Seahawks tell Packers they can’t talk to John Schneider about their GM job, but that may not be end of it
The Seahawks have said no to the Packers’ attempt to bring general manager John Schneider back home to Green Bay.
It may not be their last try.
A NFL source with knowledge of the situation confirmed to me Saturday the Seahawks denied the Packers permission to talk to GM John Schneider about his hometown Pack’s open GM job.
NFL Network first reported the Seahawks’ denial Saturday morning.
Schneider said in July 2016 when he signed his contract extension with Seattle his new deal did not include an out clause to become the Packers’ GM. Schneider’s first Seahawks contract from 2010 reportedly had such out. He grew up six miles south of the Packers’ Lambeau Field, in De Pere, Wisconsin.
It’s obvious the Packers have Schneider atop their list of candidates. They could still try to get their former director of football operations by offering draft picks or money to Seattle in exchange for rights to negotiate with him outside his contract.
I covered the Raiders in 2002, the year Tampa Bay got Oakland owner Al Davis to break coach Jon Gruden’s contract and send Gruden to become the Buccaneers’ coach. The Bucs traded to the Raiders two first-round draft choices, two second-round picks and, most importantly at the time for Davis, $8 million.
The Packers created their opening this week when they moved general manager Ted Thompson to a special-assistant’s job. Thompson had been the Packers’ GM since 2005. His personnel analyst in Green Bay that year, and in 2006 and ’07: Schneider.
Schneider, 46, was a young scout with the Packers in the early 1990s, having talked his way into an internship and eventually a job by cold-calling then-Green Bay GM Ron Wolf while still in college. Schneider was with the Packers’ front office from 2002 until January 2010. That’s when he left his job as the Packers’ director of football operations for Thompson to become a first-time NFL GM with Seattle, to rebuild the Seahawks with new coach Pete Carroll.
Schneider was also Thompson’s director of player personnel for the Seahawks in 2000.
I asked Carroll this week if he was convinced Schneider would remain his GM this offseason for 2018.
"Yeah, I am. As a matter of fact, I am,” Carroll said. “I’m convinced of that.
"I think he’s going to be here, yeah. That’s what I’m counting on."
When Schenider became a first-time GM with the Seahawks in January 2010, Carroll was already Seattle’s coach for a week reshaping the franchise in his way. That authority is how former Seahawks chief executive Tod Leiweke got Carroll from USC.
Schneider was asked the day he arrived in Seattle eight years ago about Carroll having the title of executive vice president and equal or more authority than the general manager on personnel issues with the Seahawks. Schneider just shrugged.
"When this thing went down with Coach Carroll I had a moment where I thought, 'OK, that was different,’” Schneider said on Jan. 20 2010. “But that's how they had to do it to get a guy of his caliber.”
Since then, Carroll and Schneider have portrayed their leadership of the Seahawks as a unique, symbiotic partnership and collaboration. In 2013, the Seahawks added “executive vice president” to Schneider’s GM title.
The Seahawks describe the relationship now as Schneider “manages all aspects of the Seahawks roster and draft process while working collaboratively with Pete Carroll in all facets of the football operations department.”
Carroll has called Schneider “the best guy to work with.”
But the Packers, even with coach Mike McCarthy in that job for the last 12 years, could conceivably offer Schneider more authority than he currently has or shares with Carroll in Seattle.
That is, if the Packers ever get that far with the Seahawks.
This story was originally published January 6, 2018 at 4:12 PM with the headline "Seahawks tell Packers they can’t talk to John Schneider about their GM job, but that may not be end of it."