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John Schneider Discusses The 2026 Draft Class & Building Off Of This Season · Seahawks Press Pass

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Okay, different setup. They got us all changed in this thing.
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: I moved around our rookie class.
• 0:27
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: There, there's a number of guys did an amazing job,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: you know, our our college scoing apartment and and everybody
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: involved in the in the draft process, you know.
• 0:37
  Speaker 2: Did a great job last year. We had a great plan.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: Yeah, just so many people that you know, we we
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: really yeah, they just we just did a really good
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: job of identifying like, uh, you know, who who the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: coaches would want and will be the good fits and
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: uh yeah, excited for a lot of guys futures.
• 1:02
  Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, I gotta get caught up.
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: That's that's it's uh no, they like Nolan Teasley, Trunk Kershner,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: Matt Berry, Aaron Hinline, Willie, those guys have Everybody's just
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: been killing it and so now it's it's uh, it's
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: really gonna be about like the my private time, like
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: the studying, getting caught up with that. But freegency. We
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: had great freegency meetings during the season, so you know,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: we'll learn a lot about what's going on down here
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: this week. But yeah, the timeline part is real. I
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: was just asked that a couple of minutes ago. It's
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: like it's just you know, the discipline on the weekends
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: to try to figure.
• 1:38
  Speaker 2: Out how to get caught up and we'll get through.
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: Well, it depends on it depends on the you know,
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: whether it's a coach or a trainer or somebody in
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: sports science or you know, about the player. It's like
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: all about relationships and and how are they going to
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: fit into our building? And are we gonna be able
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: to take care of this person? Are they going to
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: be able to you know, bite into to our culture
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: and and uh what we have going on in the building,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: uh regarding players. Yeah, No, it's it's just you know,
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: continuing to uh interview people, to do background uh all
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: your background work, all our connections.
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: All our relationships college football, pro football.
• 2:45
  Speaker 3: Got back at Sam, Yeah.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: Can you I couldn't. I'm sorry man, Yeah, it's hard
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: to hear apologize.
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, well, just collectively as as a group, you know,
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: offensive staff, our head coach, uh Less Leslie, uh Fraser,
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: you know, just really about you know, how how Sam
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: like the experience compared to a college guy.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: And it's it's drastic. So yeah, so we were.
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: We were all in it together and uh, you know
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: that process of really like again we're we're down here
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: trying to figure out what the landscape is going to
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: look like.
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: And so that that was a crazy week.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: It went really fast, and uh whatever he was on
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: board on on uh the person, the competitor, the leader,
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: and and so yeah, that compared to a you know,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: a college draft choice, would it was the difference was
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: significant in our eyes. Like it's a challenge. It really
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: is a challenge. You know, you have you know, we
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: saw all the change this year. There was there was
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: more change in the league than I think a lot
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: of us anticipated. And so it's it's, uh, how do
• 4:29
  Speaker 1: you identify those core you know, coaches on your staff,
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  Speaker 1: especially offensively when you have a defensive minded head coach
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  Speaker 1: that you know, we're identifying people that all fit into
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: into into a puzzle, and you know, can you know,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: try to sustain that consistency. And it's different, it's different
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: at every club. Yeah, nothing, you know, you have to
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: you have to evaluate every class and so we evaluated
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: this classes. Okay, well, you know twenty five is gonna
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: be stronger than twenty six, twenty seven, maybe stronger than
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: And it's not it's not the individual players. It's kind
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: of the collective, like the whole group. And uh so
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: that's you know why you saw us make some of
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: the decisions we made. Those are like in house things.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: I appreciate the question, but yeah, we want, you know,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: six foot six guys that have thirty eight inch arms
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: and run for two. Sorry, it's just I'm being sarcastic.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: It's it's it's again, it's it's uh how the players, like,
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  Speaker 1: how are they gonna especially with this year's class where
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: the people were adding to that room, how are they
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: gonna and say for other players deficiencies and be able
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: to work off of each other. Because he's incredibly humble,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: really smart, very organized. Uh yeah, obviously he a play
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: caller and uh yeah.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: That's that's that's what I would say.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: I mean, I don't know how much I mean press
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: conference he has been like he's yeah, he's really really
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: good person. Yeah, those guys are really good dudes. Oh man,
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: big brain, adaptable. Uh knows exactly what he wants. Felt
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: like he you know, knew like what what he was
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: looking for, what he was looking at, you know, when
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: he was when he was talking about our team and
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: where we are offensively, and uh, you know he's got
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: this really cool defensive background. He called defenses and in
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: college at Sacred Heart, I think when he was like
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: twenty five or twenty.
