This wasn’t an easy off-season. The Seahawks faced a number of challenges that could easily have capsized their boat into Lake Washington. To say GM John Schneider has made it look easy is an understatement. The effectiveness with which he dealt with a testing few months is evident by the way nobody really seems to be acknowledging how difficult it was.
Let’s just remember where the Seahawks were in early January. They’d missed the playoffs again and faced the prospect of firing their offensive coordinator after a shambolic offensive performance in 2024. Everyone knew a situation was looming with Geno Smith and DK Metcalf’s contracts. The fan base and media were demanding improvements to the offensive line.
Big questions were emerging as to how Schneider would handle the decisions that needed to be made and whether he could set the Seahawks on a better path to future success.
What he has achieved has been emphatic both in execution and in the way it has come with a minimum of fuss. I’m sure internally there have been some enormous challenges, sleepless nights and fraught moments. Yet to those on the outside, they’ve got a lot done without it ever feeling like the franchise was at a crossroads.
You only have to look at other teams to see how difficult that is. The Pittsburgh Steelers have gone weeks without any clarity on their quarterback situation. They’re at the beck and call of Aaron Rodgers. If he decided at any point he didn’t want to play this year, they’d need to do a deal with the Falcons for soon-to-be 37-year-old Kirk Cousins or rely on Mason Rudolph.
Despite this, they traded away a key pick and a massive contract for a want-away receiver who is yet to deliver on his enormous physical potential. The Steelers have taken a poor end to the regular season and carried it into the off-season. They look like a franchise that is stuck in the mud.
Meanwhile, the Giants knew for weeks towards the end of the last regular season that they needed to address their quarterback problem. Yet when the market opened, what exactly was their plan? They were linked to Rodgers but that never came to anything. They eventually signed Jameis Winston because they needed a body in the building. Then they signed Russell Wilson. They knew they weren’t going to find a solution with the third overall pick so more or less talked themselves into trading up to select Jaxson Dart in round one.
Let’s compare these two situations to the Seahawks. Clearly they had a contingency plan if they were to move on from Geno Smith. As soon as the decision was made to trade him to the Raiders, everyone connected them to Sam Darnold. His signing was confirmed within minutes of free agency starting. Having moved on from a somewhat accomplished and experienced starter, they’d added the best free agent quarterback available on a contract that provides excellent flexibility and minimal commitment.
They understood they weren’t going to get a new contract done with Metcalf, who requested a trade. They got the best deal and moved on, without the situation dragging on for weeks.
A line was drawn. They were decisive and made a call.
The next issue was the offensive line. Fans — and certain sections of an over-excited local media — demanded additions to the offensive line at all costs. When they failed to sign Will Fries, purely because the Minnesota Vikings were prepared to take a massive risk on his signature without him passing a medical, the knives were out. ‘You must sign some players now!’
The Seahawks didn’t take the bait. They were patient. They understood they weren’t going to fix the line signing bad, unwanted players for the sake of appeasing a few noise-makers on social media. It would’ve been so easy to just take a punt on Tevin Jenkins but he was never going to be the answer.
Their patience paid off when they showed everyone they had a plan for the draft. That plan included addressing the interior offensive line with their top pick — landing a top-20 physical talent in the form of Grey Zabel. This is a player with an explosive testing profile to match the likes of Frank Ragnow, Zach Tom and Creed Humphrey. Unlike Jenkins, he can actually provide a solution.
There are other positives to note:
— The Seahawks needed to move on from the Ryan Grubb experiment and they promptly did, replacing him with a vastly experienced staff. This is one of the more underrated moves in the NFL off-season. Klint Kubiak, together with John Benton, Rick Dennison, Andrew Janocko and Justin Outten, bring serious NFL chops to Seattle. This isn’t to say success is guaranteed. It never is. But the Seahawks can put together the kind of offensive system that can be clear and effective, much in the way Mike Macdonald provided clarity to the defense in 2024.
— The team needed more leadership. They might be getting older but the signings of Cooper Kupp and DeMarcus Lawrence, plus Sam Darnold, were as important off the field as they were on it. Kupp is already said to be having a huge impact with team-mates while Lawrence is the kind of defensive alpha any team benefits from. Seeing Darnold out there working on the field already feels like a far cry from the stories about Geno Smith taking a few days off from training camp to make a point about how much better he is than Sam Howell for his own contractual benefit.
