Napole-John

John Schneider's control over the Seahawks is unparalleled by anyone else in the NFL

John Schneider might have more control of the Seattle Seahawks than any single person has over any single organization in the NFL. Just consider some of these eras:

• John Schneider has been the general manager for 15 years

• Jody Allen has been the owner for less than 7 years

• Mike Macdonald has been the head coach for 1 year

• Sam Darnold has been the franchise quarterback for 4 months

Typically, the most powerful person in an organization could be the GM, the owner, the head coach, or in rare cases a quarterback (like Aaron Rodgers on the Jets), but usually no one person is ever given that much power. It is split between at least two people. Think of partnerships like John Lynch and Kyle Shanahan of the 49ers; Les Snead and Sean McVay of the Rams; Brad Holmes and Dan Campbell of the Lions.

The name that most of you are thinking about right now as a counterpoint is Jerry Jones, but the Dallas Cowboys owner has shifted much of his power to son Stephen Jones in the last few years.

Even if most NFL teams have a “most powerful person”, there is usually a second name that must carry a lot of power:

• The Chiefs have Andy Reid, but also Patrick Mahomes and Brett Veach and Clark Hunt

• The Chargers have Jim Harbaugh, but GM Joe Hortiz was an important get for him and L.A. also has Justin Herbert

• The Raiders have Pete Carroll, but for the first time in a long time he has to cede power to the GM (John Spytek) and even a minority owner who won seven Super Bowls

• The Steelers have Mike Tomlin, but he’ll always be under the watchful eye of the Rooney family — and now Aaron Rodgers

The closest thing to an NFL team seeming to be under the control of one person is the Denver Broncos and Sean Payton. But there are still some obvious advantages of power that Schneider has with Seattle than Payton doesn’t have in Denver:

• Payton is only entering his third season with the Broncos

• The Walton-Penner ownership group bought the team in 2022 and CEO Greg Penner likely wants to feel like he’s influencing the team’s decisions

Now compare that to Schneider, who is not only entering his 16th season as the Seahawks general manager but he’s also one of the last people standing from the team that Seattle had just a couple of years ago.

The only coaching holdover from Carroll’s final staff in 2023 is defensive backs coach Karl Scott.

Going a step further, setting aside all the rookies that year, the only players left from the 2022 roster are Noah Fant, Drew Lock (left and returned), Uchenna Nwosu, Michael Dickson, and Jason Myers.

And in the front office, only Jody Allen and president Chuck Arnold (who was promoted to the role in 2018) would appear to have a hierarchy advantage over Schneider…although it’s unclear if team power is something that Allen even wants. As I’ve always heard it described, Paul Allen didn’t want to have any influence on Seahawks decisions when he was alive. Although Jody Allen used her power to fire Carroll, she also kept Schneider and handed him the team on a silver platter.

How many other NFL general managers were solely responsible for hiring the head coach and most of the coaching staff?

How many GMs didn’t need to ask for approval from the head coach to trade the starting quarterback and sign his replacement for $100 million? Does Schneider even need to call Allen or Arnold to ask for permission before trading Geno Smith?

There are not many people in a position of power in the NFL — owners, GMs, head coaches, or quarterbacks — who can look left, right, up, or down and always see someone else in a position of power who is still trying to prove themselves:

• Macdonald is a second-year head coach

• Darnold has no power except for the $37.5 million guaranteed on his contract

• The most experienced coach on the staff is Leslie Frazier, who hasn’t held a head coaching position since 2013

• Allen’s responsibilities are probably more tied to when she sells the team and for how much than making sure that the Seahawks get back to the Super Bowl

By all accounts, Seattle’s successes and failures will be totally reliant upon John Schneider’s ability to build a Super Bowl champion from the ground up because he’s the one who hired the coaches, he’s the one who has now picked the vast majority of the players on the roster (not Pete), and it seems that nobody — not an owner or a head coach — is going to question any decisions he makes.

Even if Schneider is questioned, it’s still up to him to take advice or just do whatever he felt like doing in the first place.

Personally, I haven’t seen power like this since that kid in Twilight Zone: The Movie.

Will John Schneider be proven genius?

As to whether or not the Seahawks are better or worse off with Schneider, that can’t be answered until Seattle has played more games. Last season was the first without Pete Carroll (who might have also been the NFL’s most powerful person at one point or another and he won a Super Bowl) and the Seahawks went 10-7.

But just in the last seven months, Seattle has already replaced the offensive coordinator (and many offensive assistants), traded Smith and DK Metcalf, signed Cooper Kupp and Demarcus Lawrence, overhauled most of the offensive staff, and added 11 rookies via the draft, including nine on offense.

In three years, Seahawks fans may be hoisting Schneider on their shoulders and declaring him as the smartest football brain in the league (consider Howie Roseman’s rise, fall, and rise as the Eagles GM) or saying far meaner things about his mind.

We can only find out after we learn the results of his process, but as of today there may not be another single person in the NFL who gets to do as much processing as Seattle’s general manager.

unrelated sidenote: this flooded crossing in San Antonio has my name:

Seaside Joe 2324