INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Nearly three hours after his media availability in the Indiana Convention Center for the NFL Scouting Combine, I bumped into Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider, breathing a sigh of relief as he exited the facility. Everyone wanted a piece of Seattle\u2019s top personnel man in Indianapolis. That comes with winning a Super Bowl, and that’s why it\u2019s so hard to repeat. Schneider got a chance to briefly exhale after his team\u2019s Super Bowl victory parade a few weeks ago, but now he\u2019s back on the grind, figuring out how he\u2019s going to keep the foundation of his football team together with the start of free agency looming and the draft right after that. “It\u2019s really going to be about my private time, the studying and getting caught up with that,” Schneider said when I asked him at the podium about the shrinking timeline this offseason after the Seahawks won 17 games this year. “We had great free agency meetings during the season, so we\u2019ll learn a lot about what\u2019s going on down here this week. But yeah, the timeline part of that is real. \u2026 It\u2019s like the discipline on the weekends to try to figure out how to get caught up. “We\u2019ll get to it.” Schneider also said he does not expect the sale of the Seahawks by owner Jody Allen to impact his team\u2019s plan for this offseason. “It\u2019s just business as usual for us,” Schneider said. The Seahawks only have four draft picks this year. Schneider said part of the reason for that is Seattle anticipated last year\u2019s draft class would be stronger than 2026 and wanted to take advantage of a deep draft talent pool in 2025. Schneider accomplished that by hitting on the team\u2019s first-round selection in offensive guard Grey Zabel, one of the key pieces to Mike Macdonald\u2019s defense in safety Nick Emmanwori, a pass-catching tight end in Elijah Arroyo and a developmental quarterback in Jalen Milroe. While everything fell into place for the Seahawks in 2025, Schneider has done a nice job building a roster that can compete for a Super Bowl for an extended period. Seattle\u2019s average roster age of 25.8 was tied for the fourth-youngest roster in the league at the start of the regular season. Still, Schneider and the Seahawks have some work to do in free agency. Seattle has some money to keep many of its foundational pieces in the fold, including potentially offering new deals to young players eligible for extensions in wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Seattle\u2019s projected over $60 million in salary cap space is the sixth-most in the NFL. The top player set to hit the market is running back Kenneth Walker III, but return specialist Rashid Shaheed, edge rusher Boye Mafe, safety Coby Bryant and cornerbacks Josh Jobe and Riq Woolen also will command attention in free agency. Schneider said he\u2019d like to have Walker back. However, a Memphis native who trains in Dallas in the offseason, will have a robust market after finishing as Super Bowl MVP, potentially pricing himself out of staying in Seattle. Along with that, new offensive coordinator Brian Fleury comes from a franchise in San Francisco that has done a nice job of finding productive runners as mid-round selections in the draft. And Seattle\u2019s zone blocking scheme, which originated in Denver decades ago with Mike Shanahan, is known for producing at a high level with less talented running backs. “We\u2019ll start talking to all the agents and we\u2019ll have a better feel where we\u2019re going here towards the end of the week,” Schneider said, when asked about bringing back Walker. “Obviously, we\u2019d love to have everybody. We want to have everybody back, you know, right? When you get done with something special like that, you’re like, \u2018Let\u2019s run it back. Let\u2019s run it back.\u2019 It\u2019s going to be an interesting process.” Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said he still hasn\u2019t watched a replay of the Super Bowl victory and doesn\u2019t plan on doing that anytime soon. “I\u2019m going to Hawaii next week, so I ain\u2019t doing it there either,” joked Macdonald at the podium last week. How Macdonald recreated the unique connectivity he established last season will be a priority once players return from a needed break this offseason. Macdonald emphasized the importance of evolving as a franchise, not being complacent about having won the Super Bowl and understanding the fragility of implementing a winning culture within a building. “The principle of how we are going to operate is we want to nail the daily goals \u2014 the daily standard of what we\u2019re trying to achieve to become a championship team again,” Macdonald said. “It\u2019s really going to be that simple. How we build the offseason program and what we do on a daily basis, that\u2019s going to look a little different for a variety of reasons. “But how we do our business, how we interact with each other and how we attack schematically and how we put things together, that will all stay the same.” Macdonald also lost continuity with offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak leaving to take the head coaching job with the Las Vegas Raiders. However, he expects the core principles to remain the same on the side of the football with Fleury taking over. “We\u2019re going to be the Seattle Seahawks,” Macdonald said. “We\u2019re going to have a different evolution of our offense. It\u2019s going to be built on the same principles, but how it comes to life and the exact plays we\u2019re going to run, I can\u2019t answer that yet. But I know how Brian is going to operate and how our staff is going to operate, and I\u2019m really excited to see this offense come to life.” The bottom line is Schneider and Macdonald both understand the arduous task ahead in defending their Super Bowl title. But Schneider believes the Seahawks will be up for the challenge. “Even in the locker room, at the parade, they\u2019re all talking about next year,” Schneider said. “It\u2019s just cool. There\u2019s a great mix of veteran leadership \u2014 dogs, young dogs, athletes, speed \u2013 and then guys that are willing to buy into development and their coaches, and the people in the building that are supporting them.” In the Big Picture, we contextualize key moves and moments so you can instantly understand why they matter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 Nearly three hours after his media availability in the Indiana Convention Center for the NFL Scouting Combine, I bumped into Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider, breathing a sigh of relief as he exited the facility. Everyone wanted a piece of Seattle\u2019s top personnel man in Indianapolis. That comes with winning a Super<\/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\/32300"}],"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=32300"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32300\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32300"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32300"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/onlinebettingnewyork.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32300"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}