John Schneider’s Best Seahawks Move: Saving his own Job

Success in player acquisitions by football boss John Schneider over the past two years has been rightly hailed as the Seahawks ascend the playoff ladder. As the next rung appears Sunday at Lumen Field, for what seems like the 11th meeting of the season with the Los Angeles Rams, it is also worthy to consider Schneider’s most critical move: Saving his own job when ownership ushered out legendary coach Pete Carroll after 14 generally remarkable seasons in Seattle.

When chased by a bear, remember Forest Rule No. 1: Be faster than the person next to you.

That outcome was underscored Thursday when Schneider was voted by national football writers as NFL Executive of the Year, It happened a couple of weeks after Carroll’s return to NFL coaching ended grimly — a single 3-14 season that got him cashiered by the Las Vegas Raiders. For most of this century, the Raiders have been a tire fire under the ownership of Mark Davis, hapless son of Al Davis. Since their appearance in the 2003 Super Bowl, the Raiders have not won a single playoff game. Since Mark’s only other inheritance from his legendary father was a bad haircut, Carroll’s tenure was doomed from the start: He was asked to make an eggless omelette.

Schneider, meanwhile, made meals early and lately. In 2014, he helped build a Super Bowl winner with a roster that was, and remains, the youngest in the title game’s history. That alone should have been Schneider’s first executive of the year award. The honor waited until this week, when Schneider’s most recent two seasons of draftees, free-agent signings and trades helped create the NFC’s No. 1 seed and the role of three-point favorite to win the NFC championship and advance to the Super Bowl.

But consider the possibility that the decision to oust Carroll could have also included Schneider.

They came in together in 2010, and the easy thing would have been to fire both and start fresh. After all, the tandem had won one playoff game in the previous eight seasons.

To their credit, they always presented a united front publicly. By dint of contract terms, Carroll had final say on all personnel decisions, yet never let daylight appear between them. Seahawks chair Jody Allen, sister of Paul Allen and successor upon his 2018 death, and Bert Kolde, vice chair and Paul Allen’s former roommate at Washington State, were the decision-makers. Nothing substantive has been disclosed about their deliberations — Jody Allen is 0-for-career in sports media interviews — but logic dictates some reliance on a senior football mind regarding Carroll’s future.

Had to be Schneider. Had to have told his truth about his longtime partner/boss and the team’s future. On the day of his firing, a stricken 72-year-old Carroll held a packed press conference at team headquarters in Renton, where Schneider said not a word but was in the room, leaning on a wall.

“He’s great at what he does,” Carroll said, looking at him. “Now he’s going to find out. You’re going to find out, big fella.”

Schneider found out — the inevitable mixed bag of results when hiring talented, complicated humans (I would have given large coin to have been a fly on the wall to hear the July 2020 discussion about why Jets safety Jamal Adams was worth trading two first-round picks, a third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald).

But without a doubt, the current success that led the Seahawks to the first 14-win season in their 50-year history was the hire by Schneider of Carroll’s successor, Mike Macdonald. He was no secret within the NFL after his success as defensive coordinator with the Baltimore Ravens. But to many Seahawks fans, it was a shock to see at the helm a guy who looks like the middle-school gym teacher in his first job out of college. 

The Seahawks trend under Paul Allen was to make massive splashes with experienced brand names. In 1999, the richest man in football, unburdened by any salary cap, OK’d the hire of Mike Holmgren, 51. He took the Green Packers to two Super Bowls, winning one, He was given a $32 million, eight-year deal to be the general manager as well as coach, a double-dip the Packers would not do. Holmgren, nicknamed in Seattle The Big Show, took the Seahawks to their first Super Bowl.

After Holmgren moved on to Cleveland in 2008 — and after a regrettable one year from Jim L. Mora, a former University of Washington player — Allen went high-profile again in 2010. Abetted by CEO Tod Leiweke, they silently swooped in on USC to poach Carroll, 58. He was allowed to choose a GM from a list of four candidates interviewed by Leiweke, and picked Schneider. Carroll and Schneider took the Seahawks to their next two Super Bowl appearances. At the time of his firing, he was estimated to be making about $15 million.

Days later, Schneider, flying solo, broke the Allen tradition and chose the 36-year-old Macdonald, who had never been a head coach at any level. Seattle won a competition for his services with a six-year deal averaging $9 million per season, believed to be the most for a head coach without previous experience, and 14th among active head coaches. In Carroll’s first Seattle year, when he coaxed a 7-9 team into the playoffs and the Beast first Quaked, Macdonald, who never played college or pro ball, was graduating from the University of Georgia with a degree in finance (3.9 GPA). He subsequently cashed in, big time.

An unlikely backstory, yes. But the front story, the age comparison with Rams coach Sean McVay, whom he faces Sunday, is inevitable and relevant.

Hired in 2017 at 30, McVay was the youngest head coach in NFL history. In his rookie season, he was voted coach of the year as the Rams ended a 12-year post-season drought. In his eight seasons, the Rams have made the playoffs six times, reached the Super Bowl twice and won once, in 2022.

In turning to a young coach, Schneider isn’t merely chasing a trend. He just knows that, in and of itself, youth is not a disqualifier. Never has been. John Madden was a head coach at 32 in 1962. Al Davis, 33 in 1963. The first years of Jon Gruden, Bill Cowher, Mike Tomlin and Norm Van Brocklin were at age 34. The Saints’ first-year coach, Kellen Moore from Prosser, is 37. The coach last week that nearly beat the Rams in the division round in Chicago, Ben Johnson, is 39.

As the Rams did with McVay, Schneider hired a coach who is a master of his material, thinks quickly and analytically, is vigorous enough to be relatable, accepts responsibility, demands accountability, and is authentic — all characteristics that can age well.

FORECAST

The Seahawks defense has not allowed a play to go 20-plus yards in a month. They are the only team since 2000 to deny a play of 20-plus yards in three consecutive games. Seahawks 23, Rams 20.