Mike McDonald’s ‘locked in’ Seahawks forging their own identity walking in footsteps of legends

It’s time for Seattle to enter the playoffs.

After a bye week to rest, recover and wait, the Seahawks will look to follow in the path of some of the franchise’s – and NFL’s – most iconic names, not least the Legion of Boom.

Road to the Super Bowl

NFL Playoffs - Divisional Round

NFC – San Francisco 49ers @ Seattle Seahawks, Saturday

NFC – Los Angeles Rams @ Chicago Bears, Sunday

AFC – Buffalo Bills @ Denver Broncos, Saturday

AFC – Houston Texans @ New England Patriots

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For this team, emerging from an NFC West that has delivered three of the Conference’s final four, it’s not about what’s gone before, it’s about what lies ahead.

“Right now they are in the process of creating their version of the Seattle Seahawks and that’s one of the things I am most grateful to be around,” Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde tells talkSPORT.

They are quotes that could easily be attributed to the Legion of Boom – as iconic in Seattle as sequoia trees, the Space Needle and Starbucks.

Instead they are from the British-born DC, who has forged an NFL coaching career against all the odds, and now finds himself interviewing for head coaching jobs in Atlanta and Cleveland.

Durde’s story will be worthy of its own book in time – playing for London Olympians, Scottish Claymores and the Hamburg Sea Devils, playing a key role in the growth of NFL Academy and International Player Pathway.

But he is now in with the big boys, on the sideline as the Seahawks begin their postseason with a third meeting of the season against the San Francisco 49ers.

A beat up Niners won’t be underestimated, it’s not the Seattle way, even more so after Kyle Shanahan’s team rode into Philly and ended the Eagles’ reign as world champions.

The teams split their games this season, Seattle’s week 16 win proving pivotal in the chase for the No 1 seed.

With the Los Angeles Rams in Chicago, the NFC West has three of the final four, no surprise given their combined 40-13 record this season.

“There are guys we know, two have come from the NFC West,” Durde tells a round tale with the UK media during their postseason bye week.

Leading from the front

“I think we have all grown together, we are all new in the things that we are doing and it has been special.

“It has been a privilege to be around Mike – we work closely on the defense and we share a visions.

“He is honest, he is vulnerable, he is demanding – he pushes edges, chases innovation.

“All these things make you think ‘How do I improve?, How do we give these players the best chance to win?

“He guides us and we go and attack – it’s been my best time coaching football to be around it.”

Aden Durde, Seattle Seahawks defensive coordinator

“In training camp, a lot of the system we play here is played throughout our division so playing against it every day, understanding how to attack it, cause it problems, that helps us.

“Seeing the run game, the different blocks they might get has got the guys ready for the different things they have seen in the season.”

A new era in Seattle

Durde is now part of a defensive juggernaut, led by second year head coach Mike McDonald, featuring a new era of superstars.

For Richard Sherman, Cliff Avril, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor read Nick Emmanwori, Leonard Williams, Boye Mafe and DeMarcus Lawrence.

There’s no nickname just yet, but there’s identity, there’s culture and it comes from everything around the facility.

The team of the early 2010s under Pete Carroll were playoff regulars, champions in 2013 with a 43-8 thrashing of the Denver Broncos and were one play away from going back-to-back, losing 28-24 to Tom Brady‘s New England Patriots in 2014.

Seattle Super Bowls

Super Bowl XL – Pittsburgh Steelers 21-10 Seattle Seahawks, Feb 2006

Super Bowl XLVIII – Seattle Seahawks 43-8 Denver Broncos, Feb 2014

Super Bowl XLIX – New England Patriots 28-24 Seattle Seahawks, Feb 2015

McDonald’s ‘12 is one’ mantra resonates in every media availability and as Durde outlines, the iron sharpens iron of an all action defense against a Jaxson Smith-Njigba-inspired offense on the practise field.

There are similarities between this group of gifted, raucous game-wrecking defenders and their contemporaries of Seahawks team past, albeit slightly less trash talking – but the feeling is there.

“When you are in this building the guys that played in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015, – what they have done is in the building, you can feel it,” Durde adds.

“Those guys – and I worked under Dan Quinn for a long time – they are around, Mike Bennett, Cliff [Avril] they are always around.

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“You see Sherm [Richard Sherman] but for the guys, they are creating their own way and that is a credit to them.

“They train every day to play the right way, practice the right way, they play for each other.”

It’s perhaps no surprise that this 50th season of Seahawks football – one of only four times the NFC No 1 seed has been clinched by the franchise – is in keeping with their most successful down the years.

When Durde was an aspiring coach he can only have dreamed of where he finds himself now.

The defensive coordinator of the No 1 seed, and No 1 ranked defense in the NFL entering the tournament – the NFL post season.

Up next on the road to Super Bowl LX is San Francisco, a teak tough opponent whom the Seahawks know well, but equally an opponent who know them well – Durde is not underestimating anything.

“We are in a place where its win or go home,” he adds.

“Everyone still in has earned to the right to be called a dangerous team, everyone has earned the right to hurt you, there is no one you can take lightly or put above someone else. It’s more about our process.”

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Chasing a championship

On the three previous occasions Seattle have been the No 1 seed, they’ve made the Super Bowl.

Only one Lombardi has made it back to the Pacific northwest, that was 2013 when they Legion of Boom and Russell Wilson were crowned champions.

As they chase a second title in franchise history, this team are now embracing their identity, forging their own path.

Durde says: “What you are is what you show on tape in this league, are we trying to get to a standard, yes – do we achieve that all the time, yes and no.

“We want the teams that play us to feel like there are 12 players on the field, that everyone is running to the ball, everyone is physical, everyone is locked in and the same mindset

“Mike talks to that every day, we echo that and the guys are turning into the message.”

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