Tag Archives: John Schneider

Contracts, Free agency, The roster, Trades

Good value: Hawks snagged a third-rounder in Graham deal, too

March 11, 2015 cc Leave a comment

One of the big questions coming out of the Seahawks’ trade Tuesday is whether they got the proper value in the deal.

We’d say it was a great deal for the Hawks — getting a first-round-caliber tight end and picks in the third and fourth rounds in exchange for a first-round pick and a second-round center whose value no longer matched that.

Yeah, we know: The deal between the Seahawks and Saints brought tight end Jimmy Graham and a fourth-round pick for center Max Unger and a first-rounder. Technically no third-rounder.

But that is not the way Seattle GM John Schneider is looking at it. Guaranteed he sees it this way: By trading for a top offensive player and not signing an unrestricted free agent at $8 million a year, he still will get a third-round comp pick in 2016 for losing Byron Maxwell to the Eagles at $10 million a year.

And you know he will be careful to make sure the Hawks lose more UFAs than they sign so that third-rounder comes to him. The Hawks are about to go plus-three in comp picks for 2016, losing Maxwell, James Carpenter (Jets) and Malcolm Smith (Raiders). Cary Williams and Will Blackmon do not count because they were released by their teams.

Continue reading Good value: Hawks snagged a third-rounder in Graham deal, too →

Free agency, The roster, Trades

Another blockbuster to start the league year: Hawks get ace tight end

March 10, 2015 cc Leave a comment

The Seahawks reportedly have traded Max Unger and the No. 31 pick in the draft to the New Orleans Saints for tight end Jimmy Graham and a fourth-round pick.

The Hawks and Saints reportedly have been talking about the trade since Sunday. Seattle had reportedly lost a bidding war for Denver tight end Julius Thomas.

Graham is just 28 and could be a great solution to one of the Seahawks’ chief problems. Last year, the 6-foot-7 target caught 85 passes for 889 yards and 10 touchdowns.

A third-round pick in 2010, Graham has 386 catches for 4,752 yards and 51 touchdowns in 78 games.

It’s the second time in three years the Seahawks have traded their first-round pick for a veteran playmaker on offense, and they have to hope this deal works out much better than their blockbuster for Percy Harvin in 2013.

Continue reading Another blockbuster to start the league year: Hawks get ace tight end →

Contracts, State of the team

Lynch’s agent discusses the deal and his client

March 6, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Doug Hendrickson, the agent for Marshawn Lynch, said the running back never wanted to leave Seattle and has not mentioned retirement to him, and Seahawks general manager John Schneider pushed a contract extension hard starting the day after the Super Bowl.

Talking to KJR Radio about Lynch’s three-year, $31 million contract, Hendrickson said Lynch was Seattle’s first priority and Schneider called him the day after the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl — by not running Lynch at the goal line — and started talking about getting Lynch’s deal extended.

“They wanted to get it done, and they wanted to get it done fast,” Hendrickson said.

Continue reading Lynch’s agent discusses the deal and his client →

Contracts, Free agency, The roster

What will Hawks do in free agency? Check out the last three years

March 5, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Over the past three years, we have gotten a good idea of how John Schneider leads the Seahawks in free agency.

Outside of the big blockbuster deal for Percy Harvin in 2013, Schneider typically has moved at a measured pace in March — making as many roster deletions as additions and signing only mid-priced free agents.

It should be more of the same this month.

Schneider said it himself at the Combine last month: “We are going to keep doing things the way we started here: Just keep drafting people and playing young people and trying to keep the players that we can keep, try to identify the players that we have to reward and make those tough decisions about players that are under contract that you may have to let go to create some cap room. Those are just tough decisions as you go. We are not going to change anything we do.”

So what have they done the last three years?

Continue reading What will Hawks do in free agency? Check out the last three years →

CHAWK LINES

February 21, 2015 cc Leave a comment

The Seahawks reportedly have offered Marshawn Lynch about $21 million over the next two seasons. Does he want to play though?

John Schneider and Pete Carroll both spoke at the Combine, about Lynch, the Super Bowl and the future.

