Asked last week if his team was ready for the regular season, Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald said his team could be game ready before joking, "we would have a really crappy plan on defense, but we would be able to get some plays off."

Macdonald went on to note that his team still had a week's worth of practice to iron out the details ahead of the opener against the Broncos, saying, "The guys are ready to go, but we're never going to turn down more reps.

"The concepts that we need are in. Every game you're doing little tweaks here and there, but it's not like you're introducing some new thing and some new language that they haven't heard yet. You're just saying 'Hey, this is the thing we've been doing but with a twist.' That's why you want to get everything in so they understand those adjustments. We're right there on defense. I'm sure (Ryan) Grubb has some more stuff up his sleeve, but it seems like their install has been going smoothly."

While Macdonald will want to use every minute available to him and the coaching staff to get ready for Sunday's opener, his players like where the defense is at with a few days left to prepare.

"I feel really good," veteran defensive lineman Jarran Reed said following Monday's practice. "I feel like we're all locked in, we're all focused. We worked hard this whole training camp for this moment coming up Sunday. I think we're all dialed-in ready to go, getting ahead of the schedule now. We're ready to go compete Sunday."

Reed is particularly excited for the mentality that Macdonald has brought to the defense. Macdonald is known for his innovative defense that helped the Ravens boast the league's No. 1 defense in 2023, but what he has brought to Seattle goes beyond Xs and Os.

"I say it all the time, I feel like he brought back old school football," Reed said. "No shots or anything, but I feel like it's been missing for a little bit. We bring the physicality back. We bring the mentality back of playing grown men football for all four quarters."

Reed has seen that old-school mentality come through on the practice field and expects it will carry over to Sundays and help the Seahawks made a leap on defense.

"The way we practice, I think it shows that us going out here putting the pads on, getting a little razzle-dazzle here and there, getting a little rough around the edges, practice gets intense sometimes, but that's what you need as a football team," Reed said. "This is a grown man's sport."

Of course, for Macdonald's or any defense to thrive, it needs more than just the right mindset; players also have to do their jobs at a high level, and with this defense in particular, that's going to require a high level of communication.

"If you guys can just hear what goes on on that field, there's a lot of talking," Reed said. "You've got to be cued in, even us up front. We've got a lot of talking to do as well. They all correlate with each other, that's how we practice. When we get through the morning, through meetings and it carries over to practice field."