Did Josh Jobe land the starting high school job with the Seattle Seahawks?

Protected as expected, Macdonald made no guarantees about Jobe’s status and certainly had no intention of announcing him as the starter two weeks before Seattle’s next game in San Francisco. There’s time to take your time with ratings, and breaking down the film in the coming days will be part of the equation.

But Macdonald did it rewarding players who earn reps priority on the field, as evidenced by the fact that Jobe has been starting over Brown for the past two weeks, even though the latter was active and dressed. Although Brown’s health was cited as the reason, the fact that he did not play in either of the previous two games shows that Jobe had gained the trust of the coaching staff and thus secured himself more playing opportunities.

“You have to earn it every day by practicing. That’s the message,” Macdonald said Monday. “Guys who give their all every day, show up at training, show up in games and help us win, will definitely play. If you take a step back, you have to take responsibility for it.”

Given those capabilities, while he wasn’t perfect and allowed several explosive receptions in coverage in the Week 8 loss to the Bills, it’s safe to say that Jobe not only showed up, but exceeded expectations, making his job much more difficult. Macdonald and his staff to reconnect Brown to his previous starting spot. Or, using a glass-half-full attitude, it’s easier to wait until everything clears up and make sure Brown is fully healthy.

In three starts, Jobe has allowed just seven catches on 16 targets, including one reception on four targets for 16 yards in Sunday’s loss to the Rams. His receptions increased to 129 yards and north of 18 yards per reception, but he didn’t give up a single touchdown, passed Josh Allen for a near-defense touchdown two weeks ago, and had three pass breakups for a great 46.1. passes in range.

Even using the still-small sample size of 108 snaps so far, Pro Football Focus charts Jobe as the second-most passers allowed, behind only Bears star Jaylon Johnson. It also ranks fifth in graduation rate (43.8%) and 14th in forced non-completion rate (19%). Despite playing less than half of his games against his peers at fullback, he has the same number of pass breakups as Woolen and Devon Witherspoon.

Of course, context matters and should be considered in conjunction with raw statistics. After one of the incompletions thrown to Jobe yesterday, Rams receiver Tutu Atwell would get the ball on the sideline first, followed by a well-throw ball from Matthew Stafford. He also assessed a pass interference penalty on Cooper Kupp in the red zone, which led to a touchdown pass to Demarcus Robinson to open the third quarter.

Still, Brown didn’t quite break out before suffering an ankle injury in the Week 5 loss to the Giants, posting a 136.6 passer rating with two touchdowns and 15.4 yards per reception. This may be part of the reason why the Seahawks were hesitant to rush him back into the game at all.

If Macdonald truly wants to run a ship where players earn opportunities on merit rather than aptitude, sending Jobe back to the bench when he has performed quite well in Brown’s place would be contrary to that message and could potentially have a detrimental impact in the locker room Seattle.

Having lost five of their previous six games, the Seahawks have no shortage of worries for the coaching staff, as well as the front office, to address over the next few days. On the plus side, Jobe’s exceptional play created a positive dilemma to solve, and it will be interesting to see if Macdonald continues to back up his words by giving him the job he has rightfully earned and at least holding on to the hot seat for now.

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