Schneider revealed that Jeremy Lane suffered a torn ACL on the same interception play on which he also broke his wrist in the Super Bowl.

Among many topics, Carroll said they were working on hiring some assistant coaches at the Combine.

Speaking of Lynch, he had a good message for a crowd at an underground concert in Oakland on Thursday.

Russell Wilson also did some talking this week, taking the blame for the goal-line interception in the Super Bowl but reminding everyone that he is moving forward and thinking ahead, as always.

Continue reading →

Contracts

Lynch controls the action, and his bosses know it

February 20, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Pete Carroll and John Schneider have kowtowed to Marshawn Lynch for years, so why would anyone think they suddenly would take a tough-guy approach with him and set a drop-dead deadline for him to accept a new contract or declare that he will play in 2015?

Carroll and Schneider are not disciplinarians. They ask their players to do things; they never tell them.

In Lynch’s case, they have let him do whatever he wanted ever since they traded for him in 2010. He plays when he wants, he defies the NFL as he chooses and he grabs his junk whenever he is about to score. He has Carroll and Schneider by the balls, too.

Continue reading Lynch controls the action, and his bosses know it →

NFL draft, State of the team, The roster

Lynch is a study in sentimentality: Hawks don’t really need him

February 17, 2015 cc 2 Comments

A major myth has been propagated across the Pacific Northwest and the NFL in recent months. You know, the one that says the Seahawks need Marshawn Lynch in order to win a Super Bowl.

(This is completely separate from the idea that the Seahawks would have won Super Bowl XLIX if they had run Lynch one last time.)

The Hawks have been partly guilty themselves of spreading the nasty rumor, with Pete Carroll and John Schneider talking him up as a core player. They consider him such a key piece that they have offered the soon-to-be 29-year-old a pay raise and extension.

There is nothing wrong with that — they can fit it under the cap nicely and not lose much even if he does walk away after 2015 — but the fact is the Hawks don’t really need Lynch.

Continue reading Lynch is a study in sentimentality: Hawks don’t really need him →

Contracts, Free agency, History

As usual, Hawks won’t use franchise tag

February 16, 2015 cc 1 Comment

John Schneider (via Fresh Files) The Seahawks have not used the franchise tag since 2010 — the first year of the Carroll/Schneider regime — and they almost positively won’t use it this year either.

The window opened today and goes through March 2.

John Schneider has been great about re-signing key free agents before their contracts expire, and the guys they have lost in free agency have been role players or lesser starters they were prepared to lose.

This year they have only two starters scheduled to hit free agency, and they are not going to pay cornerback Byron Maxwell or guard James Carpenter $13 million in 2015.

Schneider has said the team will try to retain Maxwell, but he also admits it will be hard. Maxwell is expected to get an offer worth at least $7 million a year — the Hawks probably would go only as high as $6 million.

CHAWK LINES

February 14, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Danny Kelly of Field Gulls offers some nice analysis of John Schneider’s comments to 710 ESPN.

Schneider also talked to KJR, where the only real new topic was Paul Richardson, who is 50-50 to end up on PUP to start next season.

Byron Maxwell was a hot topic, with Schneider bracing everyone for the fact that the Hawks are likely to lose him.

Michael Robinson thinks Marshawn Lynch will play another season, but who really knows?

The Seahawks have the fourth-toughest schedule in 2015. What else is new? They were No. 6 in 2014.

Clare Farnsworth looks at the unending work of the Seahawks’ equipment crew.

We set up a draft page, with all of the key information on the Seahawks, the Combine and draft prospects — along with mock drafts and blogs.

NFL history

Hawks can still build a dynasty this decade

February 14, 2015 cc Leave a comment

Pete Carroll loves to do things differently, and if he still wants to build a dynasty — even if he won’t say it in those terms — he certainly will get his chance to do it in a way it has never been done.

The Seahawks are the second team to ever follow up a Super Bowl win with a Super Bowl loss the next year, and if they are going to become a historically dominant team, they will have to get back a lot sooner than Washington did.

Continue reading Hawks can still build a dynasty this decade →