There’s No Debate: Seahawks GM John Schneider Should Be 2025 NFL Executive of the Year
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Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider signs autographs during pregame warmups against the New York Giants at Lumen Field. Mandatory Credit: Joe Nicholson-Imagn Images [/caption]
RENTON, Wash. - Long revered as one of the NFL’s best in the business, John Schneider has oversaw the most successful era of Seattle Seahawks football since taking over as general manager in 2010, culminating with a Lombardi Trophy in 2013.
But despite building perennial playoff teams and having winning records in all but three of his 16 seasons at the helm, even after back-to-back Super Bowl appearances, Schneider has never received the ultimate prize for his line of work as NFL Executive of the Year. While other candidates can and will be part of the discussion, with Seattle on the cusp of its first NFC West title since 2020 and in the mix for the No. 1 seed in the NFC for the first time since 2014, it’s past time for him to be rewarded for his roster building prowess and nobody deserves the honor more in 2025.
Only two years ago, coming off a 9-8 season that resulted in missing the postseason, Schneider took the reins as the Seahawks’ sole decision maker following the unexpected dismissal of popular coach Pete Carroll, offering him the opportunity to hire his first head coach in Mike Macdonald. At the time, many were skeptical of whether or not he could build another Super Bowl contender without his long-time partner in crime and riding solo, putting immense pressure on his shoulders with the team not winning a playoff game in four years.
Such cynicism had been fostered in large part by the aforementioned playoff drought. Towards the end of the Schneider/Carroll union, the pairing had seem to lose a bit of their luster. Compared to earlier in their respective tenures, Seattle struggled to acquire blue chip talent in the draft, free agency featured more misses than hits, including constant musical chairs at center and guard on the offensive line without any long-term answers being found, and the blockbuster trade for safety Jamal Adams in 2020 wound up being a disaster with the player battling multiple serious injuries, setting the team back on multiple fronts.
However, the dominos that have fallen since that franchise-altering move parting ways with Carroll have more than justified Seahawks chair Jody Allen’s willingness to take the risk and put all the chips on the table for Schneider, who has been nothing short of brilliant quickly assembling a championship-caliber squad that fits both he and Macdonald’s vision. After winning 10 games a year ago in the first season of their partnership, the Seahawks already have matched that total with four games left to play, emerging as a legitimate title threat following half a decade of unacceptable mediocrity as little more than a fringe playoff team at best.
While Macdonald deserves his flowers as one of the premier young coaches in the entire NFL, particularly given the pressure cooker he jumped into replacing the greatest coach in franchise history, nobody has been more instrumental in Seattle’s resurgence than Schneider, who has been on an absolute heater over the past three years and change.
Taking advantage of a boatload of picks acquired from the Broncos in exchange for quarterback Russell Wilson in March 2022, Schneider has rediscovered his mojo as one of the league’s true NFL Draft maestros. In the first round, he brought on board foundational stars in Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Devon Witherspoon, Byron Murphy, and Grey Zabel in the past three drafts alone. On Day 2, he consistently has found outstanding value in the second and third rounds, including this past April trading up for safety Nick Emmanwori, who may end up being the best player on the entire roster down the road.
As he and Carroll did constructing their eventual Super Bowl winning roster in the early 2010s, Schneider and his personnel department have excelled at finding gems on Day 3. He found two long-term starters in Coby Bryant and Riq Woolen in the 2022 draft, while tight end AJ Barner, receiver Tory Horton, and linebacker Tyrice Knight have all provided excellent contributions as fourth and fifth round selections from the previous two draft hauls.
Where Schneider has truly made a killing, however, has been in free agency, which may have been his Achilles heel in his first 15 years calling the shots. Following offseason after offseason of trying to squeeze out value from aging, average veterans on one-year deals with few of them actually being difference making additions, he altered his approach after trading away disgruntled starting quarterback Geno Smith and receiver DK Metcalf, pivoting to pursue quarterback Sam Darnold, receiver Cooper Kupp, and defensive end Demarcus Lawrence in March, inking all of them to three-year deals.
