NFL analyst insults Seahawks GM John Schneider as 'not a good drafter'

The hardest thing to hear... for any of us... is something we don't agree with. So said Victor Wong as Professor Birak in James Carpenter's classic 1987 horror hit, Prince of Darkness. It's an adage that probably applies to fans of all 32 NFL teams at some point in every offseason. Aside from the heaviest heavyweight contenders like the Eagles, Lions, Chiefs, Ravens and Bills - fans are probably prone to think their favorite team is far better than the national media - or the oddsmakers - or anybody but a hopeless homer believes.

The more that a take gets under your skin, the more likely it is that it rings true. That's certainly the case for this barb from John Johnson at Rotoballers, who named Noah Fant the most-likely candidate to start for the Seattle Seahawks at tight end in 2025 (ugh) - and took a big swipe at general manager John Schneider in the process.

"Yes, the team drafted TE Elijah Arroyo but Seahawks general manager John Schneider isn't a good drafter. He should have picked more offensive linemen. Fant probably remains the starter for now, though he could be gone in a season or two."

Our first instinct was to jump up and cry foul, the idea having immediately been disproven by bringing up the 2010, 2011 and 2012 draft classes that this team put together, which created the greatest defense in NFL history.

Then again, at least half of the credit has to go to former head coach Pete Carroll - who had full roster control up until a year and a half ago. Therefore, the Seahawks' greatest successes (and failures) have to fall on his shoulders.

For the sake of argument let's give Schneider 50% of the credit for putting together the LOB teams - and for failing to restock talent as that all-time great group slowly fell apart.

The trouble is after that 2012 class there's really been nothing to crow about on the part of this front office - a few odd hits here and there notwithstanding. From 2013-2021 the Seahawks might well have gotten the worst returns in the draft of any NFL team - and the 2022 class is their only real success in post-LOB years.

One strong draft class in 13 years is not a good track record - even if they did improbably land five long-term starters in that group. It's still too early to judge the 2023 and 2024 classes, but aside from Devon Witherspoon and Jaxon Smith-Njigba the early results have been underwhelming.

We like Arroyo as a pick and don't have to entirely write off Schneider with a "bad drafter" label to recognize that the Seahawks have done poorly in the draft more often than not. It's just that their initial wild team-building success tends to cloud over the rest of their draft history, which is pretty bad.

Worst of all, for 15 years now the Seahawks have had a poor offensive line - a weakness that's become a back-breaking dynamic on offense over the last few seasons - and it's true that Schneider has done precious little to address the problem.

If no real progress has been made for that unit by this time next year, Schneider's job security should at least become a question mark.