ORLANDO, Fla. — In the 55 days since being hired as the successor to Pete Carroll, merely the most successful coach in Seahawks history, Mike Macdonald has bought a house on the east side, assembled a coaching staff and helped oversee a roster makeover in which they said goodbye to veteran stalwarts such as Bobby Wagner and Jamal Adams and brought in 10 new faces.

“It’s been an awesome experience,” Macdonald said of his first eight weeks on the job as he handled one of the more mundane duties of his new responsibilities — talking with reporters Tuesday during the annual NFC coaches’ media breakfast at the league meetings.

“Again, there’s no manual. You have a playbook kind of, you have a plan in place, leaning on [director of football operations] John [Schneider], leaning on Les [associate head coach Leslie Frazier, a former Vikings coach], other people in the building and some of our coaches. It’s been an awesome team effort.

“And you’re never sure if you’re doing the right thing. But you’re trying your best every day. And I think you look back from when we got this thing kicked off, and you’re proud that it’s coming to life a little bit.”

Macdonald spoke to media that consisted mostly of Seahawks beat reporters and a few from his old Baltimore Ravens days.

This was not the usual Carroll experience at this event, when every year multiple national reporters would approach wanting the thoughts on league issues from one of the league’s most revered coaches.

But if the 36-year-old Macdonald — half Carroll’s age — will need some time to earn the kind of stripes Carroll wore in Seattle and throughout the NFL, he lacks none of his predecessor’s optimism.

There are questions about what to expect out of Seattle in Year 1 under Macdonald and coming off two 9-8 seasons while residing in a division with the 49ers and Rams, but Macdonald said he is putting no ceiling on anything.

“We are going to line up every week expecting to win,” he said. “And if you do that you are going to win a championship. So that’s where my mentality is. We are getting ready to go play a football game, even though it’s three or four months out. And whoever lines up across from us, we are expecting to win that matchup. If you don’t have that mentality, you are not going to get very far in this league.”

Does he feel the roster is capable of winning every Sunday?

“Yeah, that’s a tough question to answer,” he said. “It’s like, ‘What are we good at? How is this thing going to fit in? How are we going to grow as a team?’ I think right now what we are focusing on is this team has to come together. This team has to spend time with one another. We’ve got to bond.

“We’ve got to have each other’s back so that when we go against adversity in December and January that we know that we have each other’s backs and we’re going to war with each other, rather than [being] just a bunch of independent guys out there playing ball. We have to build our team, like, now.”

He concluded with a sentence straight out of the Carroll handbook. “But absolutely,” he said. “The sky is the limit for this football team.”

Not that there isn’t work to be done. Macdonald and Schneider cited the offensive line as an area that needs addressing. Macdonald called it “a work in progress.”

Though there has been significant change on defense, both know there can never be enough depth and competition added to that side of the ball after Seattle finished 25th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed last season.

But both reiterated that there is no question about the team’s most important position — quarterback. “Geno’s our guy,” Schneider said, referring to starter Geno Smith.

Schneider took over his new title following the dismissal of Carroll and oversaw the hiring of Macdonald. Along with maybe the trade of Russell Wilson, that figures to rank as the most important move he ever makes.

As might be expected, Schneider has liked what he’s seen from Macdonald, who got on NFL teams’ radar as a future head coach with his work as the Ravens’ defensive coordinator the past two seasons.

“He’s 36 years old, and he’s, like, super mature,” Schneider said. “Knows what he wants, real direct. But we’re getting to know each other, you know what I mean? It’s like speed dating.”

Macdonald has also spoken about not trying to fit square-peg players into round holes — in other words, tailoring the schemes as needed to what the players do best.

That’s a task that remains in flux until the team gets on the field.

That happens April 8 when the Seahawks kick off their offseason program, which will conclude with organized team activities and a mandatory minicamp in May and June.