{"id":775010,"date":"2026-02-25T08:39:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:39:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/775010\/"},"modified":"2026-02-25T08:39:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-25T08:39:14","slug":"seahawks-john-schneider-credits-crucial-seahawks-scout-at-nfl-combine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/775010\/","title":{"rendered":"Seahawks&#8217; John Schneider credits crucial Seahawks scout at NFL Combine"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Feb. 24, 2026, 4:28 p.m. PT<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\"><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/teams\/seattle-seahawks\/361\" data-autotag=\"91fb7995-f6cd-4aa3-adbc-98eb39d76a79\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":b|e|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\">Seattle Seahawks<\/a> general manager John Schneider spoke publicly about their 2026 plans for the first time at the NFL Scouting Combine today.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">You can watch his entire 19-minute press conference on seahawks.com. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.seahawks.com\/video\/john-schneider-discusses-the-2026-draft-class-building-off-of-this-season\" data-t-l=\":b|z|k|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_a\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Here\u2019s the link<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">He gave rare in-depth insight into the team\u2019s process for evaluating players and making personnel decisions. Most of the chatter you\u2019ll find on the internet thus far is around him mentioning Kenneth Walker III, but there\u2019s much more interesting quotes on team-building strategy that describes the \u201cwhy\u201d behind their recent success.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">He mentions Walker once, saying he\u2019d love to have him back, Zach Charbonnet once, praising his work ethic, and Sam Darnold by saying he matched up as a better choice for the organization than any college quarterbacks last offseason. But perhaps the most interesting thing Schneider mentions is the single name he refers to twice in the press conference- which isn\u2019t a player at all, but is possibly the single most important person he\u2019ll work with at the Combine each year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">That name is Aaron Hineline, the Seahawks\u2019 Director of College Scouting. There\u2019s less information on scouts than any member of the coaching staff, but they play as vital a role as any in shaping the roster. He\u2019s a Woodinville High School and Central Washington University graduate who\u2019s been with the Seahawks for 20 years, working his way up from intern to assistant director of college scouting before being promoted to his current position in 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Expert NFL picks: <a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" data-t-l=\":body nav (nfl)|e|auto spike click:5|\u2691u\" class=\"gnt_ar_b_sp_a\" href=\"https:\/\/sportsdata.usatoday.com\/football\/nfl\/picks\">Exclusive betting insights only at USA TODAY.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"gnt_ar_b_p\">While the coaches have been working to win games the entire season, Hineline has headed Seattle\u2019s mission to scout the 1,000s of eligible players for the 2026 NFL Draft, managing the area scouts and collecting intel at a clip fans can only imagine. Despite being relatively unknown to the masses, he\u2019s as good of a person to thank as any for the Seahawks finding gems in the draft, from Grey Zabel to Ty Okada and in between. When thinking of the NFL Combine this week, imagine Hineline as Schneider\u2019s right-hand man as they watch 319 prospects test and interview, knowing more than any media member could dream of.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Feb. 24, 2026, 4:28 p.m. PT Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider spoke publicly about their 2026 plans&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":775011,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2081],"tags":[95878,7,6,238,237,261,2635,96186,96187,95882,98175,95895,96684,95906,95977,95883,95881],"class_list":{"0":"post-775010","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-seattle-seahawks","8":"tag-accessfree","9":"tag-football","10":"tag-nfl","11":"tag-seahawks","12":"tag-seattle","13":"tag-seattle-seahawks","14":"tag-seattleseahawks","15":"tag-sstssportsnflseahawks","16":"tag-sstsnseahawks","17":"tag-tagamerican-football","18":"tag-tagkenneth-walker-iii","19":"tag-tagnfl-hub","20":"tag-tagnfl-scouting-combine","21":"tag-tagoverall-positive","22":"tag-tagseattle-seahawks","23":"tag-tagsports-news","24":"tag-typestory"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116130372998481303","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775010","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=775010"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/775010\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/775011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=775010"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=775010"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=775010"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}