This time last year, Seattle general manager John Schneider spoke for the organization when he declared that the Seahawks needed to be better after consecutive 9-8 seasons, the second of which he described as a disappointment.
By overhauling the coaching staff and keeping the rest of the organizational structure intact, the Seahawks signaled that coach Pete Carroll and his staff were the problem, and that everyone else earned the benefit of the doubt with regard to being part of the solution. Schneider said they aimed to “move to the next level” and “compete with everybody that we need to compete with.”
While lamenting a disappointing 2023 campaign, the GM said, “We had several games that just got out of control a little bit.” That season, the Seahawks had the ball on the final drive of eventual one-score losses against the Cincinnati Bengals, Los Angeles Rams and Dallas Cowboys and missed the postseason in part because they didn’t get help from other teams in Week 18.
This season was similar. During a pregame radio interview before the meaningless Week 18 finale against the Rams, Schneider was upset the Seahawks missed the playoffs in part because of games that slipped away.
“We had some disappointments along the way,” Schneider said on KIRO-AM radio. “We could point to the Giants game, the first Rams game at home, the Vikings game at home. Good learning lessons for a young football team. You’ve got to win the games you’re supposed to win and finish the games you’re supposed to finish.”
Mike Macdonald just finished a season as a first-year head coach with a staff full of unfamiliar assistant coaches, many of whom lacked experience in their respective roles. In that context, taking over a nine-win team and earning a 10th victory in Week 18 (albeit against a Rams team that benched its starters) can be viewed as a successful year — for Macdonald.
One year after Schneider’s state of the Seahawks address following Carroll’s firing, the team is in essentially the same spot within the NFC landscape. The Seahawks might argue they are a better team than they’ve been the last two years, but they haven’t moved to the next level, nor have they proven to be more competitive versus contenders. At what point does that fall on Schneider and the front office?
Macdonald had some missteps during the season, but there’s a strong case to be made that he got the most out of a roster that wasn’t equipped to make much more noise than the 2023 team. In free agency, Schneider and his staff stuck to their strategy of reserving lucrative contracts for internal free agents, such as defensive tackle Leonard Williams and tight end Noah Fant, while signing external free agents to lesser deals. This led to one of the worst hauls of Schneider’s tenure.
Here’s a rundown of those external free-agent signees:
S Rayshawn Jenkins (two years, $12 million)
OT George Fant (two years, $9.1 million)
LB Jerome Baker (one year, $7 million)
LB Tyrel Dodson (one year, $4.2 million)
C Connor Williams (one year, $4 million)
TE Pharaoh Brown (one year, $3.2 million)
C Nick Harris (one year, $2.3 million)
DT Johnathan Hankins (one year, $2.05 million)
S K’Von Wallace (one year, $1.5 million)
OG Laken Tomlinson (one year, $1.2 million)
OL Tremayne Anchrum Jr. (one year, $1.1 million)
WR Laviska Shenault Jr. (one year, $1.2 million)
Anchrum (cut) and Harris (traded) didn’t make it through training camp. Baker (traded), Dodson (cut) and Williams — who was signed in August and retired in November — didn’t make it through the Week 10 bye. Shenault was cut after Week 13. Jenkins and Wallace were outperformed by Coby Bryant, who was already on the roster. George Fant played in only two games due to injury, which was bad luck. But the guys who stayed healthy were only about as effective as their close-to-the-minimum salaries suggested they’d be.
The draft class produced promising talents such as defensive tackle Byron Murphy II, linebacker Tyrice Knight and tight end AJ Barner, but it wasn’t the type of immediately impactful group the Seahawks needed if they were going to take that next step.
They can look to their division rival for an example of such a class. The Rams used the 19th and 39th picks on edge rusher Jared Verse and defensive tackle Braden Fiske. Verse made the Pro Bowl and is the favorite to win Defensive Rookie of the Year. Fiske led all rookies with 8.5 sacks and was one of the best first-year players in the trenches.
Despite Seattle drafting three offensive linemen in April, that unit performed poorly and is once again a position of urgent need entering the offseason. In March, Schneider said he believes guards are overdrafted and overpaid. While that might be true, those are tough words for the fan base to hear when the players on the roster are hamstringing the offense, which has generally been true of Seattle’s offensive line since at least 2016.
The Seahawks’ most impactful talent acquisition was the midseason trade for linebacker Ernest Jones IV, who came from Tennessee in exchange for Baker and a fourth-round draft pick. Jones is a good player and should be re-signed as he approaches free agency. But acquiring him was necessary only because the two free-agent linebackers Seattle signed became unplayable.
How exactly was Macdonald and his new, inexperienced staff supposed to take that to the next level? Schneider and the people who implied they would be part of the solution didn’t back that insinuation with any meaningful action.
The Schneider-Macdonald partnership is likely here to stay barring a sale of the team by owner Jody Allen, who could begin that process this year without worrying about the provision that reportedly requires a portion of the sale price to be paid to the state of Washington. But Allen hasn’t given any indication a sale is imminent, and there’s logic behind keeping the GM-coach pairing together for the sake of continuity.
Macdonald appears to have established a healthy culture and a strong foundation in Year 1, but is there reason to believe Schneider and the front office will give him the tools to reach the expectations set by the people who hired him? Those expectations, as Schneider has said, start with winning the NFC West, then making a playoff run. Their goal isn’t just to be a potentially frisky wild-card team.
More than 10 years of data suggest the offensive line situation is unlikely to dramatically improve. The Seahawks haven’t been dominant up front since at least 2015, and for the better part of the last decade, that group has been the team’s Achilles’ heel. Schneider’s belief that interior offensive linemen are overpaid and overdrafted is fine — as long as he finds other ways to acquire good players. He has not.
Geno Smith’s contract situation looms large this offseason. Despite an uneven 2024 season, Smith can be the quarterback who takes Seattle to the level it hopes to reach if the supporting cast (playcaller included) is strong. Smith has never played behind an even average offensive line, and his last two playcallers have been fired. This was his first season playing opposite a competent defense.
But whether Seattle’s 2025 quarterback is Smith or someone else, the guy under center must be supported adequately. The Seahawks’ quarterback needs the same support Russell Wilson had in the glory days. The three quarterbacks to play in the NFC title game since Smith has become Seattle’s starter — Brock Purdy, Jared Goff and Jalen Hurts — have been supported in that same way.
At some point, it is worth wondering whether Schneider and his staff can provide that support.
Everyone in Seattle’s building believes games are won or lost in the trenches, but although the draft is the “heartbeat” of their roster-building strategy, the front office’s track record doesn’t suggest reason for optimism.
Since 2010, the Seahawks have drafted one Pro Bowl offensive lineman (Russell Okung). They have drafted only one O-lineman who has signed a multiyear extension with the team (Justin Britt), although left tackle Charles Cross or right tackle Abe Lucas could join that group this offseason.
Under Schneider, the Seahawks have never drafted a Pro Bowl defensive lineman. Leonard Williams just became the first Seattle player to reach double-digit sacks since 2018. The last draftee to earn first-team All-Pro honors somewhere other than special teams was Bobby Wagner. After years of low-risk free-agent contracts, Seattle took a big swing in March 2023 and handed out its largest deal to an external free agent. Dre’Mont Jones has yet to live up to that $51 million deal.
Last January, Schneider said it was “time for all of us to look in the mirror in this organization, myself included obviously, and improve, learn and move forward.” They fell well short of their expectations for reasons that can largely be traced back to issues that precede the new head coach.
If they look in the mirror this time around, will they be staring at the reason they ended another season disappointed?
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.