RENTON — In his first news conference after the Seattle Seahawks finalized their initial 53-man roster, Mike Macdonald said he didn’t care about the state of his team relative to its NFC West rivals.

“I just care where we’re at,” the second-year head coach said.

On one hand, a singular focus on his team, which opens the regular season at home Sunday against the San Francisco 49ers, is understandable. Macdonald is both the head coach and defensive play caller, and the latter job eats up a great deal of his bandwidth. He can’t afford to look too far into the future or make big-picture declarations about Seattle’s place in the leaguewide landscape.

On the other hand, the Seahawks’ goal of contending for a championship begins with winning the division, which Seattle hasn’t done since 2020.

See Full Page