GM John Schneider has a message to Seahawks fans for 2022, and on Russell Wilson’s health
John Schneider has a message for Seahawks fans about the imminent offseason and 2022.
“We are going to work our tails off to get this thing turned around and get back to being a championship-caliber football team,” Seattle’s general manager said Sunday, before his 5-10 Seahawks played Detroit in their final home game of Seattle’s first 10-loss season since 2009.
Schneider was responding to a question on the Seahawks’ radio network’s pregame show about what fans can expect this offseason and next season.
“I would say, just, I was born and raised in Green Bay, Wisconsin, (and) it’s all about the fans.”
Seattle’s fans have weathered watching in a snowstorm as their team got eliminated last week from the playoffs for only the second time in the last 10 years. That dropped the team’s record at Lumen Field this season to 2-5 entering Sunday. With the Lions game and their game Jan. 9 at Arizona, the Seahawks are assured of finishing with a losing record for the first time since 2011. That was the second season of coach Pete Carroll’s and Schneider’s regime leading Seattle.
It was also the year before Carroll and Schneider drafted Russell Wilson to become their franchise quarterback.
This season was the first of his 10-year career Wilson missed games because of injury. He missed three starts in October following surgery on the middle finger of his throwing hand.
Wilson entered Sunday 2-5 since his return in half the time his surgeon said the quarterback would likely be out.
Thursday, the 33-year-old Wilson said his goal remains to win at least three more Super Bowls.
He was then asked if he believes he can win them with the Seahawks and the direction of the franchise.
“I hope so. Obviously, we can’t do it right now, not being in the playoffs right now,” Wilson said. “But I think that most importantly, it takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of things. It takes a lot of pieces. And I think we have a good amount of those pieces, a lot of them.
“It’s been a tough season, man. You think about Jamal Adams, you lose a guy like that (to season-ending shoulder surgery), the other guys we’ve lost along the journey to some tough injuries. You think about all the COVID situation, it’s challenging. It’s been challenging. ...
“For me, I know you guys asked Bobby (Wagner Wednesday) about, ‘Could this be the last game?’ and this and that, and all that. I know for me, personally, I hope it’s not my last game (in Seattle). But at the same time, I know it won’t be my last game in the NFL.”
Wilson has two seasons after this one remaining on the $140 million contract extension he signed with Schneider, Carroll and the only NFL team he’s known. That deal with Seattle through 2023 made him the league’s highest-paid player in April 2019.
Schneider was asked on the Seahawks pregame radio show Sunday: Are you seeing the improvement health-wise and is Wilson seeing the improvement he had hoped?
“Yeah,” Schneider said. “You can see it in practice, too. He’s throwing the ball much better.
“The guy broke his finger,” the GM said. “People forget that.”
Wagner injured
Wagner, the perennial All-Pro linebacker, was face down on the turf after the Seahawks’ first defensive play Sunday. Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. came onto the field with the team’s medical staff to attend to their captain.
After a minute or so down, Wagner walked off the field to the bench. A doctor looked at his right knee. Then, during the timeout for his injury, Wagner sprinted off the bench directly into the middle of the field and the defense’s huddle.
Referee Tony Corrente directed Wagner back off the field, because he had to miss one play for the injury time out. Wagner stayed out the rest of Seattle’s first defensive series.
The team said he was questionable to return with a knee injury.
Peterson disk issue
The Seahawks put 36-year-old running back Adrian Peterson on injured reserve this past week. Carroll has been describing Peterson’s injury as a low-back issue the future Hall of Famer got playing in his only game for Seattle after signing last month.
Sunday on the radio pregame show Schneider said of Peterson: “He’s got a little bit of a disk issue in his back.”
Peterson’s legacy in his cameo with Seattle for a month will be 11 carries, 16 yards, a touchdown that was the 126th of his career tying him with legend Jim Brown for 10th in NFL history — and, by all accounts, reviving Rashaad Penny’s stalled career.
Carroll and Schneider have credited Peterson with mentoring and motivating Penny as the 2018 first-round draft choice came back from his latest of four years of injuries. Penny entered Sunday with a career-best 137 yards rushing and two touchdowns at Houston, then last week 135 yards in Seattle’s loss to Chicago.
“There’s no doubt about it. He gave us a spark,” Schneider said of Peterson.
The GM said Sunday he brought his son to the stadium to meet Peterson before the game, telling his boy he was meeting one of the greatest running backs ever.
“He’s a freak,” Schneider said.
Inactives, roster moves
The Seahawks’ inactive players for Sunday’s game: running back Alex Collins (injured abdomen), starting right tackle Brandon Shell (shoulder injury), defensive tackle Robert Nkemdiche, third center Dakoda Shepley and third quarterback Jacob Eason.
Saturday, the Seahawks put starting cornerback Sidney Jones on the reserve/COVID-19 list. Cornerback Bless Austin remained on the COVID list through kickoff Sunday.
That meant John Reid was ready to start opposite D.J. Reed Sunday. Reed returned from the COVID list this past week.
Special-teams linebacker Jon Rhattigan went on injured reserve with an anterior cruciate ligament injury in his knee he got on a kickoff in Seattle’s loss at the Los Angeles Rams last month.
Reserve offensive tackle Jamarco Jones was available Sunday. The team activated him from injured reserve.
The Seahawks also called up three players from the practice squad as COVID replacements for Sunday’s game: cornerback Mike Jackson, safety Josh Jones and linebacker Edmond Robinson.
This story was originally published January 2, 2022 at 1:24 PM.
