After many of years of trying to get the Seattle Seahawks back to the top of the mountain, general manager John Schneider finally accomplished the feat.
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The Seahawks won their second Super Bowl title under Schneider on Sunday. It came 12 years after Schneider and Pete Carroll led the franchise to its first Lombardi Trophy during the 2013 season.
Much has changed in the time between those titles. Carroll, the legendary Seahawks coach, is no longer with team, nor are any of the players who comprised that first Super Bowl-winning roster.
If it seems like that is a feat that isn’t accomplished often, it’s because it never had been. Schneider became the first general manger in league history to lead the same franchise to two Super Bowl wins with a different head coach and completely different rosters.
What are the most impressive parts about how Schneider rebuilt the Seahawks into their current Super Bowl-champion version? Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy weighed in.
“He’s been able to adjust. He understands what creates a successful team and did it in two different ways,” said Michael Bumpus, a Seahawks Radio Network analyst and former NFL wide receiver. “I know that we can look back and say, OK, both of these Super Bowl-winning teams relied on their defense. But the defense just looked different. It wasn’t the same like it was in 2013 and 2014. So his decision making has been on point, but it also shows that he’s learned from his mistakes, because he wasn’t hitting all the time.
“There’s some times where guys didn’t work out. Most guys won’t work out the way that you hope in the NFL, that’s just the nature of the league. But it shows a real understanding of how to get the type of personnel your head coach needs to have success, so it’s impressive.”
The hardest thing to do
What really stood out to Bumpus and co-host Stacy Rost is that Schneider was able to rebuild the franchise into a Super Bowl winner without tanking like many teams need to in order to acquire top-level talent in the draft.
Since Seattle won the 2013 Super Bowl, it’s had only one losing season, a 7-10 record in 2020. The Seahawks haven’t made a pick in the draft that was originally their own higher than No. 16 overall since that Super Bowl win. The only two picks they made that were higher than No. 16 were left tackle Charles Cross at No. 9 in 2022 and cornerback Devon Witherspoon at No. 5 in 2023 – both picks acquired in the trade that sent star quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos. Seattle did have the No. 10 pick in the 2022 draft, but it was sent to the New York Jets during the 2020 trade for safety Jamal Adams.
“At no point did this team benefit from having a top-three pick,” Rost said. “… They had No. 5, but you had to make a sacrifice to do that. There was a risk inherent to trading your franchise quarterback. And at the time, Schneider was pretty panned for it. Not by every single person, but people saw it as a mistake.”
Rost recalled a report about Buffalo Bills general manager Brandon Beane telling star Cincinnati Bengals wide receiver Ja’Marr Chase, the No. 5 overall pick in 2021, he wished his team would have a pick high enough to get a player of his caliber.
“I know that there are GMs around the league who oversee franchises that are mostly very successful or at least stable and probably lament not having that No. 1 pick,” Rost said. “How are you gonna get Nick Bosa at No. 2 overall when you’re winning nine or 10 games every single year? So what impresses me most is being able to create a team that is sincerely loaded with talent.”
Bumpus highlighted the Pittsburgh Steelers as an example of how hard it can be to build a championship-caliber roster without having down years to accumulate high picks.
The Steelers have had plenty of regular-season success of late. They’ve reached the playoffs nine times and won their division five times over the past 12 seasons, including a division title this season. But they also haven’t made it out of the wild-card round during their past five playoff berths and are now heading into 2026 with a new coach and 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers at quarterback.
“They’re stuck and they just made a move with hiring Mike McCarthy that I think is just gonna keep them there, and they’re looking at a 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers and saying, alright, we gotta roll with this,” Bumpus said. “It’s just so hard to improve your team when you’re not a horrible team. That means that your development has to be on point, you need some late-round picks to hit. It means that your trades need to be on point and you need to find the right guys for the right price to fill your roster.”
Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays form 10 a.m.-2 p.m. or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app.
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