Mike Macdonald Confident After Seahawks Preseason Tie

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald watches play against the Kansas City Chiefs. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Mike Macdonald Confident After Seahawks Preseason Tie

Originally posted on Seattle Seahawks on SI
By Jeremy Brener | Last updated Aug 29, 2026 6:00 PM ET

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The Seattle Seahawks are coming back to the Pacific Northwest empty-handed after a 9-9 tie against the Kansas City Chiefs.

The Seahawks had a chance to win the game as time expired, but Jason Myers' 52-yard field goal sailed wide right, resulting in a tie. Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald spoke about the team's result at Arrowhead Stadium and the progress they are making going into the season.

"It would have been great to close it out with a win, but as I just told our team, the body of work that they've been able to put together up to this point, I just tip my cap to our guys, our team, our coaches, our staff," Macdonald said via the team's website.

"If you trust the work that I've seen our team do and put in and the practice we've stacked together, and the offseason that we've had, and then you trust the people involved, which we do, I think we're in a great place going into the season."

Mike Macdonald Confident Despite Rough Preseason

IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Part of what has Macdonald and the rest of the coaching staff so calm despite going 0-2-1 in the preseason is the fact that the team did not play most of its starters. Sam Darnold did not see a single snap and the Seahawks are utilizing training camp to get better mostly behind the scenes.

Macdonald mentioned that there are some measurements of growth that aren't being shown on the football field during the games but are appearing in practices. The goal was to get the Seahawks as healthy as possible for Week 1. While they still had some injuries to Robbie Ouzts, Jake Bobo, Bud Clark and Mason Richman, the majority of the team's star players are healthy and available.

The Seahawks are returning a majority of their roster from a year ago that won a Super Bowl, so Macdonald is putting a lot of trust in the process and his players to go out and get the job done.

"I'm very pleased with our effort, the spirit of our team, the leadership on our team," Macdonald said. "It'll be an interesting couple of days here as we figure out how we're going to start the season, but I'm excited to get going and start working on our Week 1 process."

The Seahawks will have to cut their roster from 90 to 53 players by the league's roster cutdown deadline. Some of the decisions will be difficult for those on the roster bubble, but these are good problems for the Seahawks to conquer as they make their way through this part of the NFL calendar.