Field Gulls
As we bask in the warm afterglow of that huge Seattle Seahawks Divisional Round win, we must ask ourselves: is John Schneider the most underrated figure in the history of the Seahawks organization? Let’s take a look at an executive who has stood the test of time in a league with tons of eyeballs and scrutiny associated.
We talk so much about head coaches having a very clear vision… John Schneider needs his flowers. J.S. has always had a very clear vision, one that perfectly aligned with Pete Carroll’s well. The truly beautiful thing is that we’ve also seen it manifest in a new generation of Seahawks football.
Pete and John have helped to weave a specific DNA into the fabric of the identity of the Seattle Seahawks. Elite defense that can control the pace of the game is now a calling card of the blue and green team from the PNW.
To go along with that defense, special teams also hold a dear place in John Schneider’s heart. The recent trade for Rashid Shaheed hold’s interesting parallels to the pre-Super Bowl trade for Percy Harvin that Pete and John pulled off.
To go a step further, these men emphasized a strong rushing attack that sets up the play action to talented outside receivers to form a complementary offense. Carroll and Schneider rode this formula to back-to-back Super Bowl appearances.
You could even argue that the offensively inclined Mike Holmgren days placed a premium on the run game as part of a modified version of Bill Walsh’s West Coast Offense. If there’s one thing that the Seahawks will do throughout their history, it will be establishing the run game.
Back to what John Schneider, in particular, has built. During the Coach Carroll heydays in Seattle, a young Russell Wilson just had to do enough. He was asked to run the offense, hand the ball off to Marshawn Lynch, distribute to talented playmakers, take calculated shots and simply not turn the ball over to complement a menacing defense. Sound familiar?
This whole approach led early-career Russ to be labeled a “game manager” (which was a dirty word back then). The frustration with this style of play gave rise to the Let Russ Cook movement that pressured the team identity into change.
The Mike Macdonald iteration of the Seattle Seahawks is the same, but different. Sam Darnold will only be asked to do just enough. They don’t want or need an Air Raid offense. Seattle wants a guy who can mostly make smart decisions in ahead-of-the-sticks scenarios and take calculated shots deep.
I believe this is why Seattle moved away from the whole DK Metcalf / Geno Smith era so quickly and decisively. Maybe even why Pete was let go, as well. Schneider had something different in mind: a return to his basic principles of football.
Although Coach Carroll seemed to favor the more attacking style of late-career Russell Wilson and late-career Geno Smith, there are two quotes from the beginning of...
