Seahawks' John Schneider's personnel decisions should put his job in jeopardy

Pete Carroll appeared to be done. The former Seattle Seahawks head coach watched as his team reached the pinnacle of the NFL in the early 2010s and then faded into mediocrity. The team was never awful overall, but the inability to tackle well, stop the run, and poor offensive line play carried over from season to season which only made 12s more frustrated.

Mike Macdonald would fix all that, though, right? He had seemingly proven with the Baltimore Ravens as their defensive coordinator in the last two seasons that his defenses would play sound football, not beat themselves with bad penalties, and control the run while having good linebacker coverage. In his first year as a head coach, however, his defense looks a lot like Carroll's last few teams.

Seattle also used to be one of the more penalized teams in the league every year under Carroll. The easy excuse was that he ran a lax team to let the players be themselves, and silly penalties were just part of the culture. As long as the team made the playoffs, fine. Until the team failed to make it to the postseason, and the penalties were magnified.

Seahawks general manager John Schneider's personnel decisions might be dooming Mike Macdonald

Surely, Macdonald would fix that issue, too. But no. Seattle is averaging 8.3 penalties a game this season, the most in the league. Their NFC West rivals are much more disciplined. The Arizona Cardinals are the least penalized team, the Los Angeles Rams are the fourth-least, and the San Francisco 49ers are the seventh-least. Those teams might lose games, but they do not beat themselves as the Seahawks do.

So if the head coach has changed but the results are basically the same, what is the common denominator? That would be general manager John Schneider. Schneider is a humble guy who has seen a lot of success with the Seahawks since he became the GM in 2010, but he certainly has his flaws. One glaring weakness is his seeming inability to understand what makes a good offensive lineman.

Schneider said this offseason that guards are "overdrafted" and, eventually, "overpaid." The general manager sees enough in players such as Anthony Bradford that he trusts them more than he would a guard who might cost a lot more in free agency but has proven to be a good player in the league. Bradford is terrible, yet Seattle keeps running him out for games every week.

Seattle might have chosen his replacement in the 2024 NFL draft in the person of Christian Haynes. Only Haynes might not have been scouted very well because he has not shown the team enough so far to have him get many snaps. He was a healthy scratch in Week 9.

Seattle probably should have been scared off by right tackle Abraham Lucas's knee concerns as well. He had surgery in college, after all. Lucas has not missed every game but one in the last two seasons, and he is only signed through 2025. Seattle spent a third-round pick on him.

Charles Cross has worked out well at left tackle, but finding one gem out of five does not make Schneider's scouting of offensive linemen a success. It only magnifies his failure.

To make matters worse, while Seattle sits in last place in the NFC West currently after losing five of six games, 12s might be forced to get used to that spot. The Rams exposed Seattle's horrible offensive line in Week 9 but did so in great part to two rookies, Jared Verse and Braden Fiske. In other words, Seattle is going to have issues with Los Angeles' defensive line for many years to come.

The 49ers have a much better roster than Seattle and are likely to stay that way for the foreseeable future. The Cardinals also have a young roster and have taken a huge step forward in 2024. Arizona, Los Angeles, and San Francisco could put some distance between themselves and Seattle for the next few years.

Schneider underspends along the offensive line (the team ranks 30th in the league this year in money spent on offensive linemen), doesn't seem to find pieces that fit together on defense - the general manager has the final say over all roster decisions, not Macdonald, and lacks aggressiveness in free agency. His drafts have been solid at some skill positions but not in the trenches. Ultimately, Schneider's personnel decisions might doom any chance Mike Macdonald has for success.

More Seahawks news and analysis: