The Seattle Seahawks had one of the busier NFL Drafts of any team. They tied with four teams for most picks (11) and made several trades between Friday and Saturday that initially decreased and then increased their pick total from what they started with on Thursday.
As usual, Seahawks general manager John Schneider and second-year head coach Mike Macdonald held a post-draft day press conference. Here are some quotes (with transcript provided by the Seahawks) from that press conference along with accompanying video. It’s a 30-minute session and I’m sure there’s a lot of interest in what both men had to say.
Opening remarks
John Schneider: Just big thanks to everybody, the personnel staff, the cafeteria staff, all the coaches, support from Jody (Allen) and Bert (Kolde) and Chuck (Arnold). Just the whole weekend. Honestly, just taking it in right now. The free agency stuff is going on right now, but the guys are in there kicking butt. Very grateful, very proud of everybody and how everybody worked together, completing our 16th draft. It’s a blessing. We’re very excited about what we’ve added to this team, the depth and the toughness, the competitors, the reliability. Excited for this growth-minded staff to get their hands on these guys and get ripping.
Mike Macdonald: I didn’t tell John (Schneider) I was going to do this, but I think it’s appropriate from my perspective, as coaches, what we’re coming into, to share our appreciation for John. Our team on the personnel side of the ball, I wish you could be in that room, how we operate. It’s unique to the rest of the league, in my opinion. I think we do it better than anybody else. It’s our style, how we want to operate. Everybody is included. It’s just a special operation. Just really cool to work alongside John and see him do his thing with the rest of the crew.
Schneider: Thanks, buddy. That’s cool. Very nice of you.
Macdonald: These guys, they’re really good at what they do. It was a lot of fun this weekend. (I just) can’t wait to practice next week, rookie camp, see these guys in here, get to work.
On the decision to have Grey Zabel call seventh-round pick Mason Richman
John Schneider: Yeah, we flew him (Grey Zabel) in. Came with his folks. Mike (Macdonald) brought him in, introduced him to everybody. We were talking. Said hi to him. We’re picking in, like, two minutes. I’m exaggerating, it was like 10 or 15 minutes. We basically were there. I was like, ‘Well, kind of cool.’ The Rams did it last year with Jared Verse. Somebody was like, ‘Hey, he should announce it.’
On how the Sam Howell trade developed
Schneider: It started at the owners meeting, talking with Rob Brzezinski and Kwesi (Adofo-Mensah), just about the situation, what it looked like. We had met with Drew (Lock) down there. There was a possibility to sign Drew back. We like the quarterbacks in the draft, and we thought there was a chance that might happen. There were several teams that were interested. Minnesota was a team that ended up pulling the trigger
On the Seahawks picking nine offensive players to just two defensive players
Macdonald: Honestly, I realized that at the end, going through the free agency process and gave the defensive guys some grief. No, they’re really excited. Excited about our UDFA class as well. The offensive guys were rocking and rolling today, as they should be. We got some really good players to join the team. All positive. It’s great.
Schneider: No, it was just the way it happened. We had some defensive guys. We talk about the upsets. Things started happening. It was like, ‘Okay, we’re going here, we’re going here, we’re going here.’ The offensive guys ended up standing out on our board.
On the Seahawks drafting six offensive lineman over the past two seasons
Schneider: Grey (Zabel) was standalone. Bryce (Cabeldue) was this guy that Trent (Kirchner) and Kirk (Parrish) loved. A very much under-the-radar kind of dude. Then we had buy-in with Mason (Richman), with the coaches and the guys that went to the school, the intelligence, the competitor, the toughness. He started or played 2023, I think it was almost the whole season with a hairline fracture in his leg. He wanted to help them and played through it. Pretty rare these days. It used to happen all the time. He played through it. It’s an area of need, but it always is. I can’t emphasize that enough. Every team in the National Football League is looking to help their offensive line. It’s just an ongoing issue. We’ll have these guys in competing. We’ll see where it goes with this new group, with these three guys coming in, the free agents that we signed. We’ll see what it looks like.
On what the plan was for the Seahawks addressing the interior offensive line
Schneider: Yeah, I think we talked about it last night a little bit, or maybe the night before. The group of offensive linemen, like, once we got past the Super Bowl, through the Combine, speaking with everybody we needed to speak with, there were a couple guys we were very interested in, but we knew we could kind of lean back a little bit just based on picking 18, where are these guys going to go, so… I would say right in there. That was probably going in the plan. We knew we were going to address this.
How far are the Seahawks from meeting Mike Macdonald’s vision of the roster?
Macdonald: I respect the question. This is us getting together, carving this thing out one move at the same time, one decision at a time, one practice at a time. It’s just how we want to become. We’re on our way. We’re growing. It’s our job to expedite that process. We’re competing for championships this year. That’s what we want to do. I’m really confident that we’re going to have that opportunity. That’s the expectation for us. The last week of the guys being in the building, the spirit, the conversations we’re having, it’s so much fun to come to work every day. I can’t wait to come back and get back to the second week of Phase One (OTAs). That’s the way it should be. That’s the environment we’re trying to create, these guys are excited to come to work every day, keep connecting, getting tougher. Wring out every day, let the results speak for themselves.
