Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald missed his usual Monday afternoon press conference a day after his team's win over the New York Jets, but he had a pretty good excuse.

Macdonald's wife, Stephanie, went into labor on Monday with the couple expecting the arrival of their first child.

"I'm really excited for Mike and Stephanie for what they're experiencing," assistant head coach Leslie Frazier said while filling in for Macdonald's Monday press conference. "My wife and I, we have three kids, so I remember those day, so I'm really excited for him. For me, Mike has put together a great foundation, it's just a matter of getting out of the way, and let the coaches do what they do and let the players do what they do. We've got a good infrastructure set, and it should bode well for us as we go forward."

Frazier couldn't say how long he'll be filling in for Macdonald this week, because, well, childbirth can be a little unpredictable.

"When you get that call and you're told that you're getting close, close can mean a lot of things," Frazier said. "It's such an unknown right now, so we'll kind of play it by ear and just see what happens day to day. But it could be as soon as tonight, we could word tonight that the baby is here, could be tomorrow, could even be two or three days from now. But we'll be on guard, we're just praying that everything goes well, and we look forward to hearing the good news, and we'll adjust when we need to."

When Macdonald made Frazier one of his first hires last winter, the veteran coach, who has head coaching experience as well as decades as an assistant coach and coordinator, didn't necessarily expect to be temporarily taking over in-season due to a pending childbirth, but in a way this all fits in with his overall view of the job of assistant head coach, which is to support Macdonald in whatever way is necessary.

"For me, it's just been about being here to support Mike as best as I can from my previous experiences, and the same thing with our team, just to be able to identify things and point things out with our coaching staff, with our players, based on my experience," Frazier said when asked about his role. "What direction I can give, and how I can support and serve everybody on our team, from the practice squad guys to our coaching staff? How can I pour into them and help them be the very best that they can possibly be? That's how I envision my role, and that's what I've tried to do every single day I've been in the building."

For Frazier, who spent one season in Baltimore as the secondary coach while Macdonald was a young assistant just getting started, has enjoyed the experience of seeing Macdonald grow as a head coach in his first year on the job.

"It's been great to see his maturation from back in April when we had our first team meeting, and just seeing how he's evolved and grown as a coach wearing a dual hat, being the head coach along with handling our defense as well," Frazier said. "The way guys have responded to his leadership style has been really, really good. His involvement in knowing when to interject some humor and let them see his personality, along with being able to be stern when he needs to be, and demanding at the same time, but also letting the guys be themselves, it's been great to watch as he's grown, as well as our team.

"Just observing Mike and seeing him today vs. say, seven years ago when we were both in Baltimore together, he was always attentive to detail at that time, but he was a little quieter than he is today. And to now see him let his personality show a little more, and being as detailed as he is, to be as animated as he can get sometimes—you guys probably don't see that side of him, but our players do—it's really good to see that he'll let his personality show. Because one of the things that you have to be careful about when you are a guy who can handle a lot from a mental standpoint, you want to be able to continue to relate to the players, and be able to communicate in a way where they can be at your level and you can be at their level and not talk about their head. Mike does a terrific job of that. As hard as he works, and getting information, but then being able to share that information to where the players can get it, that's an art. There's a lot of guys that know a lot, but don't get it communicated to the players, so what good does that do? So, just really been impressed with that side of him, his ability to be able to articulate to the players what's needed, and yet being as detailed as possible while being able to communicate in a way where they can understand it. So, just been very, very impressed with that."

And while there was plenty of big-picture discussion about Macdonald and Frazier given that he doesn't regularly meet with the media, Frazier also gave his thoughts on Sunday's game, which featured the Seahawks overcoming several early mistakes and a 14-point deficit to come back and earn a third-straight win.

"Really good game for our team yesterday, just a terrific win," he said. "We were in our team meeting probably 30 minutes ago, just talking about the perseverance and the resiliency of our players. Just a terrific win on the road, and just a great job by all of our guys."

What impressed Frazier most was the way players handled the early struggles, paving the way for a comeback.

"One of the things that really impressed me, when were going down the sideline when we were down 14-0 in the first quarter, the guys weren't pointing fingers, they weren't bickering or getting mad at one another, they were really locked in on trying to figure out what we had to do to overcome the adversity we were facing," he said. "When you see that as a coach and a teammate, you feel like you're in the right environment. We never felt like we were out of that game, even though it didn't look good early, and that's a credit to our players and a credit to our leadership. That's what you want to see, where guys are pulling together and coming together. I think some of that goes back to some of the adversity we've faced throughout the season, and I think it's been a part of the process where we're beginning to learn how to win and how to overcome adversity."