How John Schneider created a Super Bowl team in his best year yet as Seahawks GM
The general manager traded his 4,000-yard, Pro Bowl quarterback, Geno Smith. He did that to sign Sam Darnold.
So what that Darnold was a journeyman. So what the QB had one good season out of seven in the NFL, or that four other teams gave up on him?
The GM signed DeMarcus Lawrence to a three-year contract, even though Lawrence is 33. Even though he had already played 11 NFL seasons, and none for anyone other than the Dallas Cowboys.
When John Schneider was pitching these deals to Darnold and Lawrence last spring what was the GM’s selling point on Seattle to the two free agents who have “transformed,” in the word of one Seahawk veteran player, the Seahawks into Super Bowl 60 next week?
“A.D. (Aden Durde, the former Dallas Cowboys defensive-line coach, now the Seahawks’ defensive coordinator) had a relationship with DeMarcus,” Schneider said Thursday, in a hallway outside the indoor practice field at team headquarters. “And then Klint (Kubiak, the Seahawks offensive coordinator) had a relationship with Sam.
“So when you’re bringing people into your building, especially in free agency, you want to make sure that the quality of the person — do we know exactly what we’re getting? So we had a great background with those guys. The character, the person, the work ethic, love of the game, the grit— all the things you’ve heard for years and years.”
But there was more. Schneider also sold Darnold and Lawrence on the luxury the Seahawks enjoy many North American professional sports franchises do not: Stability.
The Seahawks have had the same ownership family, same ownership philosophy, since 1997. That was the year Paul Allen, the Microsoft Corp. co-founder, bought the Seahawks to keep them from moving under fleeing owner Ken Behring to Southern California. In 2010, Allen had his team CEO Tod Leiweke hire Schneider to be a first-time GM, with the Seahawks. When Paul Allen died in 2018, his estate dictated his sister Jody Allen become the team chair.
Jody Allen raised the George Halas NFC championship trophy on Lumen Field Sunday night, moments after her Seahawks beat the Los Angeles Rams in the conference title game.
That ownership and GM stability has pawned continuity in the Seahawks’ front office. This is the 27th season with the team for trainer, now vice president for player performance, Sam Ramsden. Vice president Maurice “Mo” Kelly, the players’ right-hand man for real-life and football, is in his 20th Seahawks season. Erik Kennedy has been in the team’s equipment room since 1989. That resonates with free agents. It especially did to Darnold, after his nomadic seven previous seasons with four NFL teams.
“There’s so many foundational pieces here,” Schneider said. “I think I’ve told you guys before, in 2005 the Seahawks hired Tim Ruskell (as general manager with coach Mike Holgren, for Seattle’s first Super Bowl season). I had worked here in 2000. I was working for the Packers, and I wanted to come back here so bad because I knew (vice president of communications) Dave Pearson is (still) here. Erik Kennedy. Sam Ramsden. Mo Kelly. All these awesome, foundational people in the organization. I’d worked for Paul Allen before.
“It’s really, the organization kind of sells itself.”
John Schneider’s moves pay off
Darnold has been a revelation. And a large reason the Seahawks reached their first Super Bowl since the 2014 season.
Darnold is also a reason why Schneider is this season’s NFL executive of the year, as voted on and counted last week by the Pro Football Writers Association. It’s the first time in Schneider’s 16 years as Seattle’s GM he’s won that honor.
Schneider’s risky switch at the sport’s most critical position was to the 28-year-old quarterback who went 14-3 for the Minnesota Vikings in 2024. Darnold made his second consecutive Pro Bowl this season for Seattle. These are the first two Pro Bowls of his career.
Darnold threw for over 4,000 yards. He led the league in efficiency throwing deep passes. He made Jaxon Smith-Njigba the NFL’s leader with 1,793 yards receiving.
Darnold joined Tom Brady as the only NFL quarterbacks to win 14 games in consecutive regular seasons. Darnold is the only one to do it for two different teams. The Darnold Seahawks set a franchise record for wins in a regular season.
The QB’s constant leadership, even demeanor and relentless work ethic impressed his new teammates from the first, voluntary workouts last spring.
Schneider and coach Mike Macdonald hired Kubiak to be Darnold’s new offensive coordinator. Kubiak spent the 2024 season calling New Orleans’ plays. He coached Darnold in San Francisco in 2023, when Darnold was the backup QB to the 49ers’ Brock Purdy.
Schneider relied on Kubiak’s and Vikings coach Kevin O’Connell’s view of Darnold’s personality, character and leadership to quickly pivot from Smith to Seattle’s new quarterback in March. Then he had Kubiak install an run-first, run-as-much-as-any-team offense that played to Darnold’s strength: play-action and roll-outs passes on the move.
Darnold’s thrived in Seattle’s new system, and locker room.
“Everything that Klint had talked about, Kevin, all the guys that we had done our research with, just the person, the competitor, the way he treats his teammates, the leader, he hasn’t flinched,” Schneider said of Darnold.
Two weeks ago, in the last full practice before the Seahawks hosted the 49ers in the divisional playoffs, Darnold injured his left oblique. He didn’t throw a football from that injury early in practice Thursday until about an hour and 45 minutes before kickoff against San Francisco on Saturday night.
Then he beat San Francisco 41-6, greatly aided by Kenneth Walker and 175 yards rushing plus Seattle’s dominant defense.
Last week, same deal: Darnold barely threw all week in practices. Then in the NFC championship last weekend Darnold threw for 346 yards, three touchdowns all against the Rams’ pressure, and had no turnovers for the third consecutive game in the Seahawks’ 31-27 win.
It was the best performance by a quarterback in Seattle’s postseason history. Better than Russell Wilson. Better than Matt Hasselbeck.
