Seahawks officially name their new head coach

SEATTLE — The Seahawks are hiring Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald to be their head coach, according to the team.

Macdonald, 36, will become the youngest head coach in the league and half the age of the man he’s replacing — Pete Carroll, who was let go after 14 seasons in charge in Seattle.

As for why Carroll stepped down, he clarified that he “competed pretty hard to be the coach,” but ultimately agreed that it was the best move for the organization. He went on to say that it was “too soon” to talk about whether he’d take on a head coaching job for another team down the line.

Former starting QB Russell Wilson called Carroll “one of the greatest ever.”

Macdonald spent the past two years running Baltimore’s defense, including this past season when the Ravens finished with the NFL’s best regular-season record and reached the AFC championship game before losing to Kansas City.

This will be the first head coaching position at any level for Macdonald. But he’s been surrounded by successful coaches as he moved up the ranks, starting with an extended run on the staff of John Harbaugh in Baltimore before spending a season on now-Chargers’ coach Jim Harbaugh’s staff in college at Michigan.

Seattle made it clear that Macdonald was one of its top candidates when it didn’t move forward on a hire prior to the conference championship games. Dan Quinn seemed a clear front-runner because of his past connections to Seattle, but the longer the Seahawks went without moving ahead with Quinn, the more it became obvious there were other options being considered.

Macdonald and Detroit offensive coordinator Ben Johnson were the last two interviewed by the Seahawks before the final decision was made.

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