Seahawks' Mike Macdonald opens up about harsh reality of winning Super Bowl

The lives of individuals associated with the 2025 Seattle Seahawks changed forever after the club recorded a 29-13 win over the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LX. 

Seattle head coach Mike Macdonald began Monday on top of the football world. However, he acknowledged during the Super Bowl handover news conference that there's one negative to the Seahawks becoming the reigning champions. 

Mike Macdonald knows Seahawks have a target on their backs after Super Bowl triumph

"We use the term 'chasing edges' here in Seattle," Macdonald explained, per Jeremy Bergman of the NFL's website. "You have to live like that. You know, you can't be copying everybody else. We want to be on the forefront of things. We know that -- we know that we're target No. 1 now. But again, it's really gonna be our mentality for us to keep pushing the envelope with our personnel, where we can take things at our speed, you know? And so, there's gonna be times where we feel like teams get a beat on us, and we're gonna have to move and shake, and that's happened several times throughout this season as well. And that's just how we operate."

As of Monday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Seahawks and the Los Angeles Rams as the co-favorites at +950 betting odds to win Super Bowl LXI next February. The Seahawks earned a 31-27 victory over the Rams in the NFC Championship Game.

Meanwhile, Macdonald began the workweek knowing he has to find a new offensive coordinator with Klint Kubiak leaving the Seahawks to become the next head coach of the Las Vegas Raiders. 

"We're gonna enjoy this one, I can promise you that," Macdonald told NFL Network's Ian Rapoport and Mike Garafolo. "We do have to hire an offensive coordinator, so that is a process we're going to probably start as early as tomorrow, but we're gonna enjoy the heck out of it in the meanwhile. If you don't enjoy, I mean, what are you doing? What are you doing this whole thing for?"

When Mike Macdonald stopped worrying about how Seahawks would play against the Patriots 

The Seattle defense pitched a shutout for over three quarters of action on Sunday night. That unit sacked Patriots quarterback Drake Maye six times and forced him into committing three turnovers, the last of which resulted in Seattle scoring a late defensive touchdown that erased all doubt about the game's outcome. 

"Became very clear very early that they were a determined bunch that were gonna play our style ball last night," Macdonald added about his club's performance on football's biggest stage. "At that point, really, you know, the place became irrelevant. It was really the style of how the guys played, just to play that relentlessly throughout the game was really impressive, and really proud of those guys. That was a remarkable game by our defense."

For a piece published on Sunday night, ESPN's Aaron Schatz detailed how some stats suggest the Seahawks are the third-best Super Bowl winners in NFL history. Whether or not that's the case won't mean much to Macdonald and Co. as they celebrate what they achieved at Levi's Stadium.