Hawks add picks as Teasley answers call to run his own team

Some people seem to think Nolan Teasley’s departure to the Vikings is bad news for the Seahawks, but it’s really quite the opposite.

Yes, John Schneider is losing one of his top lieutenants – his third since 2021 — but he still has plenty of officers in his personnel brigade. He surely is happy for Teasley to get his opportunity, just as Scott Fitterer and Dan Morgan did, and Schneider has to be even happier that the Seahawks are going to get two third-round picks out of it as well – thanks to the Rooney Rule.

The Seahawks are now projected (once again) to have 12 picks in 2027: 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 5, 6, 7. That includes four comps for losing Boye Mafe, Kenneth Walker III, Coby Bryant and Riq Woolen. They had traded a 4 from 2027 to get guard Beau Stephens in this year’s draft, dropping them to 11 projected 2027 picks. So the third-rounder coming from Teasley’s departure brings them back up to 12.

In 2028, they are projected to have 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 6 – the 7 conditionally going to the Jets for Irv Charles off a deal made last week. That would give Seattle a total of eight Day 1-2 picks across the two drafts. That’s how you keep building a Super Bowl roster.

If Aden Durde follows Klint Kubiak in earning a spot as one of the 32 NFL coaches in 2027, the Hawks would get an extra third-round pick in 2029 as well. Teams can get three picks for losing two minority candidates in the same hiring year (interpreted to be the time leading up to the next draft).

Third-round picks are major crapshoots, of course, but they also offer the potential for moving around in the draft. Schneider whiffed on most of his seven third-rounders in the pivotal 2016-17 drafts, but he hit on 3 of 5 from 2018 to 2024. The jury is still out on Jalen Milroe and rookie Julian Neal.

Neal was drafted after Schneider moved down in the third round. The Hawks also netted seventh-round corners Andre Fuller and Michael Dansby out of that deal.

Teasley is Schneider’s third lieutenant to leave. Both Fitterer and Morgan were hired by Carolina in succession. Fitterer landed with Washington after a failed three-year stint as Carolina’s GM (his teams went 14-37 from 2021 to 2023). Fitterer acquired both Sam Darnold and Baker Mayfield, but his inherited coach, Matt Rhule, was completely incapable of helping those high draft picks become the quarterbacks they later became with other franchises. Morgan hired Dave Canales – another Seattle connection – as his coach and they are still looking for their first winning season as they prepare for Year 3.

Teasley started with the Seahawks in 2013, which means he won a Super Bowl in his first and last years with the team. He went from intern to pro personnel scout to assistant director of pro personnel to director of pro personnel (replacing Morgan) before he was made Schneider’s assistant GM in 2023.

Schneider still has a handful of experienced leaders on his personnel staff: Trent Kirchner, Matt Berry, Aaron Hineline and Willie Schneider.