Big brother, little brother. When asked about the difference between winning a Super Bowl with the ageless Pete Carroll and reaching the precipice of accomplishing that same feat in two years with Mike Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider compared those relationships to something most folks understand \u2014 brotherly love. “It\u2019s kind of like Pete was my older brother and he\u2019s kind of my younger brother,” Schneider told me. “That\u2019s what it feels like. That\u2019s the best way I can describe it.” In a conversation with me, Schneider discussed roster building with the exacting Macdonald, the maturation of his star quarterback Sam Darnold and the difference between two dominant defenses for the Seahawks \u2014 the Legion of Boom and the Dark Side. Carroll, 74, was 20 years older than the 54-year-old Schneider when the two worked together for 14 seasons. While Macdonald, the third-youngest coach in the NFL at 38, is 15 years younger than the Seahawks’ general manager. Yes, the two have different personalities; the always-positive Carroll brings a larger-than-life persona to every room he enters, and Macdonald offers a no-nonsense, workmanlike approach. However, Schneider said both were similar in the way they attacked football. “It\u2019s the same as when Pete and I walked in the door in 2010,” Schneider told me. “It\u2019s a daily effort to improve football operations. How can we improve our football team every single day? He\u2019s open-minded like Pete was. He knows what he wants, like Pete does. So, it\u2019s not really different, to be honest. “He\u2019s very open to making the toughest decisions and the tough discussions you have to make \u2014 decisions that you believe are going to affect the franchise in a positive manner. He doesn\u2019t shy away from those.” In his 16th season with the Seahawks, Schneider now serves as general manager and president of football operations, picking up the new title after the franchise parted ways with Carroll in 2024. The Seahawks have posted a 147-96-1 mark during Schneider\u2019s tenure, sixth-best in the NFL over that time. Seattle had 15 players earn first-team All-Pro honors in that span. Schneider has been particularly effective in building one of the youngest rosters in the league. Over the past four drafts, Schneider has drafted 20 starters or solid contributors currently on the team\u2019s roster. Players like wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, cornerback Devon Witherspoon, running back Kenneth Walker III, defensive lineman Byron Murphy II, offensive tackle Charles Cross, offensive tackle Abe Lucas, safety Nick Emmanwori and guard Grey Zabel emerged as the franchise\u2019s new core of players. For his effort in getting the Seahawks back to the Super Bowl for the third time during his tenure, Schneider earned the Pro Football Writers Association\u2019s executive of the year for the first time in his pro career. “It\u2019s the ultimate organizational award,” Schneider told me about the honor. “It\u2019s a cool representation of people in the background that help us, like our video guys, strength and conditioning, the trainers, the PR people \u2014 everyone who affects our team on a daily basis who help support the players and the coaches.” Schneider has a good relationship with the man who leads the personnel department of the team that’ll try and take down his Seahawks in Super Bowl LX. Schneider worked with New England Patriots executive vice president of player personnel Eliot Wolf when the two were with the Green Bay Packers. Schneider\u2019s mentor and the first person to offer him a job in the personnel business as an intern over 30 years ago in his hometown of Green Bay was Hall of Famer Ron Wolf, Eliot\u2019s father. Schneider said the two remained close. “He was at the facility, so I kind of took him under my wing,” Schneider said about the younger Wolf. “I\u2019d play basketball with him. I literally taught him how to get out on fastbreaks and dribbling drills, stuff like that. He was that young. And I was the youngest of the [personnel executive] group between Reggie McKenzie, Ted Thompson, John Dorsey, Alonzo Highsmith and myself. “We had a natural bond. And I like to think when he\u2019s gone through some tough times, hopefully he feels like I\u2019ve been there for him. We still talk a bunch.” One of the primary reasons for Seattle\u2019s success this season has been the play of quarterback Sam Darnold. Schneider took a significant risk in trading a good performer in Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders so the West Virginia product could reunite with Carroll. Seattle then signed the well-traveled Donald for less money, a three-year, $100.5 million deal in free agency. On his fifth NFL team, the USC product had a history of struggling in big moments. However, Darnold bought into Macdonald\u2019s team-building philosophy and had