Multiple reasons to question report of Lions’ wanting to hire Seahawks GM John Schneider
There are multiple reasons to question a report that the John Schneider-Pete Carroll partnership, the best pairing in Seahawks history, could be ending soon.
Ian Rapoport of the league-owned NFL Network reported Sunday that the Detroit Lions are expected to try to hire Schneider away from Seattle to become Detroit’s new general manager.
“Interesting morning,” Schneider said Sunday on the team’s pregame radio show on Seattle’s KIRO AM before the Seahawks played the San Francisco 49ers in Glendale, Ariz.
“Traci and I, my wife and I, love it here, obviously,” Schneider said.
He called this the time of the NFL year for openings across the league and speculation on who will fill them. He called the NFL Network report on him and the Lions “rumors.”
“That’s about that,” Schneider said, in conclusion on the subject.
“We’re good.”
Schneider has been the Seahawks’ GM since 2010, arriving just after Seattle hired Carroll be its coach, executive vice president and ultimate decision maker on all personnel decisions. Sunday’s report noted that Schneider doesn’t have final say on personnel with the Seahawks, suggesting the prospect of such authority could entice him to consider Detroit. The network report also suggested that a Detroit offer could be called a promotion, which might allow the Lions to talk to Schneider without first getting the Seahawks’ permission to do so.
But there are issues and precedent siding with Schneider staying with Seattle over what would be a lateral move to become the Lions’ GM.
In January 2018 the Green Bay Packers asked the Seahawks for permission to interview Schneider for their general-manager vacancy. The Seahawks said no to Schneider’s hometown team, the one from which he came to be a first-time GM with Seattle 11 years ago.
The Lions situation with Schneider would be no different than Green Bay’s was three years ago.
As Pro Football Talk explains, the NFL updated its anti-tampering policy recently. It states high-level club employees cannot be hired away by another team while under contract without providing the losing club compensation.
The league defines a “high-level employee” as someone with (1) “primary authority and responsibility for the organization, direction, and management of the day-to-day operations of the club and reports directly to the controlling owner; (2) a person who is the primary football executive for the club, with primary authority over all personnel decisions related to signing free agency, drafting players, trades, and related decisions, along with primary responsibility for coordinating other football activities with the head coach.”
A league source confirmed to The News Tribune Sunday the NFL indeed considers Schneider a “high-level employee” by the league’s definition of one.
Schneider reports directly to team chair Jody Allen and vice chair Bert Kolde on multiple issues outside of the ones for which Carroll reports to ownership. Schneider had the same direct line to the late Paul Allen, the team owner who sent then-Seahawks CEO Tod Leiweke to hire Carroll and Schneider 11 years ago.
Thus, counter to the NFL Network report, the Lions would need what the Packers did not get three years ago Schneider: permission to speak with him about their GM opening.
Schneider and Carroll have been in lockstep in contract extensions throughout their time together, while leading the most successful run in Seahawks history. The team is on its way to their ninth playoff appearance in Carroll’s and Schneider’s 11 years leading Seattle. The Seahawks just won their fifth NFC West division title in nine years.
Carroll, 69, agreed to another extension with the Seahawks through 2025, a deal that a league source confirmed to The News Tribune in early November.
Schneider, 49, has one year remaining on his Seattle contract.
Until or unless the Seahawks and Schneider agree on another extension to mirror Carroll’s again, rumors may continue about other teams trying to lure Schneider to their GM jobs with the offer of what he doesn’t have in Seattle: final say on players.
This story was originally published January 3, 2021 at 9:22 AM.
