Seahawks' Mike Macdonald names rival as best head coach in NFL

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald has made it known that he doesn't "care" about the fact that division rivals in the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams may have stronger rosters today than those clubs featured this past winter. 

That said, Macdonald shared some high praise for 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan during a recent chat with Matt Maiocco of NBC Sports Bay Area. 

Mike Macdonald: Kyle Shanahan is "the best in the business"

"Kyle, he's the best in the business," Macdonald said, per David Bonilla of 49ers Webzone. "I mean, he doesn't have the track record that he has by accident, so we've got a ton of respect for him."

Macdonald is quite familiar with Shanahan's 49ers, as the NFC West rivals most recently faced off against each other twice during the 2025 regular season and again in the divisional round of the playoffs. Meanwhile, Shanahan is widely respected as an offensive guru, and he has been credited with helping quarterback Brock Purdy go from being the final pick of the 2022 NFL Draft to an MVP Award finalist worthy of receiving a five-year, $265M contract extension that included $181M in guarantees and a no-trade clause.

Unlike Macdonald, however, Shanahan has yet to guide his team to a Super Bowl title. Back in February 2024, Shanahan's Niners were a fourth-down stop away from getting their hands on the Vince Lombardi Trophy, but it wasn't to be. This past January, San Francisco suffered a blowout 41-6 divisional-round loss in Seattle. 

49ers are "constantly evolving" under Kyle Shanahan

"There's a great detail in which they coach, and there's a precision to their offense, and there's a physicality to what they do, and it's complementary," Macdonald added about how the 49ers perform under Shanahan. "Everything's married off each other. All the route stems are married off each other. They vary their pass protections. The run game is diverse but complementary. Again, they're constantly evolving, so you have to keep pace with that, and it's not easy to do, and that's why they've been so successful."

As of Thursday afternoon, DraftKings Sportsbook had the Seahawks fourth among the betting favorites at +1100 odds to win Super Bowl LXI this coming February. At that same time, the 49ers were at +1900 odds. The Seahawks and 49ers will first meet during the upcoming season at Seattle's Lumen Field in Week 5 on Oct. 11.