Tank? What tank? That’s not what John Schneider is aiming for.
It’s already been a highly eventful offseason for the Seattle Seahawks. Pete Carroll was removed as head coach, replaced by former Baltimore Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald. John Schneider has assumed full personnel control, and the roster has seen the notable departures of Bobby Wagner, Jordyn Brooks, Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams, Will Dissly, and Damien Lewis.
With question marks surrounding the state of the roster, particularly at inside linebacker and the interior offensive line, this has led to the idea that Seattle is not intending to be a competitive team in 2024. This season would instead be used as an opportunity to “reset” after consecutive 9-8 seasons and no playoff wins, and look to accumulate more draft assets and open up more cap space for 2025 and beyond.
At the league meeting in Orlando, Schneider made it clear to reporters that even with the coaching change and roster churning, he is not interested in “tanking” the season. The goal is to still push for the playoffs and beyond.
From The Athletic’s Michael-Shawn Dugar:
Schneider expects to compete for a championship every year. He intentionally never deemed the 2022 season a rebuilding year despite all of the Seahawks’ significant offseason changes, and he’s not viewing this season that way, either. Schneider and Carroll used to say their expectations each season started with winning the division, and he said that’s still the case now with Macdonald.
“We’re not like, ‘OK, we’re going to tank’ or whatever,” Schneider said. “That mindset does not exist. And that’s a mandate from (team owner) Jody (Allen). We want to be the best.”
Of course, no NFL general manager is going to explicitly say that they have no playoff aspirations, but I don’t see a reason to believe Schneider is bluffing. If they wanted to really reset the core of the roster then they could’ve released Geno Smith in February, not re-signed Leonard Williams, and possibly moved on from Tyler Lockett.
It’s more than reasonable to believe the Seahawks are not a championship-caliber team this season no matter how this year’s draft goes, but Schneider is surely not going to bottom out just to have better draft capital. Why tank after the relative success of the last two drafts? That seems like a waste of valuable time and money on key rookie contracts.
Generally, the implication for “tanking” is to have the best chance to get a franchise quarterback. We still don’t really know what the Seahawks’ long-term plan is at the position, but the first step doesn’t have to involve being one of the worst teams in the NFL.
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