How Schneider built Seattle Seahawks back into a contender

After making back-to-back Super Bowl trips in the mid-2010s, the Seattle Seahawks spent a decade hovering in that good-but-not-great range.

They kept racking up winning seasons, but were never quite able to reestablish themselves as preeminent championship contenders.

Until now.

Under the direction of general manager John Schneider and second-year head coach Mike Macdonald, the Seahawks have surged back into title contention with a franchise-best 14-3 season, which earned them the NFC’s No. 1 seed and stamped them as one of the favorites to hoist the Lombardi Trophy next month.

How did Schneider & Co. do it? Here’s a closer look.

A home-run hire

When the Seahawks decided to move on from Pete Carroll on Jan. 10, 2024, Schneider was tasked with finding the successor to the most successful head coach in franchise history.

By all accounts, Schneider hit a home run.

At the time, Macdonald was a rising star who’d quickly developed a reputation as one of the NFL’s brightest young defensive minds. As Baltimore’s defensive coordinator, his cutting-edge defensive scheme had taken the league by storm, with the Ravens’ top-ranked scoring defense flustering opponents week after week.

However, the timing was an issue for Seattle. The Seahawks had missed the initial window to interview Macdonald during the top-seeded Ravens’ playoff bye week. Per league rules, that meant Seattle had to wait until the Ravens lost.

That could have compelled Schneider and the Seahawks to go with one of the other eight reported candidates they interviewed. But instead, they waited it out. And when the Ravens lost in the AFC Championship Game on Jan. 28, 2024, their patience was rewarded.

Three days later, the Seahawks introduced Macdonald as their new head coach.

The results followed soon after.

Seattle is 24-10 in its first two seasons under Macdonald, including a 15-2 mark on the road. And since the midway point of 2024, the Seahawks are a league-best 20-5.

Most notably, Macdonald has orchestrated a dramatic turnaround on defense. That once-proud side of the ball had been lagging toward the end of the Carroll era, with Seattle ranking 25th in scoring defense in both 2022 and 2023. Within two years, Macdonald has that unit back on top as the league’s No. 1 scoring defense.

A trio of bold moves

Schneider has pulled the trigger on three seismic trades in recent years.

• In March 2022, he stunned the NFL world by dealing nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos.

• In March 2025, he once again traded away his starting QB, sending veteran quarterback Geno Smith to the Las Vegas Raiders before replacing him less than a week later with free agent Sam Darnold.

• And just days after the Smith trade, Schneider shipped star wide receiver DK Metcalf to the Pittsburgh Steelers.

All three trades drew plenty of skepticism at the time. But in hindsight, they were strokes of genius.

For one, there was the stockpile of draft capital they produced.

The Wilson return, most notably, included two first-round picks and two second-round picks. Over the next two drafts, the Seahawks turned that into stalwart left tackle Charles Cross, three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon and a pair of quality edge rushers in Boye Mafe and Derick Hall.

The Metcalf return, meanwhile, gave the Seahawks a 2025 mid-second-round pick that also proved quite valuable. They used that pick to swing a draft-day trade to move up 17 spots, which enabled them to snag talented rookie safety Nick Emmanwori early in the second round.

There also was the financial flexibility Seattle gained in moving on from Wilson and Metcalf, who were both commanding top-of-the-market money. Those two trades are a major reason why the Seahawks currently have the fourth-most salary-cap space of any franchise, according to OverTheCap.com.

And here’s the kicker: In addition to all that, Seattle also ended up getting better quarterback play following both the Wilson and Smith trades.

Wilson’s career immediately nosedived in Denver, where he ranked 27th and 21st in ESPN’s QBR metric in his first two seasons away from Seattle. Meanwhile, Smith took the reins for the Seahawks and had the two best seasons of his career, finishing seventh in QBR in 2022 and 14th in 2023.

The Smith-to-Darnold pivot this past offseason was a similarly masterful maneuver. Smith struggled mightily in Las Vegas this fall, finishing 27th in QBR with a league-high 17 interceptions. And Darnold, in addition to being 6 years younger and slightly less expensive, gave Seattle quality play with the 19th-best QBR.

In aggregate, these bold, blockbuster moves were a heist for the Seahawks. They armed the franchise with a slew of draft capital. They freed up significant cap space. And simultaneously, they resulted in an expertly timed QB succession from Wilson to Smith to Darnold.

Nailing the draft

In the early 2010s, Schneider built the Legion of Boom-era Seahawks through a legendary stretch of drafting. He hit on an incredible run of picks, assembling a core of Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas, Kam Chancellor, Wilson, Bobby Wagner, K.J. Wright and others who served as the foundation for the franchise’s glory years.

But after that initial drafting surge from 2010-12, the well dried up for Seattle. For the better part of the next decade, the Seahawks had one underwhelming draft class after another.

In 2022, the tide shifted back in a major way.

Taking full advantage of the extra draft capital from the aforementioned trades, Schneider has since gone on another big-time heater that’s resulted in an eye-popping amount of young talent.

Below are the highlights from Seattle’s past four drafts. In all, this list includes more than a dozen quality starters, including seven players who received at least one All-Pro vote this season.

• 2022: LT Charles Cross, EDGE Boye Mafe, RB Kenneth Walker III, RT Abraham Lucas, S Coby Bryant, CB Riq Woolen

Cross and Lucas are both four-year starters and potential long-term cornerstones at the offensive tackle spots, with Cross signing a four-year, $104.4 million extension just last week.

