guys get it the next day, and once they come in, you're kind of in next week's mode. There's no break. Hey, this is what happened. Let's move on. Now it's like an extended week on that next opponent."
Injury Updates:
– Mike Macdonald confirmed that linebacker Uchenna Nwosu will not play again this week in New England. Nwosu is still recovering from a knee sprain sustained in the final game of the preseason.
– Macdonald said tight end Pharaoh Brown was pushing to get back this week in order to play against his former team in the Patriots. Brown injured his foot during joint practices with the Tennessee Titans last month and missed the season opener against Denver.
– Macdonald didn't provide much detail on the health on running back Ken Walker III (oblique) and right tackle George Fant (knee). Neither player practiced on Wednesday. Walker said after Sunday's game he was "good" despite an early exit late in the fourth quarter.
– Linebacker Tyrel Dodson (shoulder) was a new addition to the injury report on Wednesday. Additionally, seven players – including Brown – were limited in practice: Wide receiver Tyler Lockett (thigh), tight end Noah Fant (toe), linebacker Jerome Baker (hamstring), linebacker Dre'Mont Jones (hamstring), cornerback Riq Woolen (hamstring), and cornerback Tre Brown (quadriceps).
Guards Laken Tomlinson (ankle) and Anthony Bradford (knee) were listed as full participants.
Injury Report: