Why Seahawks fans should root for Vikings to hire Seattle assistant as next GM

If Nolan Teasley becomes the Vikings GM, the Seahawks could gain more than compensatory picks — they could strengthen John Schneider’s growing NFL pipeline.

Nolan Teasley started working for the Seattle Seahawks in 2013 when they won their first Super Bowl, and now he could be leaving the Seahawks right after the franchise won their second. With respect to the value that Teasley could give the Seahawks in the coming years as John Schneider’s assistant general manager, he can’t move any higher in Seattle with the Executive of the Year as the “final boss” in his way.

Therefore, the next-best thing Teasley could do for the Seahawks is get hired by the Minnesota Vikings as their next GM, and this week it was reported that he’s in the final five. If Teasley is hired, it’s not just the two third-round picks in 2027 and 2028 that Seattle would receive, as compensation, that would make the move another “win” for the Seahawks.

It’s also the pipeline to Minnesota that could open up if he gets the job.

Seahawks connections around the NFL

One of the underrated benefits to winning Super Bowls is that other franchises want to steal what you have, hiring coaches and front office personnel to run their teams, which in turn gives the source of the gold better connections around the league.

The Seahawks are already connected to these teams:

• Packers: John Schneider’s old team

• Raiders: Klint Kubiak’s new team

• Panthers: GM Dan Morgan, HC Dave Canales worked for Seahawks

• Patriots: GM Eliot Wolf considers Schneider to be his mentor

• Ravens: HC Jesse Minter worked under Mike Macdonald

• Giants: HC John Harbaugh hired Macdonald

• Chargers: HC Jim Harbaugh hired Macdonald at Michigan

• 49ers: OC Brian Fleury comes from Shanahan tree

• Cowboys: HC Brian Schottenheimer + Aden Durde’s old team

• Chiefs: Schneider closely aligned with KC, long after he left Chiefs in 2000

• Lions: Executive John Dorsey is close friend of Schneider’s

• Titans: Exec Reggie McKenzie close with Schneider, Robert Saleh is HC

• Moons: Dan Quinn + Scott Fitterer

• Colts: Assistant GM Ed Dodds worked for Schneider in Seattle

• Vikings: Teasley?

Going into his 17th season as Seattle’s GM, Schneider has a working relationship with an important decision-maker in every single division. GMs, head coaches, and former GMs who have the ear of current GMs.

The Ron Wolf executive tree has branched off personnel including Schneider, Dorsey, and McKenzie, plus of course his son Eliot, the de facto GM of the Patriots:

"It all starts with Ron Wolf," Schneider said recently when asked about his process for building the Seahawks. "[He] was actually more of an educator than he probably thought at the time. At a very young age, I was exposed to the way Ron Wolf did things."

"I remember sitting there after a draft meeting," Chiefs GM John Dorsey told the Seattle Times. "You had a big old box of VHS and Beta tapes. One Friday night, Wolf said, ‘Boys, I want that box done by tomorrow.' So Schneider and I stayed there until about 3 in the morning, we did every tape in that box, and we found one guy."

These connections matter and the threads are either very apparent or easy to find if you do a little bit of digging.

How Seahawks connections constructed teams

For example, the Patriots hired Alonzo Highsmith in their front office in 2024, the same year that Wolf was promoted; Highsmith worked for the Seahawks from 2020-2022.

The Panthers promoted Morgan to GM and hired Canales in 2024. That same year, Washington hired both Quinn and Fitterer, the latter having spent 20 years in Seattle’s front office prior to getting Carolina’s GM job in 2021.

And then this year we’ve seen Eric Saubert vouch for Fleury and Macdonald hired Zach Orr, a former Baltimore assistant, as the Seahawks linebackers coach. Schneider also swung a day three trade with Wolf’s Patriots.

These connections don’t just build teams, they strengthen relationships between franchises.

If the Vikings hire Teasley, there is potential for huge trades between the two GMs in the future, not to mention the chance that there’s a way that Seattle gets four third round compensatory picks, not just two …