Walker has flashed star potential and topped the 1,000-yard rushing mark this fall, while tying for the third in the league with 10 runs of 20-plus yards. Mafe has been a productive pass rusher, with 20 sacks over his four seasons. Bryant has emerged as a playmaker in the secondary, with seven interceptions over the past two seasons.

And despite an up-and-down tenure in Seattle, Woolen has been lights-out of late, ranking as a top-15 cornerback in Pro Football Focus grading since Week 7.

• 2023: CB Devon Witherspoon, WR Jaxon Smith-Njigba, EDGE Derick Hall, RB Zach Charbonnet

Smith-Njigba is now a bona fide superstar after piling up an NFL-high 1,793 receiving yards this fall, the eighth-most in a single season in league history.

Witherspoon is a star on the other side of the ball, where he was PFF’s top-ranked cornerback this season. Already a three-time Pro Bowler, he’s made an impact all over the field while totaling 32 pass breakups and 16 tackles for loss over his three seasons.

Hall had an eight-sack campaign last year, while Charbonnet has teamed with Walker as a formidable one-two punch in the backfield.

• 2024: DT Byron Murphy II, TE AJ Barner

Murphy has experienced a Year 2 breakout with 7.0 sacks, which is tied for third in the league among defensive tackles.

Barner has emerged as one of the league’s better tight ends, with 500-plus receiving yards and six TD catches this fall to go along with his solid run-blocking.

• 2025: LG Grey Zabel, S Nick Emmanwori, WR Tory Horton

Zabel, the franchise’s highest-drafted guard in more than two decades, has been as good as advertised, ranking as the league’s top interior offensive lineman in ESPN’s run-block win rate.

Emmanwori, a versatile chess piece who can move all over the field, already looks like a budding superstar. He’s put his Swiss Army knife skill set on full display, filling up the stat sheet with an interception, 11 pass breakups, 2.5 sacks and eight tackles for loss.

And while Horton was limited to eight games due to a shin injury, he made an impact with five TD catches and a franchise-long kick return score.

The in-season trades

When it comes to trades, Schneider is most known for the blockbuster moves involving Wilson, Smith and Metcalf. And rightfully so.

But over the past three years, he’s also aced the NFL’s trade deadline.

• In October 2023, Schneider dealt a second-round pick and a fifth-round pick to the New York Giants in exchange for veteran defensive lineman Leonard Williams, who then re-signed with Seattle in March 2024. He’s played the best football of his career in the Pacific Northwest, totaling 22 sacks in 43 games with the Seahawks, while earning two Pro Bowl nods and an All-Pro selection.

• In October 2024, the Seahawks swapped linebackers with the Titans, sending starter Jerome Baker and a fourth-round pick to Tennessee in exchange for Ernest Jones IV. It worked to perfection. Jones helped spark Seattle’s 2024 midseason turnaround on defense, then re-signed with the team last March and was an All-Pro this fall.

• In November 2025, Schneider dealt a fourth-round pick and a fifth-rounder to the New Orleans Saints in exchange for speedy wide receiver/returner Rashid Shaheed. The move proved vital for Seattle’s receiving corps, which needed a No. 3 wideout after Horton went down with an injury. And Shaheed was instrumental down the stretch, making a handful of pivotal fourth-quarter plays in victories over the Indianapolis Colts and Los Angeles Rams last month.

Strategic signings and hidden gems

The Seahawks have also enhanced their roster with strategic free agent signings.

Schneider showed great foresight with safety Julian Love, who signed with the Seahawks in March 2023. Prior to that, Love had spent most of his first four seasons with the New York Giants as a special teamer and a rotational defensive back. In Seattle, he blossomed into a Pro Bowl safety and a key leader.

This past offseason, Schneider augmented an already-talented defense by signing veteran edge rusher DeMarcus Lawrence. It paid off big-time, as Lawrence has brushed aside any age or injury concerns while racking up 6.0 sacks, 11 tackles for loss and three forced fumbles en route to another Pro Bowl campaign.

Schneider also made the right call in sticking with injury-plagued edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu, who agreed to a reworked contract this past offseason after being limited to just six games apiece in 2023 and 2024. He bounced back in a major way this fall, tying for the team lead with 7.0 sacks.

And then, there are the hidden gems – the former undrafted free agents – that Schneider & Co. unearthed.

Hard-hitting linebacker Drake Thomas has been a revelation this season while playing himself into the starting lineup. Safety Ty Okada has risen to the occasion, delivering quality play while making 11 fill-in starts.

Cornerback Josh Jobe, a former practice squad player, has alternated with Woolen as Seattle’s third corner. And center Jalen Sundell has provided steady play since winning the starting job in training camp.

A bright present and future

Success in the NFL can be fleeting. There are myriad examples of teams that shine one year and tumble the next.

But the Seahawks certainly appear to be well positioned for both the present and future.

The present, of course, is sitting right in front of them. They’re two home playoff wins away from reaching the Super Bowl, and three wins from capturing their second Lombardi Trophy in franchise history.

Yet the future may be just as bright. The Seahawks are still one of the youngest teams in the NFL. They have the fourth-most salary cap space, per OverTheCap.com. And as this season has shown, they have one of the league’s premier GM-coach tandems in Schneider and Macdonald.

Regardless of what transpires over the next month, this could be just the start of another special run in Seattle.

How Schneider built Seattle Seahawks back into a contender

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