RENTON, Wash. — An example of the changes in Seattle: Instead of general manager John Schneider sitting beside coach Pete Carroll inside the team meeting room for a pre-draft news conference, Schneider’s top four assistants were made available Thursday afternoon at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center.
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Assistant general manager Nolan Teasley, vice president of player personnel Trent Kirchner, senior director of player personnel Matt Berry and director of college scouting Aaron Hineline spent 30 minutes discussing the draft process, their roles in crafting the team’s board and what their jobs are on draft weekend.
Speaking to the latter, Kirchner joked that draft weekend from their perspective is mostly “John yelling at us to find more trade partners.”
With the 2024 draft less than one week away, here are four takeaways after hearing from Schneider’s top personnel guys.
Seahawks execs Matt Berry, Nolan Teasley, Trent Kirchner and Aaron Hineline pic.twitter.com/PdA2c72ePN
— Dugar, Michael-Shawn (@MikeDugar) April 18, 2024
Chain of command hasn’t changed
On April 4, Schneider said during his weekly appearance on Seattle sports radio that his role in the draft process has not changed even though Carroll no longer has final say over personnel decisions. Schneider said that in all their years together, Carroll very rarely overruled him. Teasley echoed that sentiment Thursday.
“John was in control on draft day and will continue to be,” said Teasley, who is in his 12th season with the Seahawks and second as assistant GM. “Watching him live during draft day is really impressive in the way he controls and commands and operates throughout the process. The process stays consistent, so I don’t foresee a lot of change in that regard.”
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The opinions of Mike Macdonald and his coaching staff matter, of course, but Seattle’s decision-makers insist that incorporating a new staff has not dramatically changed their draft strategy or roster-building philosophy.
“There’s going to be some intricacies and changes to scheme and system on both sides of the ball, but there’s only so much football, so you’re looking for productive, smart, tough, reliable, fast, physical football players regardless,” Teasley said.
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At the NFL’s annual spring meeting last month, Macdonald talked up the importance of having players capable of playing multiple spots. So far, that’s the only tangible difference in roster construction with Macdonald at the helm. Teasley used Leonard Williams and Dre’Mont Jones as examples of guys who can play all over the defensive line and Julian Love, Rayshawn Jenkins and Coby Bryant as examples of defensive backs who can line up at different positions.
“We feel like we have versatility throughout our roster,” Teasley said. “They’ve kind of identified some of that versatility that’s already here, and we’re excited about seeing what they can do with it.”
Not drafting solely for need
The 2024 quarterback class is believed to be very good. There may be as many as four quarterbacks selected in the top 10 and six in the first round. Of the potential first-round picks, Seattle met with Oregon’s Bo Nix, who is QB5 on Dane Brugler of The Athletic’s draft guide, with a Day 2 grade. Seattle also hosted South Carolina’s Spencer Rattler, Brugler’s seventh-ranked quarterback with a Round 3 grade.
“It’s a really talented group,” Berry said. “We’ve spent time studying those guys, visiting with them. Without getting into specifics about players, it’s one of the stronger groups that there’s been in the last couple years in terms of depth.”
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Seattle is committed to Geno Smith as the starting quarterback this year. After losing Drew Lock in free agency, Seattle traded for Sam Howell from the Commanders to be Smith’s backup. To acquire Howell, Seattle moved back 24 spots from the third round to the fourth and 27 spots back from the fifth round to the sixth. Howell is the same age as many of this year’s prospects and has already started 18 regular-season games, so despite feeling good about the incoming rookies, Seattle doesn’t feel it has to force a quarterback pick to fill a need.
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“It’s been tried-and-true year after year that (free agency) is not how you build, it’s an opportunity to supplement your roster,” Teasley said. “That was the goal, including the Sam Howell trade, to supplement our roster and get to a point where we don’t really feel like we need to force anything and all options are on the table whether we’re talking about a player at a position or our ability to move up and down the draft. I think we achieved that.”
Teasley’s view of the roster can be applied across the board, including offensive line, where the acquisition of 32-year-old guard Laken Tomlinson fills a void up front. Seattle feels it has a starting-caliber left guard at an affordable price — he signed a one-year, $1.2 million deal — meaning the team doesn’t have to push an interior offensive lineman up the board because it doesn’t feel good about the state of the front line. The Seahawks believe they’re in position to take the best player available throughout the weekend.
Berry declined to answer a question about the interior offensive line class.
“They’re good players across all position groups,” he said. “I don’t really want to get into a whole lot of specifics about which position has strengths in the class and which doesn’t.”
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Finding trade partners
There’s truth to Kirchner’s joke about Schneider barking orders about finding trade partners. On draft weekend, Schneider isn’t the only one working the phones to move up and down the draft. Teasley, Hineline, Kirchner and Berry are constantly on the phone with other executives, general managers and owners to put deals together.
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Members of personnel staff are responsible for scouting a team or a division so that they have a feel for what other clubs need, what prospects they may like or dislike and how that will impact how the board falls on draft weekend. In addition to being yelled at by Schneider, it’s the job of his assistants to let Schneider know who they believe is about to get drafted ahead of them so they aren’t caught off guard when it’s their turn to pick. It’s a very important responsibility, particularly near the top of the draft when there are a limited number of impact players available.
“We’re always trying to find teams that will trade back or are willing to trade up,” Kirchner said. “There’s always constant communication going on.”
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Scouting advantages
Carroll and his staff were operating at an advantage in their first couple of drafts because they had previously spent so much time in the college game. Seattle’s new staff has a similar advantage. Macdonald was Michigan’s defensive coordinator in 2021, offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and offensive line coach Scott Huff are coming straight from the Washington Huskies, and special teams coordinator Jay Harbaugh spent the last nine seasons at Michigan.
“They’re familiar with the prospects. Recruiting is always big,” Berry said. “We’ve got a bunch of questions, and we’re trying to find if these guys fit our culture, fit what we’re looking for. Any information we can bring to that from another perspective, we take and we add it to the mix and try to figure out if these guys are us, if they’re competitors, if they’re resilient, smart, tough and reliable.”
In Brugler’s seven-round mock of all 257 picks, there are 21 players from the Huskies and Wolverines. When asked about Grubb’s involvement in scouting Huskies, Berry said their new offensive coordinator has been “awesome” throughout the pre-draft process. But in terms of pushing for players from one school or another, Berry said, “I have not seen that at all. He’s a good evaluator and (has) really been a good part of our process.
“He’s been really open to players at all schools,” Berry said. “We take the information he’s got on those guys (from Washington). We have quite a bit of information on the Huskies guys with him and Scott Huff, our offensive line coach. That’s really valuable to us.”
(Photo of Mike Macdonald: Steph Chambers / Getty Images)
