Their position meetings become revealing, introspective discussions of a player\u2019s why<\/a>.<\/p>\n Leonard Williams says they have a \u201clifetime\u201d bond, one that will endure long and far beyond the football field. He says this bond has changed his life since he arrived in Seattle, in a trade from the New York Giants in 2023.<\/p>\n \u201cThis has been the best defense I\u2019ve ever been a part of,\u201d the 11-year Pro Bowl veteran defensive lineman said a few months ago<\/a>. \u201cAnd it\u2019s not because of stats or anything like on paper. … It is just the togetherness.<\/p>\n \u201cThe brotherhood that we have on this defense is really special.\u201d<\/p>\n Now the Seahawks\u2019 unique culture, their secret sauce they say is the reason they won the Super Bowl, is in danger of getting exposed. With the rest of the NFL and world watching and taking notes. They don\u2019t like it.<\/p>\n John Schneider was far less than thrilled when commissioner Roger Goodell called to tell the general manager the league selected the Seahawks, for the first time, to be the team that NFL Films will record daily on and off the field in training camp for \u201cHard Knocks\u201d episodes<\/a> airing on HBO this summer.<\/p>\n Schneider didn\u2019t hide his feeling about it this week when asked on his weekly radio show Thursday.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, we avoided it for 17 years, so….,\u201d the GM said on KIRO AM<\/a>.<\/p>\n He laughed.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m just always worried about telling our story,\u201d Schneider said.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, I get it, from a PR standpoint, a marketing standpoint. \u201cWe\u2019re just very protective of how we do things, what our culture looks like.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to make it as positive as we possibly can,\u201d Schneider said of \u201cHard Knocks, \u201cwithout sharing as much information as we possibly can.\u201d<\/p>\n He laughed again. He wasn\u2019t joking.<\/p>\n John Schneider\u2019s tone, body language and words make it obvious how the GM and the #Seahawks<\/a> feel about the NFL picking them to be the Hard Knocks training camp team on HBO weekly in August.<\/p>\n He says they are very \u201cprotective\u201d of how they do things and of their culture pic.twitter.com\/V1DuSF710c<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) April 3, 2026<\/a> Decisions suboptimal for Seattle<\/p>\n Most of 2025, almost all the recent postseason, went the Seahawks\u2019 way.<\/p>\n They won 17 of 20 games. They won the NFC West for the first time since 2020. They rode the top seed and home field through the conference playoffs to Seattle\u2019s first Super Bowl in 11 years. Then the Seahawks dominated New England<\/a> in Super Bowl 60 in Feburary for the franchise\u2019s first NFL title since the Legion of Boom team\u2019s 2013 season.<\/p>\n A few weeks after the team\u2019s raucous Super Bowl victory parade<\/a> through downtown Seattle, free agency began. It went mostly as Schneider and the Seahawks wanted.<\/p>\n They didn\u2019t chase out of their budget plans the money Super Bowl MVP Kenneth Walker, safety Coby Bryant, outside linebacker Boye Mafe and cornerback Riq Woolen sought. They all got it, elsewhere. Walker signed with Kansas City<\/a>, Bryant with Chicago<\/a>, Mafe with Cincinnati<\/a> and Woolen with Philadelphia<\/a> for more than Seattle wanted to pay.<\/p>\n So Schneider retained his more affordable core to that brotherhood.<\/p>\n He spent most of his free-agency money ($51 million) on keeping Rashid Shaheed<\/a>, the Pro Bowl kick returner and wide receiver that was perhaps the team\u2019s MVP over the latter half of last season.<\/p>\n And he re-signed All-Pro Jaxon Smith-Njigba. The NFL offensive player of the year for last season got the richest contract for a wide receiver<\/a> in NFL history, up to $168.6 million with $120 million guaranteed.<\/p>\n But this hasn\u2019t been a perfect offseason for Schneider and the Seahawks. This last week has been what the GM sees as two strikes against his team.<\/p>\n The Super Bowl champions are learning they are kings of only their own domain. As in, their Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton.<\/p>\n About the time Schneider got the call from Goodell about \u201cHard Knocks,\u201d down I-5 in Olympia Monday Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law a new state millionaire tax.<\/a> You may have heard of it. Households in Washington that bring in more than $1 million annually get taxed at 9.9% on that income, beginning in 2028.<\/p>\n The law could face efforts to block it in state courts. On Friday, opponents of the new income tax asked the Washington Supreme Court to allow them to pursue a referendum<\/a> that would give voters a chance to repeal the law in the November general election.<\/p>\n Washington has been one of five states with NFL teams that have no income tax. Texas (with the Cowboys and Texans), Florida (with the Dolphins, Buccaneers and Jaguars), Tennessee (home of the Titans) and Nevada (with the Raiders) do not.<\/p>\n Schneider said he and the Seahawks have used that to their advantage to sign players over other teams.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to affect us,\u201d Schneider said of the millionaire tax this week, talking to reporters at the NFL spring meeting in Phoenix. He called the lack of income tax in Washington a perk, \u201ca bonus,\u201d but not a deciding factor when players decide to sign with the Seahawks over, say, the 49ers, Rams or Chargers in California. California has an income tax up to 13%, one of the nation\u2019s highest.<\/p>\n In 2024, veteran safety Rayshawn Jenkins laughed<\/a> when he said part of why he signed with the Seahawks that spring over a free-agent offer from the 49ers was Washington not having an income tax.<\/p>\n Schneider helped Jenkins, who now plays with the Cleveland Browns, realize that. It\u2019s been part of his pitch to free agents to come here.