Seahawks GM having a 2nd practice NFL draft today--to work through making trades virtually
“Trader John” Schneider isn’t quite sure about this unprecedented, virtual system of NFL drafting.
Not yet.
But after Wednesday—and if he remembers to unmute himself on Zoom Thursday—he may be good to go for this draft like no other.
The Seahawks’ general manager resides in one of the world’s most technology advanced cities. He leads a team owned by the late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen. Yet he says he’s only “about 80 percent” OK with the secure and remote communications systems he and the rest of the league will be using beginning Thursday evening to draft amid the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is going to be such a unique draft,” Schneider said, on yet another online Zoom call from his house.
Seahawks information-technology guys have been coming in and out of his house for the last month. They’ve knocked down multiple walls and installed 25 screens to create a draft room in his dining room.
“I honestly do not—I don’t know how this is going to come off,” he said.
The COVID-19 outbreak and the social-distancing efforts to contain it have forced the NFL to close all team facilities indefinitely. Commissioner Roger Goodell will announce picks Thursday via video conferencing from his basement outside New York City. With almost the entire country under stay-at-home orders, GMs, coaches including Seattle’s Pete Carroll, scouts and staff are separated into their houses to conduct the draft.
Schneider went through the league’s practice draft on Monday.
It wasn’t exactly the smoothest operation he’s been a part of in his 10 years leading the Seahawks with Carroll.
“It just started off a little bit shaky,” Schneider said. “You know, there’s a channel, there’s a main channel that’s going on. I think there was a couple teams—and I’ll throw myself under the bus included—I had myself muted. So when they were doing roll call, they went right past the Seahawks. So we weren’t even involved in the draft. We just passed.”
Seattle’s GM had the same issue much of America has had trying to do their jobs with also-isolated colleagues under our country’s state-at-home orders for the last month.
“So it was all about just hitting mute,” Schneider said, chuckling. “‘Hey, John, make sure you’re unmuted!’
“I unmuted.”
Practicing trading
Wednesday, draft eve, Schneider was set to try again. He and GMs from four other teams were to have their own, second draft practice remotely.
This one was focused on how they will conduct trading using Zoom, FaceTime, texting, cell phones and landlines—all while on the clock and hoping their kids are off their iPads. You know, so the home wifi doesn’t crash.
More than any GM in the league, Schneider MUST have the trading comms perfectly wired.
He’s made 72 deals involving draft picks in his first 10 years as Seahawks GM. He’s traded his original first-round choice in eight straight drafts. With him, Carroll and their scouts once again assessing fewer guys as first-round talent than the 27th selection Seattle owns for round one, expect the Seahawks to trade down Thursday. Again.
“We’re going to practice some where are with a couple teams (remotely) in a live version on the clock and be negotiating,” Schneider said. “We haven’t—we didn’t negotiate with the people (Monday) in the mock draft. It was all scripted for us.
“For instance, when I called (GM) Joe Douglas with the Jets because we went (in simulation) from 27 to 11—that’s pretty far—that’s a pretty big negotiation—he was kind of laughing at me. He’s like, ‘Are you seriously calling me right now?’
“I’m like, ‘Yeah, we’ve got to practice this, man. We’ve got to turn this in. I’ve got to tell my guy. I’ve got to tell my guy to turn it in and all that.’
“The negotiation part of it is something that we’re going to still work on some more. So honestly, to say that I’m totally comfortable with it right now, I’m not. By (Wednesday) night, I will be.”
Carroll has seven screens in his makeshift draft room inside his suburban Seattle home. One of them is dedicated to direct, constant conversations with Schneider—conversations the coach and GM would have face to face, every couple minutes or so, in any other time other than a pandemic.
“I plan to navigate really well,” Carroll said. “The process is it calls for a lot of setup. So Johnny has got his stuff going. He’s got a couple things beyond what I need. I’ve got boards that wrap around the room. I’ve got seven screens going, which is not uncomfortable for me. I kind of like all the activity. We have got our landlines. We have got our cell phones, our backup cell phones, all kinds of stuff.
“I’m pretty much going to fire away with John because I have my own set up, so I’m going to match what they are doing there so I keep track of what’s happening here. It’s kind of cool. It’s all high-tech. We have our own little room here to do our press conference thing that’s set off to the side, as well.
“We just both hope that we don’t get overloads on the circuits and everything shuts down, you know, because we’ve got a lot more things plugged in than we normally do around here.”
What if it doesn’t work?
If any channel goes down, the Seahawks’ IT man, vice president of technology Chip Suttles, and co-director of player personnel Trent Kirchner have ensured Carroll and Schneider redundancy systems. Those backups include, yes, 1970s-style, when-Carroll-was-just-a-pup comms: landline telephones(!)
At least one team, Detroit, will have an information-technology guy stationed in a Winnebago just outside the home of Lions GM Bob Quinn. Just in case.
Carroll mentioned how this is yet another, albeit once-in-a-lifetime, opportunity to win. At being more technologically advanced. At being better prepared. At drafting from dining rooms.
Once Carroll gets wind of the Lions’ IT guy in his Winnebago, the Seahawks coach is liable to procure a FEMA trailer to house his tech guy for even more backup capabilities.
Always compete.
“This really is a competition,” Carroll said, as usual. “We are up against trying to figure this thing out. I think that’s one of the really extraordinary parts of what this is all about for us, is trying to create the best avenues for communications that will allow us to free flow and really react the way we normally will and would like to. That’s really what this is about. ...
“It’s exciting. It’s been an exciting challenge. We don’t know what’s going to happen, but we are trying to even it out and make sure that we do and we can operate really highly.”
If all goes according to unprecedented plan, Schneider and Carroll and their scouts whille have the most on-screen, automated drafts of their lives.
“Our IT guys in conjunction with Trent have done a really nice job of being able to create scenarios on-screen now that we—what used to be paper is now, it’s just right there on a screen,” Schneider said. “We’ll be able to use (that) moving forward, because we had to adapt to the technology and where we are right now. So being able to see different scenarios when you are working with team A, B or C and what looks most appropriate is clear.
“The negotiation is something that we need to practice. And like I said, there’s four teams that we are going to be working with (Wednesday) in a live manner to get more comfortable. Because I think that is going to be the -- even though nobody is going to be able to jump each other, it’s important to be comfortable in.
The GM likened it to the familiarity Carroll has in communicating with his offensive coordinator, Brian Schottenheimer, and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr., to call plays during games.
“I guess I would refer to Pete, or Coach Schottenheimer, or Coach Norton. You have to be prepared to be able to call a play, make a decision, in a timely manner. And there’s a lot more that goes into it than people think,” Schneider said.
“So again...about 80 percent, I feel about 80 percent comfortable with it. I want to go through it more in my own head.
“Like I said, I’m very visual. I want to experience it, because it’s muting this person and muting that person. And talking through things with that person. And calling this team. And calling that team on your cell phone. And making sure that our guys are still communicating with the teams that they are responsible for.”