one of his best games as a pro in the postseason, throwing for 346 yards and three touchdowns in leading Seattle over the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC title game. Darnold and Tom Brady are the only quarterbacks in NFL history to win 14 games in consecutive regular seasons. Darnold is the only signal caller to accomplish that with two different teams. “He\u2019s continued to evolve as a leader, the way he interacts with his teammates,” Schneider told me about Darnold. “The way he carries himself as a pro. He\u2019s really shown his resilience. He plays the game like a good corner would. He can make a mistake, and he doesn\u2019t lose his mind. He can just turn the page and go on to the next one. “Somebody described it to me the other day like a really good 3-point shooter, and I agree.” Along with Darnold, Schneider made another impactful midseason trade in securing speedy receiver Rashid Shaheed. The Seahawks gave up fourth and fifth-round picks for the San Diego native, who has three returns for touchdowns since joining the team in November. Schneider said he\u2019d been in conversation with the Saints for about three weeks before completing the trade and didn\u2019t know what other teams were involved in the negotiations. “They did a really good job of not letting us know who we were competing with,” Schneider told me. “But it wasn\u2019t like a big negotiation. It was basically, \u2018It\u2019s going to take this and this. If you want him, that\u2019s what it\u2019s going to take.\u2019 At the end of the day, that\u2019s what it was. “Tory Horton was still playing at the time. He got hurt right around that time. Otherwise, we would have had two guys who could really fly. We were looking for that in the draft. And Klint [Seahawks offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak] had coached Rashid in the past, so we knew what we were bringing in the locker room.” One of the attractions of hiring Macdonald for Schneider was his reputation as one of the top defensive innovators in the league, playing in the toughest division in the NFL in the NFC West and having to face Sean McVay and Kyle Shanahan twice a year. That vision has come to fruition with the development of one of the top defenses in the league in the Dark Side, which has grown to rival one of the best defenses in league history in Seattle\u2019s Legion of Boom. So, which defense is better? Schneider wouldn\u2019t bite. “It\u2019s a different generation,” Schneider told me. “Those guys [Legion of Boom] were a little more edgy. They kind of demanded your attention. They were in your face. “Much like that group, these guys [The Darkside] are bonded. They\u2019re connected and really playing together, with each other and for each other. I think that\u2019s the easiest way to explain it, without getting into the details for every position group.” Schneider\u2019s core philosophy hasn\u2019t changed since he arrived in Seattle in 2010 \u2014 plan, communicate and work. It\u2019s a simple strategy that bears fruit each season. “We have so many decisions to make on a daily basis, to try and figure out what the landscape is going to look like in the National Football League,” Schneider told me. “So, I try to keep it simple, stupid, so we\u2019re not overthinking things \u2014 paralyzed through evaluation. “Let\u2019s just keep it real.” A devout Catholic, Schneider also leans heavily on his faith. On game days, he can be seen handing out little Jesus statues to fans before the game. He has a statue of Jesus on his desk at Seahawks headquarters, given to him by his mother with a scripture from the Bible \u2014 Matthew 10:27. “My mom gave me this really cool little statue on my desk that says, \u2018With God, anything is possible,\u2019 Schneider told me. “It\u2019s really important to me and I want to help. You have a platform where hopefully young adults and kids look at me and our like, \u2018Wow, I can do that someday, with prayer and hard work.'” In the Big Picture, we contextualize key moves and moments so you can instantly understand why they matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Big brother, little brother. When asked about the difference between winning a Super Bowl with the ageless Pete Carroll and reaching the precipice of accomplishing that same feat in two years with Mike Macdonald, Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider compared those relationships to something most folks understand \u2014 brotherly love. “It\u2019s kind of like<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32053"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32053"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32053\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32053"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32053"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32053"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}