“I think we were all more panicked at what was going on than he was,” Schneider said of Darnold’s injury. “He was kind of looking at us like we had three heads, like, ‘What’s everybody so worried about?’ He’s like, ‘I’ll be good.’
“I haven’t seen a lot of quarterbacks not throw a ball and then go out and play like that. We’ve been blessed to be around some pretty damned good ones.”
Signing DeMarcus Lawrence
Lawrence made the Pro Bowl at defensive end after Schneider signed him. He led the team in tackles for loss (11). His three fumble recoveries led the NFL. He returned two of those fumbles for touchdowns — both in one half of one game, in November against Arizona. “He transformed our defense,” safety Julian Love said.
Lawrence made the smartest defensive play of Seattle’s season, maybe in the team’s postseason history, to deny the Rams on the crucial fourth down at the goal line late in the NFC title game. He covered for over-blitzing Love, sprinting onto L.A.’s primary receiver Kyren Williams out of the backfield. That forced Matthew Stafford off Williams to throw to his tight end in the middle of the end zone. Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon broke up that pass for the decisive turnover on downs.
Adding Rashid Shaheed
Schneider’s most recent roster splash was equally impacting.
In early November, star rookie wide receiver and kick returner Tory Horton had two touchdowns in the team’s blowout win at Washington. But in the days after the game, Horton’s leg was paining him. Tests found he had a major shin injury.
At the same time, Schneider had been “begging,” his word, the Saints to trade Rashid Shaheed, their 2023 All-Pro kick returner and wide receiver, to Seattle. As Shaheed was going on season-ending injured reserve, Schneider pulled off the deal for Shaheed. He sent two third-day draft choices to New Orleans for him.
Shaheed has changed games with his kickoff and punt returns. His 100-yard kickoff return for a touchdown at Atlanta in November was the longest play in the league this season. His touchdown on a punt return began the Seahawks’ comeback from trailing the Rams by 16 points with 10 minutes left in regulation in a pivotal division game last month. Darnold led the Seahawks to a 38-37 win over L.A. in overtime.
Seattle wouldn’t have won the NFC West for the first time since 2020 without that victory over the Rams in December. And the Seahawks wouldn’t have won that game without Shaheed.
Then in Seattle’s first playoff game Shaheed took the opening kickoff back 95 yards for a touchdown. That proved to be all the points the Seahawks needed. They throtlled the 49ers in the divisional round.
“Yeah, serendipity. God’s work,” Schneider said Thursday of getting Shaheed. “We had been talking to the Saints. And when I say talking, like, begging, for a while. It wasn’t like a big negotiation. They were kind of like, ‘All right, this is what it’s going to take.’ We were like, ‘All right, we’re going to do it.’
“And literally that week, Tory was like, ‘Man, I’m not feeling real good.. Something is going on.’”
The GM repeated what Macdonald said a couple weeks ago: The team does not fear a long-term injury for Horton that will affect his 2026 season.
“Tory is in a great spot. That guy is going to be an amazing player, and he’s a great guy,” Schneider said.
“He’s an amazing person.”
What’s next for Seattle’s GM?
In the draft last spring Schneider in round one at 18th overall made guard Grey Zabel the team’s highest drafted interior offensive lineman since Hall of Famer Steve Hutchinson in 2001. Zabel has played like Hutchinson, a stud left guard since the first practice in April.
Schneider drafted Zabel largely on the recommendation of Hutchinson, who scouted him out of North Dakota State for the Seahawks.
In the second round the GM traded up 17 spots to select Nick Emmanwori. Emmanwori has been the dynamic, do-it-all force at run-stopping safety, coverage safety, nickel corner, inside linebacker, outside linebacker, blitzer, run stopper and even defensive end. There’s nothing Macdonald has given him that Emmanwori, at age 21, has excelled in his first NFL season. He lets Macdonald play five- and six-defensive back schemes more than any defense in the league, even against heavier, running offensive personnel.
Schneider re-signed right tackle Abe Lucas in September, beyond his rookie contract ending. This month he re-signed Charles Cross to be Seattle’s left tackle under contract through 2029. That’s $180 million the GM has invested to have his bookend tackles on each end of the offensive line for seasons to come.
What’s next for Schneider? Seemingly more good times.
The Seahawks have youth, and money. They were the league’s third-youngest team this season, weighted by playing time. Seattle has an estimated $66.88 million in space under the NFL’s projected salary cap for 2026, per overthecap.com. That’s the fourth-most cap space in the league for next season.
Seattle has only 43 players under contract for next season, towards a 53-man regular season roster.
Shaheed’s rookie contract Seattle inherited from New Orleans expires after the final whistle of Super Bowl 60. So does the rookie deal for Riq Woolen, the team’s Pro Bowl cornerback as a rookie four years ago.
And the same for Kenneth Walker. The running back has flourished lately as Kubiak’s outside-zone rushing offense has had its most productive string of game, at the most important time. Walker’s 119-yard game in the divisional round against the 49ers was his second 100-yard game of the season. His three scores that night made Walker and Shaun Alexander (from 2004) the only Seahawks to rush for three touchdowns in a playoff game.
With Zach Charbonnet, whom Walker had a job-share with most of this season, out until at least training camp next summer with a major knee injury, Walker has the lead-back role to himself for the Super Bowl.
And beyond?
The News Tribune asked Schneider Thursday what Walker’s late-season surge means for his future with the Seahawks beyond his contract ending on Super Sunday next week.
“For his future?”
Yes.
“Ken has been awesome. Explosive. I would say maybe a little bit more decisive the last month and a half.
“He’s a free agent. We’d love to have him back.”
This story was originally published January 30, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
