Two of the best head coaches in the NFL for the 2025 season will be going head-to-head in Week 11 as the Los Angeles Rams take on the Seattle Seahawks. It will technically be the third meeting as head coaches between Sean McVay and Mike Macdonald. However, the Week 18 matchup last season certainly has an asterisk as the Rams played a majority of their backups in that game.
When it comes to great coaching matchups, McVay often gets brought up. Whether it’s McVay coaching against Kyle Shanahan or facing Vic Fangio on the opposite sideline, those are the games people tune in for and want to see. It’s a chess match between mentor and mentee or Superman against Lex Luthor.
The matchup on Sunday between McVay and Macdonald fits more into the latter category. McVay once again playing the role of Superman while Macdonald takes on the part of Brainiac.
In 2023, Macdonald’s defense was seen as the anti-McVay and anti-Shanahan. He was seen as “The Sean McVay of defense.” Macdonald’s defense with the Baltimore Ravens held the Ben Johnson-led Detroit Lions to six points. The Seahawks with a McVay disciple in Shane Waldron as the offensive play-caller were held to three points. After scoring 30 or more points four times over a six week stretch, Shanahan and the 49ers were held to 19 points in a loss. Brock Purdy threw four interceptions.
The one offensive coach in that schematic tree to find success was McVay. While the Rams lost 37-31 in overtime to the Ravens, Matthew Stafford had the quarterback performance of the year. He threw for 294 yards and three touchdowns in the rain. Kyren Williams rushed for 114 yards as Cooper Kupp and Puka Nacua combined for 13 catches for 199 yards. The Rams still came up just short.
Last season, it was almost the exact opposite. As the Rams offense was starting to find its stride, they ran into Macdonald and the Seahawks. While the Rams won the game, 26-20 in overtime, the offense had seven three-and-outs. That had only happened in one previous game with McVay as the head coach.
Those are the only two times that McVay and Macdonald have really gone up against each other, as head coaches or head coach and coordinato, with best on best. Macdonald was with the Ravens from 2018-2020 which included the 45-6 blowout, but as the linebackers coach.
This will arguably be the biggest game that Mike Macdonald has been a part of as a head coach. Meanwhile, McVay has been in these games multiple times before. When the Rams were first part of a game this big, McVay lost 24-7 and was out-coached by a more experienced Mike Zimmer. The next time the two teams played in 2018, the Rams had one of their best offensive performances of the McVay era.
The game on Sunday feels a lot like that for Macdonald. That’s not to say that Macdonald has never coached in a big game. As a defensive coordinator with the Ravens he almost certainly did several times. However, it’s different as a head coach. It’s different facing a Tampa Bay Buccaneers team in Week 5 when both teams are 3-1 than a division rival with both teams at 7-2. While the 8-5 Seahawks played the 9-4 Green Bay Packers last season, a game against a divisional opponent with this much on the line is different.
Everything that Macdonald has done has been with the intent to stop the McVay offense. It’s done to make the offense uncomfortable and they are very good at it. This Seahawks defense has the early makings of a ‘Legion of Boom’ 2.0. In year two of the Macdonald defense, it is now a group that plays incredibly fast.
This will be a matchup between experience and adaptability. McVay has the experience which should benefit the Rams in this first meeting. At 37 and with 17 years in the NFL, there isn’t a defense that Matthew Stafford hasn’t seen. It wouldn’t be surprising to see these two teams split the series this season. In the second matchup is where Macdonald and his defense should have an advantage, especially with that game being on Thursday Night Football.
With how the Seahawks are currently playing under Macdonald, this appears to be a coaching matchup that we’re going to be seeing for at least the next five years. There’s going to be a lot of push and pull as these two great football minds challenge each other twice a year. Sunday will likely be just the first of many great matchups between the two of them.
