Seattle Seahawks GM John Schneider Finally Earns Long-deserved NFL Award

Players win championships, not organizations. That said, it certainly helps when the organization knows how to find the right players and put them in a position to succeed. Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider did that better than anybody else in the NFL this year, and he's finally getting some recognition for it.

According to Mike Dugar at The Athletic, the Pro Football Writers of America have named Schneider the NFL's Executive of the Year. It is the first time in his 16-year career that Schneider has earned the award.

John Schneider wins exec of the year

#Seahawks GM John Schneider has been named 2025 Executive of the Year by the Pro Football Writers of America (@PFWAwriters).

It’s the first time John has won this award. pic.twitter.com/VbSOOsxHdF
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) January 22, 2026

All it took was taking a nine-win team and turning them into a 14-win juggernaut and Super Bowl favorite practically overnight.

The biggest piece of the puzzle actually came the year before, when Schneider hired Mike Macdonald to replace Pete Carroll as head coach - a hire that's proven as successful as any head coach move in the four major sports over the last couple of years.

With Macdonald in place, Schneider set about upgrading Seattle's roster in an aggressive and decisive way. First, he traded Geno Smith for a third-round pick and replaced him with Sam Darnold - a move that was widely panned at the time but has turned out to be a masterstroke at the game's most important position.

Next, Schneider brought in a couple of veterans to bring along the young guns that make up the core of the roster. Cooper Kupp hasn't made a huge impact on the field, but his mentorship has been critical in helping the Seahawks' offense, especially pushing Jaxon Smith-Njigba to have the best season any wide receiver in the league had. Like Kupp, the DeMarcus Lawrence signing was also not a popular move, but Lawrence has been brilliant for a loaded defense, earning his fifth career trip to the Pro Bowl.

Next, Schneider sat down and hit another home run in the NFL draft - delivering at least two long-term stars with left guard Grey Zabel and defensive back Nick Emmanwori. The Seahawks also clearly have something special in Tory Horton, who's out for the year.

Combined with the solid foundation that was already there, the 2025 offseason turned Seattle from a middling has-been to the scariest team in football. During the regular season, the Seahawks posted the highest point differential in the NFL on their way to earning the No. 1 seed in the NFC. They are now one win away from returning to the Super Bowl for the first time in 11 years.

Schneider didn't do it alone, but this was a truly genius series of moves that's set his team up to not just compete - but potentially dominate for years to come.

John Schneider wins exec of the year

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