Mike Macdonald salutes John Schneider as Seahawks’ GM is NFL executive of year
After 16 years, the best sustained success and franchise history, Seattle’s only Super Bowl title — then remolding the direction of the team without enduring lost seasons — John Schneider finally got an attaboy.
The Pro Football Writers Association announced Thursday the Seahawks general manager is its NFL executive of the year for 2025.
It’s the only major award of its kind recognized in the league for executives.
It’s the first time Schneider, 54, has won it.
He could have one it for one pair of linked moves alone this past year: Not pursuing Geno Smith’s push for a richer contract extension last spring, and instead deciding to trade his 4,000-yard passer to former Seahawks coach Pete Carroll’s Las Vegas Raiders.
Days later, Schneider signed 2024 Pro Bowl quarterback Sam Darnold in free agency from Minnesota. Darnold got a three-year contract worth up to $100.5 million.
That switch couldn’t be working out better for the Seahawks.
Smith had one of the worst seasons of his career in the losing-est season in Raiders history. It got Carroll fired after his only season leading Las Vegas.
Darnold threw for over 4,000 yards in Seattle. He made another Pro Bowl. He tied Tom Brady for most wins in consecutive regular seasons (28). Darnold is the first to win that much in consecutive years with two different teams.
Darnold led Seattle to a franchise-record 14 regular-season wins. He and the Seahawks are in the NFC championship game Sunday against the Los Angeles Rams.
That wasn’t the only move Schneider made that’s proving brilliant.
A former scout and assistant personnel executive for his hometown Green Bay Packers, Schneider, in his 16th year running the Seahawks’ draft, selected Grey Zabel in the first round. Zabel was the franchise’s highest-drafted interior offensive lineman since eventual Hall-of-Fame guard Steve Hutchinson in 2001. Zabel wears Hutchinson’s jersey number: 76.
Then Schneider traded up 17 picks to the top of the second round to draft Nick Emmanwori.
Zabel has been a stud left guard, starting from the first practice of his first NFL day last spring. He went deep into the final games of this season before allowing a sack. Pro Bowl defensive lineman Leonard Williams, an 11th-year veteran, credits Zabel for advising him on pass-rush moves. Emmanwori has been coach Mike Macdonald’s dynamic, do-it-all weapon from back to front of Seattle’s top-ranked defense, which led the NFL in fewest points allowed this season. Emmanwori is a finalist to be the NFL’s defensive rookie of the year.
In early November, rookie fifth-round pick Tory Horton, an emerging star kick returner and wide receiver, sustained a season-ending shin injury during a two-touchdown game at Washington. Schneider traded that week for Rashid Shaheed, the 2023 New Orleans Saints All-Pro kick returner and wide receiver.
Shaheed has arguably been the Seahawks’ MVP the last month. His punt return for a touchdown sparked the team’s comeback from being down 16 points to the Rams with 10 minutes left in their game Dec. 18. Shaheed’s 95-yard return of the opening kickoff for a touchdown was the perfect start that fueled Seattle’s blowout of San Francisco in the divisional playoffs last weekend.
Mike Macdonald praises John Schneider
This, a year after Schneider hired Mike Macdonald to be a first-time head coach, at age 36. Schneider made the former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator the NFL’s youngest head coach in January 2024, to replace Carroll.
Team chair Jody Allen fired Carroll following the 2023, non-playoff season. She chose Schneider’s path forward for the franchise over Carroll’s.
That’s working out OK.
Macdonald has won 25 of his first 35 games as Seattle’s coach. The team won a franchise-record 14 games this regular season. The Seahawks are the top seed in the NFC for the first time since 2014. That was also the season of their last NFC title game before this weekend’s, and of their last Super Bowl appearance.
Thursday, Macdonald thought of the first time he met Schneider, in a Baltimore coffee shop, to talk about the Seahawks’ head-coaching vacancy in early January 2024.
“Sit at the hotel, I got a text if (I) wanted a coffee,” Macdonald said. “I used to live right there, so I knew where he was. Hopped across the street, and it was like we’d known each other forever. It was pretty cool.
“But that’s how he is. He has this ability to put you at ease and take the edge off and let you relax and feel like you can be yourself. And that’s not an easy quality, because I’m sure I don’t do that.”
Like many, Macdonald thinks Schneider should have won executive of the year a while ago.
“Name a thing that we’ve done since we’ve walked in the door two years ago, and especially this year, (that Schneider hasn’t affected),” Macdonald said. “And we’ve gotten great returns. I mean, in terms of action items.
“I think I’ve talked about this at length before, but to me it’s like the leadership probably needs to get talked about more with him on how he operates daily and how he treats everybody and the environment that we’ve been able to create around here. I think that’s helped our development of our people. That’s helped guys take the next steps in their career. And you can go down the list of coaches, personnel, players, that have taken another step in their career. And you trace it all the way back, it’s like, well, John has got a lot of responsibility in that.
“And I’m sure, if he was standing right here, he would be the first to thank all of our personnel staff, just everybody being bought into the same thing. That’s the type of guy he is.
“I’m really happy he won. He deserves it.”
This story was originally published January 22, 2026 at 5:48 PM.
