Seattle Seahawks: Has John Schneider Lost His Mojo?

John Schneider has urged Seattle Seahawks fans to “trust the process” as the team undergoes a retooling of its roster after a long run of success.

It’s a popular phrase to pull out in these situations and one would think Schneider has earned the benefit of the doubt. He’s the one who put together that team that crushed Denver in the Super Bowl five years ago and should’ve beaten New England the next year. This past season marked the first time since 2011 the Seahawks had failed to make the playoffs and that was despite them finishing with a 9-7 record. Schneider has done good work.

However, it’s also fair to ask whether the GM may not have the same juice he did when he first took over the Seahawks back in 2010. Long runs of success can often dull the edge of a man. It’s true for players, coaches and even executives. Schneider may be the latest victim of this. How so? One merely has to look at his recent body of work for an idea. For the first three years of his run, the Seahawks had some of the best drafts in recent NFL history. It included the acquisition of seven future Pro Bowlers.

• Russell Okung
• Earl Thomas
• Kam Chancellor
• K.J. Wright
• Richard Sherman
• Bobby Wagner 
• Russell Wilson

That’s an incredible run of success. In the five years since? The well appears to have dried up. Seattle has developed just one Pro Bowl player and that was on special teams (Tyler Lockett).

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Part of the problem may be two-fold. The Seahawks have made only one pick in the 1st round over that span. They made four from 2010 to 2012. Also, their ability to score big hits in the later rounds has vanished as well. During those first three years, they found six players in the 4th round or later who started at least two seasons for them. Three of them went to the Pro Bowl. Since then not a single one of their later picks have panned out even close to a similar degree.

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The evidence speaks for itself. The reason the Seahawks have lost relevance in the NFC is that they stopped drafting well. That falls at the feet of Schneider. While he deserves all the praise for what he did during that Super Bowl run, he deserves the criticism for failing to keep the cupboard from going bare. It’s a cold but fair reality of the job he took. Perhaps this mini-rebuild may be what he needs to regain his mojo. Otherwise, Schneider may not be long for Seattle.