Seahawks Draft: Inside GM John Schneider's Week-Long Process to 'Let it Rip'
Picture this: it's Thursday, Apr. 27, and all eyes around the NFL are focused on Kansas City, Mo., where commissioner Roger Goodell will announce 31 first-round draft picks.
Over 1,800 miles away, in Renton, Wa., sits general manager John Schneider, coach Pete Carroll and the rest of the Seattle Seahawks' personnel staff, sitting eagerly inside their draft war room.
An entire years' worth of work has culminated in the board that stands on one wall, featuring names of countless players, each with their own story.
From summer scouting to school visits, senior all-star festivities to the Combine, pro day trips and top-30 visits and everything else, it's all led to this moment, with the Seahawks holding picks Nos. 5 and 20 in the first round.
But now - back to the present.
The 2023 NFL Draft is still a week away; rumors are swirling about potential prospects of interest for the Seahawks and the innumerable avenues they could take.
But Schneider isn't paying attention to any of it.
On Tuesday, he and the scouts finished reviewing the board with updates for each player after spring performances, including Combine and pro day efforts, before meeting with Carroll for more strategy talks.
"You're constantly trying to paint pictures and scenarios of what you think will happen and what other teams will do," Schneider said.
It's important to note that the Seahawks don't do mock drafts - Schneider alluded to the fact that he and the staff once tried to put one together and it returned less than ideal results, to say the least.
"We did a mock draft in-house because we had never done one, so we thought we were adding to our process, and it was awful," said Schneider.
"Disaster," Carroll added.
As a result of the lessons learned, Seattle's placed additional emphasis on itself. The personnel staff gets together with the coaches on Friday and Saturday to review the entire process, allowing Carroll and his assistants the opportunity to deliver their thoughts.
The following day, Schneider and his group meet with the college scouts to go over what the coaches said and adjust their board.
"Sunday is a really cool kind of gathering of all the information that you just heard and kind of a reset with the scouts and trying to figure out the input from the coaches and what that means to the front board," Schneider said.
Strategy and board conversations continue Monday, and then business picks up even more on Tuesday as outside conversations commence.
Trade talks get "pretty intense" starting Tuesday and Wednesday, per Schneider, as teams set up parameters for which slots they'd be interested in moving up and/or down to, forcing flexibility from staffs around the league.
Schneider's process of working through potential trading partners is straightforward - literally - as he goes division-by-division, team-by-team, trying to gather as much information as possible.
"I start with my guys that I'm closest with," Schneider said. "Making the calls by division so that we have broad strokes of what parameters might be, because on draft day, you can use all the charts you want and all that kind of stuff ...
"But at the end of the day, it's how bad do you want the player (and) how bad do you want to move in terms of moving up or going back."
Tuesday also features phone calls with agents to better understand where players' stock stands, and then culminates with Seahawks Chair Jody Allen stopping by to see the draft board and discuss strategy.
"We'll get with Jody on Tuesday night and show her what it looks like and tell her what we're thinking and what our process has been and the way we think it's going to go, all the different scenarios," Schneider said.
"Sometimes when I tell her the different scenarios, I think she looks at me like I'm crazy, like okay, I don't know, we have 12 different things that can happen."
Even a week out, Schneider said he's "not as close as I want to be" to knowing all of the scenarios Seattle could face, but by the time he meets with Allen, the Seahawks' 14-year general manager has a better idea of what's going to unfold, though the unpredictability of the draft still exists.
The process continues into Wednesday, where Schneider and Carroll have a "good day, afternoon, just the two of us," before making more calls with teams and agents to enhance final preparations with the draft just over 24 hours away.
But that night, amidst all of the external craziness, Schneider seeks out alone time in Seattle's draft room. There, he prays about the many different scenarios, which he called the "most important" part of his evening.
There have been, however, loose moments within that prayer session, Schneider joked.
"We used to have (former Seahawks assistant coach, now pastor) Rocky Seto here and we'd always spend time together, and he'd be like, 'okay, before we start the draft, specifically what do you want to pray about,'" Schneider said. "And I'd be like, 'I really hope Richard Sherman is there.' That sounds (like a) weird thing to pray for."
But nonetheless, Seattle's track record of on-field success under Schneider speaks for itself, as does his stout draft class from a season ago, which netted impact players like cornerback Tariq Woolen, running back Ken Walker and offensive tackles Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas, among others.
That individual process proved to be stellar - and Schneider and staff will be hoping for similar results after an eventful week that culminates with final one goal.
"Closing the doors and just getting ready for Thursday night to let it rip," Schneider said.
You can follow Daniel Flick on Twitter @DFlickDraft
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