“We know exactly what our deficiencies are. We can all see it, right? And we have a plan to address everything.” – John Schneider, on fixing the offensive line

For fans thinking John Schneider is suddenly going to change his spots and start paying offensive linemen big money, the Seahawks’ GM once again made it clear he is going to stick to the draft-and-develop strategy.

In his first 2025 weekly show on Seattle Sports 710 AM, he said he wants to emulate the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles’ offensive line construction that featured four draft picks developed by the team.

The Eagles had the 12^th-ranked line in the league, which helped Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley lead an offense that ranked seventh in points and sixth in EPA.

Philadelphia’s line was made up of four homegrown draft picks – including three in the first two rounds — and one free agent.

The Hawks also had a largely homegrown line in 2024, but Charles Cross was the only Round 1-2 draft pick, and the four other positions – manned mostly by Day 3 picks — all took turns being the weakest link. As a result, the Hawks had the 30^th-ranked line and an offense that was 18^th in both points and EPA.

It continued a 15-year trend under Schneider in which the Seahawks have never had a line that was even above average. The ongoing failure has been a combination of Schneider drafting poorly (despite a lot of picks used on the line) and coaching not being good enough.

Over the past four years, Schneider has used eight of 30 draft picks on offensive linemen. But there has been little to no continuity, as the center spot has been a revolving door of bad players, injuries have hurt right tackle and right guard has been a weak spot consistently.

Of the eight picks Schneider has used up front, five have been Day 3 guys. Schneider has put Day 1-2 draft stock into three guys – Cross with the ninth overall pick in 2022, Abe Lucas in the third round of that draft and Christian Haynes in the third round of 2024. The Hawks have not gotten enough out of the third-rounders.

Schneider’s biggest whiff, per most fans, was Round 2 of the 2021 draft. He busted on Dee Eskridge, a No. 3 receiver, instead of taking Creed Humphrey or Josh Myers and fixing the center spot long term.

In 2023, he missed another chance at helping his line in the second round. He inexplicably doubled up on positions he had drafted in the 2022 second round, adding Derick Hall to Boye Mafe and Zach Charbonnet to Ken Walker. Instead of Hall and/or Charbonnet, he could have added a guard such as Matthew Bergeron, Cody Mauch or O’Cyrus Torrence.

Imagine a starting five of Cross, Bergeron, Humphrey, Mauch and Lucas. That’s a playoff-caliber line and the kind of draft investment Schneider should be making.

Asked on 710 whether his philosophy had changed at all, he said, “Philosophically, no, but process-wise, yes. … We know exactly what our deficiencies are. We can all see it, right? And we have a plan to address everything.

“We have to be a strong developmental team. (The Eagles have) done a great job. Their offensive line coach (Jeff Stoutland) is really good (and has) been there for a long time. And they’ve done a really nice job getting acquisitions and developing there. That’s what we need to improve on. We need to improve our ability to identify and develop because it’s 50% both ways, and you have to be able to develop these guys.”

Schneider stuck to his standard explanation that the best big college athletes are playing defense because that is where the money is and it is therefore hard to find NFL-ready linemen in the draft.

“There’s always this dearth of talent at the position,” he said. “So, you know, supply and demand, right? When you talk to other GMs about trades and stuff like that … everybody kind of skips the offensive line because it’s just a given: Everybody’s looking for them.”

He also made it clear yet again that he is not going to pay big money for free-agent linemen.

“You can’t just throw money at something to fix a perceived need,” he said. “We’ve made mistakes there in the past, and we’re gonna try not to repeat mistakes we’ve made.”

He said the philosophy is “how we run the ball, how we play super fast … guys get ripping off the ball.”

He was not specific on what about the process will change – how they will better identify players and better develop them. But one commonality among the NFL’s top 13 lines in 2024 is that most of them had at least three starters drafted in the first two days (Rounds 1-3). Six of them had at least three starters from the first two rounds. So Schneider had better be looking to use a 1 or 2 on an O-lineman this year while also extending Cross.

As for the development angle, new OC Klint Kubiak has brought in veteran line coach John Benton and run-game coordinator Justin Outten – who both have worked with Kubiak before.

“If our identity is going to be a running football team, it starts with coach Benton and his approach,” Kubiak said when introduced last week. “Just really impressed with his ability as a teacher, No. 1. He’s an excellent teacher. The way he runs the room, holds his guys accountable. I’ve just seen the way he leads men, and his schemes are excellent.”

Fans are going to have to hope that is true – and that Schneider follows through on his plan to emulate the Eagles by using some high picks on linemen and getting the new coaches to prep them better than the Hawks have for most of the last 15 years.