Asked about White, Macdonald said, “We saw it in the Rams game last year. There’s definitely a record of this throughout the offseasons, and he’s another guy that’s earned his opportunity. It’s a great lesson for young guys how important special teams are to the equation. At the end of the day, you can’t dress everybody, and he’s earned that right to be a special teams stalwart for us and when asked upon on offense, he’s produced.”
Macdonald also loves talking about the example of Jobe, who was forced into action in part due to injury midway through the season, then took over a key role on defense and never let it go, both during the 2024 season and this year in training camp. Jobe again played well last week, including a fourth-quarter interception, and Macdonald acknowledged that he could be pushing for an even bigger role moving forward.
“I love telling the story because this time last year, he wasn’t playing for us,” Macdonald said. “This is a guy that has come in and really bought into the process, and the details matter for him, and he does it every day. There’s a consistency there that you respect, and he’s earned these opportunities, which is really cool. If you were the coach of the team, wouldn’t you want it to work like that? Guys coming in, earning their opportunities, developing, growing as players, as people, that’s what he’s done.”
Yet another player who has used his practice opportunities, as well as his special teams play, to earn more playing time is linebacker Drake Thomas, who rotated in at linebacker last week, playing 15 defensive snaps, one of which saw him put pressure on Brock Purdy to rush a throw that was intercepted by Ernest Jones IV.
“He had a great training camp and when put in those positions in preseason games he produced, and I thought he did that on Sunday,” Macdonald said. “We’re going to have competition on our team. If you start saying this guy’s the guy, you don’t want to operate like that, then you fall into the trap that you’ve made it. I’m not saying our guys think that, but we want the sense of urgency that we’re competing all the time. I’m looking at Leo (Leonard Williams) right here, I’m putting him up against anybody else in the league, but he still knows when it’s time to rush he has to produce because we got guys that want opportunities too. It’s the same thing with the defensive line. It’s the same thing with our offensive line. Same thing at linebacker. We’re seeing the same thing right now with Riq (Woolen). It’s great, our guys are getting better. That just tells you, we have multiple people that have earned rights to play. That’s good for us, people are going to get better from the competition.”