<\/p>\n In mid-March, when the bill was getting signed on the toward becoming law, Schneider said on his radio show the Seahawks were going to feel a \u201csting\u201d from the new millionaire tax. The GM may need to change his pitch to free agents to sign with Seattle and keep all their money.<\/p>\n \u201cThere were a bunch of agents texting me the other day like, \u2018Hey, can\u2019t use that anymore, buddy,\u2019\u201d Schneider said last month on KIRO radio<\/a>. \u201cI think it is for all the pro teams here in town.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s always been a huge attraction, especially competing with the California teams. It\u2019s been a big deal for us. So, it\u2019s going to sting, from a recruiting standpoint and what that looks like. I\u2019m sure (former Seahawks general managers) Mike Reinfeldt and Mickey Loomis and all the (salary) cap guys that have been here before, too, are looking at this like, \u2018Dang!\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s going to sting, no question about it.\u201d<\/p>\n This is GM John Schneider’s almost-subtle way of supporting Derick Hall, the #Seahawks<\/a> LB the NFL suspended for today’s game at Carolina for stepping on a fallen Rams offensive lineman. https:\/\/t.co\/qLoDXIQWBs<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Gregg Bell (@gbellseattle) December 28, 2025<\/a> They\u2019ll be OK<\/p>\n Now, just because two decisions way outside their domain didn\u2019t go their way doesn\u2019t mean this offseason is going awry for the Seahawks.<\/p>\n Yes, they have only four picks in the draft that begins April 23. That\u2019s by design. Schneider told me and a handful of other team beat reporters at the league\u2019s scouting combine in Indianapolis<\/a> five weeks ago he and his scouting staff assessed this year\u2019s draft as relatively weak. They see next year\u2019s draft as far deeper in NFL-ready talent. That\u2019s why the team traded two third-day picks in this month\u2019s draft to New Orleans in November to get Shaheed.<\/p>\n Through all the rumors and noise around free agency, get this: The Seahawks are bringing back 10 of the 11 starters on offense and \u2014 by re-signing cornerback Josh Jobe<\/a> at $8 million per year \u2014 all 11 of the starters on the top-ranked defense that won the Super Bowl. Coach Mike Macdonald said this week 12-year veteran DeMarcus Lawrence, the Pro Bowl defensive end who will turn 34 this month, has indicated to him he\u2019s returning to play in 2026.<\/p>\n That\u2019s 21 of 22 starters \u2014 plus your kicker (Jason Myers), punter (Michael Dickson) and long-snapper (Chris Stoll, also on a new deal) \u2014 coming back for next season. In this salary-capped NFL that\u2019s hard to do.<\/p>\n Especially for a defending Super Bowl champion, whose players often leave for new riches elsewhere.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are trying to be, like, really careful with our language. We are not trying to say we are \u2018running anything back\u2019 or \u2018defending\u2019 anything. It\u2019s just not really our attitude,\u201d Macdonald told reporters this week<\/a> at the league meeting in Arizona.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to try to retain as many great players as we can. And we love our roster. We love our guys. We are trying to keep that unit together, that continuity.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s part of our long-term plans, too, how we\u2019ve budgeted. …That\u2019s how we\u2019ve done business.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd I feel like we\u2019ve executed that pretty well, for the most part.”<\/p>\n This story was originally published April 3, 2026 at 3:54 PM.<\/p>\n Gregg Bell<\/a><\/p>\n The News Tribune<\/p>\n Gregg Bell is the Seahawks and NFL writer for The News Tribune. He is a two-time Washington state sportswriter of the year, voted by the National Sports Media Association in January 2023 and January 2019. He started covering the NFL in 2002 as the Oakland Raiders beat writer for The Sacramento Bee. The Ohio native began covering the Seahawks in their first Super Bowl season of 2005. In a prior life he graduated from West Point and served as a tactical intelligence officer in the U.S. Army, so he may ask you to drop and give him 10.![\"Seattle](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/260117_bh_nfl_div_SF_vs_SEA7538.jpg\" "\\"260117_bh_nfl_div_SF_vs_SEA7538.jpg\\"")
Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider looks on as the Seattle Seahawks cruise to a 41-6 victory against the San Francisco 49ers in the NFC Divisional Round game at Lumen Field, on Saturday, Jan. 17, 2026, in Seattle. Brian Hayes bhayes@thenewstribune.com <\/p>\n Seahawks general manager John Schneider speaks to the crowd at the team\u2019s Trophy Celebration event at Lumen Field on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2026, in Seattle. Liesbeth Powers lpowers@thenewstribune.com <\/p>\n
![\"All-Pro](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/JSNcontract.jpeg\" "\\"JSNcontract\\"")
All-Pro wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, NFL offensive player of the year for 2025, flanked by coach Mike Macdonald (left) and general manager John Schneider (right) after signing his four-year contract extension with the Seattle Seahawks Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at the team\u2019s Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. Gregg Bell\/The News Tribune <\/p>\n All-Pro wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, NFL offensive player of the year for 2025, flanked by coach Mike Macdonald (left) and general manager John Schneider (right) after signing his four-year contract extension with the Seattle Seahawks Wednesday, March 25, 2026, at the team\u2019s Virginia Mason Athletic Center in Renton. Gregg Bell\/The News Tribune <\/p>\n
\n ![\"Profile](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/STAFFPHOTO_Gregg_Bell0007.jpg\")
\n <\/a><\/p>\n
\n Support my work with a digital subscription<\/a>
\n