Easy as it is for me and people like me to judge NFL general managers, scouts, and coaches on their selections in the draft every year, I do not envy the pressure that they are under every single time they are on the clock. For a GM, the NFL Draft is basically doing the same job you do the other 362 days out of the year—but on cocaine. Piles of it.

After months of focus on the draft cycle, hundreds of interviews, thousands of hours of film study, and in many cases years of following certain prospects, a general manager has to go from Joe Montana to Tony Montana. The higher your draft choice, the greater the risk that you will not have a job for much longer.

And those are just the guys who get headlines. Just like how L.A. Chargers head coach Brandon Staley has the “privilege” of firing offensive coordinator Joe Lombardi to escape the heat from his latest collapse, or the Tampa Bay Buccaneers moving on from OC Byron Leftwich on Tuesday, so too do general managers get to keep pushing shit downhill after making poor draft decisions, bad trades, and setting back organizations by years for believing in the wrong prospects.

Some owners do have more patience and understanding for the fact that the NFL Draft is extremely hard to execute with a consistently high success rate (it is hard to do better than Baltimore’s Ozzie Newsome and Eric DeCosta, but even the Ravens have some awful first round picks in recent history), some owners refuse to ever fully cede control and won’t ever fire themselves.

Draké @Tally__Drake

Jerry Jones when he sees Brett Maher at the team hotel tomorrow morning:

3:31 AM ∙ Jan 17, 2023

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But for all we talk about the pressure of a fourth quarter comeback by Tom Brady or a game-winning field goal attempt by Jason Myers, could it be any worse than the moment when a GM has two minutes left on the draft clock and he’s deciding between a potential franchise quarterback who needs to be developed, a high-floor edge rusher with a history of misdemeanors, a dynamic number one receiver who tore his ACL in the big game, or a trade back 10 spots that nets a future first but also guarantees the team won’t draft any of the blue chip prospects this year that he’s been debating over for his first pick in the last three months?

If you feel like you have an easy answer to that dilemma then no, you do not fully appreciate the pressure of being a general manager.

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Running simulated mock drafts on a website probably only does more to confuse the actual job of running an NFL team. Even if you spend several hours a day consuming NFL draft content—scouting reports, tape, rumors, team needs, other teams team needs, mock drafts, etc.—that’s a luxury you have without having to also be responsible for running an actual pro football team.

Not only do your hours only amount to a fraction of how long a GM spends on draft prep, he* must also prepare for free agency (internal and external), field calls on the trade market, deal with agents, handle the media, juggle the salary cap, nurture relationships with at least 90 football players, keep ownership happy, stay in rhythm with the head coach, stave off millions of fans hungry for a Super Bowl, and if life is anything like a sitcom then he must also manage to do all of that without losing his most important job of all: Being a good husband and father!

*I am all for a team hiring the first female general manager, I am sure that we are not far off from the first

For the Seattle Seahawks, I have a difficult time separating Pete Carroll and John Schneider when it comes to judging who is responsible for what and truly they are co-parenting the roster day in and day out. Perhaps that helped Schneider escape the hot seat as the Seahawks failed to hit enough doubles, triples, and home runs from 2013 to 2021, long enough to survive criticism and see the fruits of the 2022 draft class; how could Carroll or the Seahawks blame Schneider without also blaming Carroll?

Gregg Bell @gbellseattle

Pete Carroll on Seahawks holding the 5th-overall pick: "For John (Schneider), this is kind of a dream opportunity here... "We are wide open to what the options could be, whether it’s players at the top, or whether it’s opportunities to move. Whatever it is, we’ve done all of it."

9:21 PM ∙ Jan 16, 2023

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And yeah, it helps to make the playoffs in 10 out of 13 years.

But Pete Carroll knows that this is probably the worst defense he’s had since he inherited a roster from Mike Holmgren, Jim Mora, and Tim Ruskell in 2010. For the next four months, Pete and John have to perfectly navigate free agency, the draft, and trade offers while not losing sight of who and what they already have in their favor; or working against them. With all of those successful seasons behind them, Pete and John have not had this kind of power in the NFL Draft since holding two early picks in 2010.

Landing Pro Bowl players with each of their first three picks (Russell Okung, Earl Thomas, Golden Tate) and a fourth in round five (Kam Chancellor) solidified confidence in Pete’s ability to scout from a class that he had also recruited as the head coach at USC. This carried through the 2011 and 2012 classes, but the further that Pete got from his college days, the more that fans grew skeptical of the Seahawks having an advantage in the draft.

But when Seattle finally got some early draft picks again in 2022, Pete and John did well enough to earn the right to wield a stick that carries the highest draft pick that the Seahawks have had since 2009 (Aaron Curry) and the most overall capital that the team has had since their mid-70s expansion days. That is opportunity. It also pressure.

Gregg Bell @gbellseattle

Pete Carroll on @SeattleSports on 4 picks in the top 52 of this draft, plus the Seahawks being in great shape salary cap-wise. “This is just one of those moments. It’s so rare… “We are really looking forward to it.”

5:54 PM ∙ Jan 16, 2023

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The most pressure to do it right that Pete and John have ever faced. Ask yourself, if the Seahawks come out of the 2023 draft with a haul that looks as mid as the Dolphins draft in 2020 (six of the top-70 picks, an oft injured quarterback and no talents who seem to “tilt the field”) will you be as forgiving as you were for Malik McDowell and L.J. Collier and Germain Ifedi and James Carpenter?

And hint: You were not very forgiving for those classes.

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With half of the Seattle fanbase imploring Pete and John to pick a quarterback (and even those fans divided on which quarterback to select) and the other half begging to reload a defense that couldn’t tackle Stuart from Madtv…

There is undoubtedly only one way that Pete and John can survive the 2023 draft without upsetting at least half of Seahawks fans and it won’t come soon but it also won’t arrive late: Add a couple of great players, no matter who they are or where they come from.

How hard could that be?

The Seahawks had 10 picks in 2013 (but none until late second round) and found no great players. They traded their first round pick for a player who turned out not so great. Nine picks in 2014 (none in the top-40 after trading back) and no great players. Another 10 picks in 2016 and Jarran Reed is a decent player. Add 11 picks in 2017, Shaquill Griffin is a decent player, Chris Carson was an excellent seventh round value. Another nine players in 2018, with Rashaad Penny, Will Dissly, and Michael Dickson as the standouts. Outside of DK Metcalf in 2019, the Seahawks drafted 10 other players who range from bad to Cody Barton.

So excluding the 2015 class with Tyler Lockett, Frank Clark, and a mixed results trade for Jimmy Graham, that’s an eight-year span with little to show for it and the biggest reason why there is so much pressure on the Seahawks to plug so many holes on both sides of the ball for a deeper postseason run in 2023.

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Good thing all of Pete’s kids are now grown up and out on their own. Mostly on their own...

Executing a first round mock draft that is 100% accurate is impossible. Not “damn near impossible” but literally impossible. Being the general manager or last word on personnel decisions of an NFL team and not being criticized for any move you make, especially during the draft…that may be even harder.

And I can’t wait to see how this one plays out.