Schneider's Schneid: This could actually be the year
4 reasons the Seahawks will invest in their iOL this offseason
Sometimes the most interesting facts you learn come from researching a stupid headline: The origin of the term “on the schneid” comes from being “schneidered” — aka losing — when playing card games gin rummy or skat, the latter being “Germany’s national card game” according to Merriam-Webster.
Schneider means “tailor” in German and though it’s not clear why you don’t want to be a tailor in Germany (maybe you never see your family because you’re too busy making lederhosen all the time?), that’s where the term for a sports team being “on the schneid” originates from.
The Seahawks current schneid, which means losing streak if the start of today’s newsletter has just been really confusing so far, is 10 straight seasons without getting past the second round of the playoffs and five straight years without winning a playoff game of any sort. In another way, it could be “umpteen years” since Seattle has landed a guard or center that the team could confidently say is a franchise player worthy of a place on the offensive line for many seasons to come.
In the entire 21st century, only Steve Hutchinson (2001) and Max Unger (2009) could say they’re members of that club. And even then, the Seahawks sort of kicked both to the curb long before their prime years were over.
As such, Seaside Joe has had the unfortunate duty of cautioning Seahawks fans against expecting something different in that regard. There are a few trends in franchise history that are without exception and Seattle’s unwillingness to invest in the guard and center positions is one of those.
But 2025 seems as good a time as any to change it up:
This could actually be the year that John Schneider invests in the interior of the Seahawks offensive line!
1 - The need is THAT glaring
For years, the Seahawks could hide behind making the playoffs and having a good enough offense in spite of their offensive line — usually because Russell Wilson was athletic enough to avoid the rush and Marshawn Lynch was the leading tackle-breaker in the NFL — to point the arrow in another direction than guard and center.
For the last five years especially, the defense was so bad that Seattle could pour their resources on that side of the ball without much pushback:
Of the Seahawks 8 most recent first round picks (including the 2 they used to trade for Jamal Adams), 6 were used on defense: L.J. Collier, Jordyn Brooks, Adams (x2), Devon Witherspoon, Byron Murphy
The other 2 were used on Charles Cross and Jaxon Smith-Njigba
In that same period of time, the Seahawks had nine second round picks and used five of those on defense: Marquise Blair, Darrell Taylor, Boye Mafe, Derick Hall, Leonard Williams (trade)
The other four were two receivers (DK Metcalf, Dee Eskridge) and two running backs (Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet)
At this point, the Seahawks have put enough into their defense — including hiring “the top defensive coordinator in the NFL” as their head coach — that improvement should be expected with less investment. Fans should still not overlook Seattle’s impending needs at edge rusher, but the Seahawks can still do a “good enough job” with who they have and who they can afford to add.
Laken Tomlinson, Anthony Bradford, and anybody else who started for the Seahawks at guard or center in 2024 were not good enough.
It used to be the conversation that hid behind other conversations, but Seattle’s weakness on the interior of their offensive line (32nd out of 32 teams?) was the headline story of the 2024 Seahawks and so was the fact that Schneider said himself in no uncertain terms that he doesn’t value the position as much as other GMs do.
Seattle’s offseasons have typically been pretty reactionary to what happened the year before — including firing Pete Carroll, after which the head coach noted that Jody Allen was listening to outside voices like you and me — so I would expect Schneider to push guard and center as needs in part because he wants to win back some good faith in the media and fandom.