General manager John Schneider: Why the Seattle Seahawks' contract negotiation with Geno Smith didn't last long, before they traded him to Las Vegas Raiders By Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
John Schneider feels you.
The Seahawks general manager sees what you see. He knows what you know. What anyone who knows the team’s colors are blue and green knows
“Yeah, the offensive line. Definitely, we need to (address it). Everybody sees it,” Schneider said Thursday.
“I get it with the offensive line, the offensive-line stuff. Talking about the fans, I mean, I get that.
“I have empathy for that, big time.”
Schneider has just finished his busiest, most jolting two weeks in 15 years as Seahawks GM. He decided to send away the three most prominent and popular players on the team, then get a pricey new import at the sport’s most important spot.
He released Tyler Lockett, Seattle’s longest-tenured player at 10 seasons.
Three days later he traded Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders, after an impasse in brief negotiations on a contract extension with Seattle’s franchise quarterback.
Less than 48 hours after that, Schneider traded DK Metcalf to fulfill the star wide receiver’s request.
The GM got Seattle’s new quarterback at the start of free agency: 2024 breakout Vikings star Sam Darnold.
Schneider re-signed vital middle linebacker Earnest Jones.
Friday he signed Super Bowl 56 MVP Cooper Kupp from Yakima and Eastern Washington University.
Schneider signed veteran deep-ball receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling. He signed 11-year veteran edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence from the Dallas Cowboys. He signed a cornerback: Shemar Jean-Charles, a backup last season with the New Orleans Saints.
Despite all that, Schneider has not done what fans have been demanding he do: Sign an impacting free-agent offensive lineman; address what’s been this team’s biggest problem.
For years.
The Seahawks did sign one blocker. Josh Jones has played every position on the offensive line in the NFL except center while with Arizona, Houston and, last season, Baltimore. But the 27-year old played just 5% of the Ravens’ offensive snaps in 2024. He appears to be a depth player, not the front-line starter Seattle needs at guard and perhaps center.
Schneider wants you to know he’s trying.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider in a hallway of the team’s Virginia Mason Athletic Center March 13, 2025, discussing trading quarterback Geno Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf in a span of three days the previous week. Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
The Will Fries negotiation
The GM thought he had a new starting left guard last week. He was negotiating with representatives for Will Fries, the 26-year-old starter for the Indianapolis Colts the last several seasons. The Seahawks were among at least a half-dozen teams that wanted Fries. Seattle was offered him more than $50 million for a three-year deal.
Fries broke his tibia in early October. The Colts let his rookie contract expire without trying to re-sign him. Schneider had questions about Fries’ progress back from the broken bone. The GM and his personnel assistants wanted those questions answered by Seattle’s medical staff. Before he signed him, Schneider wanted Fries to take a free-agency physical exam at Seahawks headquarters in Renton. By NFL rule the Seahawks could not do that until the new league year began. That was 1 p.m. Wednesday.
The Minnesota Vikings also need interior offensive line starters. The Vikings didn’t see a physical as a prerequisite to signing Fries. Minnesota jumped Seattle by offering Fries more money and two more years on Tuesday, a day before Seattle wanted Fries in Renton for the physical.
Fries signed with the Vikings last week for $88 million over five years, longer than typical Seahawks and NFL free-agent deals.
Indianapolis Colts guard Will Fries (75) stands with teammates before the game against the Ravens at M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Sept. 24, 2023. Fries agreed to sign a free-agent contract with Minnesota March 11, 2025, after the Seahawks negotiated for him. Tommy Gilligan USA TODAY NETWORK
“You know, we were in on a big-time guy, who we wanted to come in an have a physical on. When you spend that kind of money on a player, we wanted him to visit,” Schneider said Thursday.
“He didn’t want to visit.
“So, what does that mean? Do we just go ahead and start panicking and paying other guys who aren’t quite as good?”
Seahawks general manager John Schneider looks out on the field before the game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Denver Broncos at Lumen Field, on Sunday, Sept. 8, 2024, in Seattle, Wash. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com
John Schneider’s ‘smart decisions’
Coach Mike Macdonald and his new Seahawks offensive line coach, 19-year NFL veteran John Benton in with new offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak from the New Orleans Saints, feel they have young, good blockers already on the team in Seattle.
Seahawks coaches liked what Sataoa Laumea, the team’s 2024 rookie sixth-round draft choice, did starting the last month and a half of last season. He the third try at right guard. They believe guard Christian Haynes, the Seahawks’ third-round pick last year, is going to develop into a starter.
They think Benton’s new outside-zone blocking scheme particularly fits Jalen Sundell. An undrafted rookie from North Dakota State last season, Sundell was a backup in 2024. He can play any position on the line. The coaches think he could be the surprise center this year, though Olu Oluwatimi also returns after finishing last season as the starter there.
“Obviously, the offensive line is a critical part of our football team,” Macdonald said.
“We’re on record saying this, but we believe in our guys. We’ve got an opportunity to become a great offensive unit.”
That’s the context in which Schneider is spending — and not spending — on the O-line this month.
The GM reiterated he’s not just going to throw his team’s available cash and salary-cap space for 2025 on almost any guard, just because the Seahawks, well, need a guard.
“We’ve got to make smart decisions. Smart, patient decisions,” Schneider said.
“We usually don’t jump in (to free agency that begins each March) that quick. We’ve made some decisions in the past that weren’t the best for the organization, because we weren’t patient. And you for that, because we want to be a team that is acquiring all throughout the year.”
Schneider philosophy is to sign veterans to one-year contract with small or no guaranteed money amounts. That is to minimize risk to the Seahawks.
He doesn’t want to spend in March most of his available cap space ($60.8 million before factoring in Darnold’s, Kupp’s and Lawrence’s first-year contract costs for 2025). He wants the financial flexibility to sign veterans other teams will cut in or at the end of training camp this summer.
He wants to be able to make trades and take on salary in the season, as he did to add Jones this past October. He did the same thing to add then-Cincinnati Bengals Pro Bowl edge rusher Carlos Dunlap during the 2020 season.
“You can compensate for your deficiencies, whether it’s injuries or under-performance at certain positions,” Schneider said.
“So when we get to the trade deadline at the end of October we can say, ‘Carlos Dunlap, yeah, we’re going to take him here.’
“We need to be able to fix your team,” Schneider said. “And you have to have discipline in your spending.
“I get it. We all want it. We all want things right now.
“Sometimes it happens,” the Seahawks’ GM said.
“Sometimes it doesn’t.”
Seahawks general manager John Schneider talking to the media following practice at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton Aug. 28, 2024. Gregg Bell/The News Tribune
The News Tribune
Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10.