— They weren’t afraid to have a disruptive off-season. We talked about why this was important last year. The Seahawks could muddle along as a nine or ten win team, make the playoffs every now and again and rightly argue ‘they’re in the mix’ compared to several other franchises who never are. Clearly that isn’t good enough. You don’t make the kind of change they’ve made this year without striving for more. Again, there’s no guarantee the moves they made will succeed. However, I think it’s admirable that they are not settling for ‘good’ and want to try and least achieve ‘great’.
— They are building the kind of team they say they want to be. All of the moves, both in free agency and the draft, feel connected. You can see the vision and identity coming through. We’re starting to get a feel for what a Mike Macdonald defender looks like. We know what kind of offensive linemen they want. They are building a team, not just adding talented players. They are keeping an eye on identity and fit. You can see the blueprint, the plan. The direction of travel is clear and it’s one that should inspire belief.
That brings us on to the draft. Regulars to this blog know I don’t just praise the Seahawks for the sake of it. Whether it was criticism of the Jamal Adams trade when it occurred, complaints over the direction of the team from 2020 to the end of the Pete Carroll era and the belief that a new Head Coach was needed, I’ve been critical. I only point this out to try and make my next sentence actually mean something. I think this is the best draft the Seahawks have had since 2012.
They achieved exceptional value throughout the three days, including with their seventh round picks and UDFA signings. They addressed key needs, drafted players with massive upside potential and expertly manipulated the board to get the players they wanted.
This was a textbook example of an active draft plan executed at a high level.
Grey Zabel set the ball rolling — a plug-and-play guard with as much upside as any offensive lineman in the draft. The deliberate targeting of a player they had to have in round two was a dynamic move. Going up to get Nick Emmanwori and it only costing the #82 pick was a great trade. To move up 17 spots, the Seahawks gave up a third round pick. Compare that to the Falcons who gave up their 2026 first rounder to move up 19 spots to select James Pearce Jr.
Elijah Arroyo was excellent value at #50. One of my favourite players in the draft, he can offer the kind of ‘it’s going to him and there’s nothing you can do about it’ excitement as a pass-catcher in Kubiak’s offense.
In Zabel, Emmanwori and Arroyo they landed the #13, #32 and #17 players on my board with the #18, #35 and #50 picks.
For years people have called on Schneider to take more shots on the quarterback position. At #92 they take Jalen Milroe — a player with the physical tools to be a star in terms of his running ability and arm strength. Admittedly his current level of accuracy on a short to intermediate level isn’t good enough. You couldn’t trust him to convert a key 3rd and 7 with his arm if he had to play a game for Alabama tomorrow. However, there’s no pressure for him to start. If they can work to develop this area of his game, they could end up with a diamond. If not, it was worth a dice roll at that stage in the draft. The upside potential is enormous.
On day three they found so much value. I can only judge based on my horizontal board — which is published long before any of these players were selected by the Seahawks. I had Rylie Mills as a third round pick due to injury (he was a second rounder before that). They got him in round five. I had Tory Horton as a fringe second rounder or third rounder. They got him in round five. I had Bryce Cabeldue in round three based on the fact he was the fourth most explosive offensive lineman in the draft. They got him in round six. I had Damien Martinez in round four. He was a seventh round pick. I had Ricky White III in round five purely based on his testing profile (he was excellent on tape). They got him in round seven also.
This is a home-run class by John Schneider. It’s a group littered with leadership, high-upside athleticism, talent and starter potential.
We’ve often talked about the need for a transformational draft to elevate the Seahawks to the next level. This could be it.
Even after the draft, they were able to sign Zy Alexander — the best remaining cornerback on my board with a fourth round grade — and Jackson Woodard — the best remaining linebacker on my board with another fourth round grade. Had they taken either of these players on day three, I would’ve celebrated the pick. On Sunday they signed Jared Ivey, a player I gave a round 4/5 grade to based on disappointing testing numbers but had previously shown enough flashes on tape to think he could’ve worked into the day two conversation.
This off-season has energised the franchise. They can be competitive in a wide-open NFC West and start to build towards something significant. Of course there are still big challenges ahead. Can Sam Darnold play like he did at his best in Minnesota for the Seahawks? How long will it take the offense to settle down and function at a good level? Can a young offensive line create the kind of consistency that is going to be required to elevate the unit’s performance in a big way? Can they return to winning home games?
For now though, I think we should just acknowledge what has been achieved over the last four months. This had the potential to be a really difficult off-season. Schneider has navigated through it expertly and for that he deserves a lot of credit. This has been one of his best off-seasons as Seahawks GM.