Thus far, those moves have been pivotal in Seattle taking the next step towards contention. Though turnovers have been problematic at times, as Macdonald has attested to several times this season, the unflappable Darnold has been the ideal quarterback fit for Klint Kubiak’s offense, throwing 22 touchdowns with a 68% completion rate and a league-best 8.9 yards per attempt, steering one of the league’s most explosive offenses while developing a near-unstoppable rapport with Smith-Njigba, who has a shot at breaking Calvin Johnson’s single season receiving yardage record.
Considering how much Smith has struggled with the Raiders, it’s safe to say Schneider hit that decision out of the park.
“When Sam's clicking, and he has been for the majority of the season, we were playing really efficient football, and he’s led the charge for us,” Macdonald said on Monday. “So, he’ll keep plugging away, keep attacking it, and keep slinging the ball. Just like every other position, there's always things to correct from a week-to-week basis. Find new things to screw up, we’ll keep growing from it together, and let’s go rock and roll.”
Even if his best days are behind him, Kupp has been a rock solid complementary piece in the passing game with 473 receiving yards and continues to excel as a run blocker at his position, while Lawrence has been arguably the best value signing in football bolstering an already elite defense, racking up five sacks, two defensive touchdowns, 17 quarterback hits, and two forced fumbles. Beyond their contributions on the field, both veterans have been outstanding additions to the locker room as mentors for a young football team.
Continuing a strong track record of midseason trades, Schneider has kept dialing up game-changing deals at the deadline to improve the Seahawks’ roster, bringing in defensive tackle Leonard Williams, linebacker Ernest Jones, and receiver Rashid Shaheed in the past three seasons. Williams and Jones both returned on multi-year deals and have performed at an All-Pro level dominating in Macdonald’s scheme, while Shaheed has finally started to emerge as the playmaker on offense and special teams they anticipated he would be when they acquired him from the Saints in October, opening the door for a long-term deal for him as well.
Maybe most impressively, as a testament to the fantastic scouting efforts by Schneider and the personnel department he works in tandem with, Seattle has rounded back into form as the premier destination for undrafted free agents to thrive, including for players who didn’t stick with their original team.
On offense, second-year center Jalen Sundell beat out Olu Oluwatimi for the starting job out of camp this summer and rookie tight end Nick Kallerup has started to leave his mark as a physical run blocker in recent weeks, justifying his inclusion on the 53-man roster back in August. Defensively, linebacker Drake Thomas and cornerback Josh Jobe, who were claimed off waivers from the Raiders and Eagles respectively, have developed into above average starters in Macdonald’s defense, while safety Ty Okada surpassed all expectations replacing an injured Julian Love this season and has proven he has starter-caliber ability as well.
“They do a great job,” Macdonald said of Seattle’s personnel department finding undrafted gems. “It feels like every person we bring into the building, especially in the last two years, you can see the potential. You’re really excited to work with these guys, and our coaches have done a phenomenal job of setting out the time to work with them.”
At the end of the day, as he would state publicly, Schneider isn’t in the business for individual accolades. Every move and decision that he makes, whether it’s a big splash trading for a star such as Williams at the deadline or bringing six players in on a Tuesday for tryouts, is catered solely to the quest to climb back to the top and win another Lombardi. There’s no other end game.
But over the past calendar year, no general manager in the sport has done a better job of consistently improving his football team as means for not only making the playoffs, but being a viable threat to make a deep run to the Super Bowl, than what Schneider has. He aced yet another draft with future stars in Zabel and Emmanwori as the headliners, found a franchise quarterback in Darnold as well as Lawrence in free agency, and made another shrewd deadline trade to reinforce a playoff push.
No longer in Carroll’s shadow with the title window just starting to open for the Seahawks under his watch, such qualifications undoubtedly should make Schneider the favorite to finally win NFL Executive of the Year. And it’s been a long time coming.