• 7:03
  Speaker 2: Six years old.
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  Speaker 1: So yeah, his dad was a like seven time state
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  Speaker 1: champion in Maryland.
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  Speaker 2: Like he just all football.
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  Speaker 4: No.
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  Speaker 3: I had a great talk with Jody, you know, the
• 7:22
  Speaker 3: other night, and she's like.
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Let's get let's go for it, like let's let's let's
• 7:26
  Speaker 2: rip it.
• 7:27
  Speaker 3: And uh, it's just business as usual for us.
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: I know.
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: It's yeah, just business as usual and all football.
• 7:35
  Speaker 2: Right, what's that, buddy?
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: I have no idea. Well, they've attended like seven schools.
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  Speaker 1: You know, they've moved around more than you know these
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: guys are. They're just they're just more they're they're there.
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  Speaker 1: There's slightly more advanced in terms of their experience when
• 8:07
  Speaker 1: guys you know, when we had guys before, where they
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: would come on a college you're kind of like worried
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: about you know, Okay, you're moving from South Bend to Seattle,
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: what's that going to look like? And you know that
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: what's that adjustment period going to be like for you personally?
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: You know, away from you know the professional part of
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: you know, how you're gonna adapt to to.
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: The National Football League.
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: But now these guys are like, Okay, they're living in
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: Eugene and they're living in you know, College Station, and
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: they're they're they're just they're just more they're just more
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  Speaker 1: ready for.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: The off off field.
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Experience, not not the football part necessarily, because we you know,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: we don't give these guys enough time to develop. We
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: used to have NFL Europe and it was awesome. You know,
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: you had like markin Paul's or your Brad Johnson. You
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: had all these guys. They could go play, you know,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Jake Toloane, I'm messing people.
• 8:56
  Speaker 4: Good.
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: With Zach.
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't put anything past him. I mean, I mean
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: there was a you know, there was a point that
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: day where like we really didn't even know what was
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: going on. He was He's just such a strong, powerful person,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: you know, and his work ethics, you know, incredible. So
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't I wouldn't put anything past him.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: Yeah, super Bowl MVP.
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: You know, I kind of lost it at the I
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: got nervous at the uh talking in front of all those
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: people today, and Ken's like, what are you talking? We
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: weren't I totally made that up, Like I just lost it. No,
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: we we'd love to have uh, we love to have
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: Ken back. You know, it's and he knows it's better
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: than anybody. It's it's about our seventy you know, and
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: our collective and what that's going to look like.
• 9:51
  Speaker 2: And and you know, we'll have those meetings down.
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: Here where we'll you know, we'll start you know, talking
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: to all the agents and and yeah, well we'll have
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: a better feel where we're going here towards towards the
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: end of the towards the end of the week.
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  Speaker 2: But obviously we'd love to have everybody. We won't have
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: everybody back.
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  Speaker 1: You know, right when you get down on something special
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: like that, you're like, let's run it back, let's run
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: it back. You know it's gonna be it's gonna be
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: interesting process.
• 10:18
  Speaker 2: That's a good that's a kid. Try vibe that.
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: Dang, I couldn't hear you. Yeah, no, I.
• 10:33
  Speaker 3: Mean you have to look at the whole the whole picture.
• 10:35
  Speaker 3: He finished strong.
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: I mean he was having a great season.
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: That both those guys were having a really good season,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: so you know it it was really a huge bummer
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: for Zach, you know, especially at that time of the year,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and you know where we were in the process and
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: so it was just sad. But you know he, you know, Ken,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: Ken did a great.
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  Speaker 2: Job stepped forward.
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: Obviously we were a lot heavy on him last several games,
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: and he came through.
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  Speaker 2: Tough. He's tough man. Yeah, yeah, he gets he gets
• 11:11
  Speaker 2: after it.
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: You know those guys are they're like, they're basically yea,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: they're basically yeah, they're basically like eighteen year old pros,
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: you know, nineteen year old pros. But uh yeah, they
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: have an incredible program. Kirby has a great job down
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: there behind the scenes with Tori. Uh, incredible person. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: a competitor. He was really starting to take off. You
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: know when we when we made that trade with with
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: New Orleans, we were expecting the two of them to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: be our take the top off receivers, and you know,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: unfortunately he had a shin issue that just kept lingering, lingering, lingering,
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: and then you know, we had a place on Ira.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: We were literally hoping to get him back at some point.
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  Speaker 1: We just weren't able to. We weren't able to pull
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the trigger. But what a great guy. He's like fun
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: to be around. Culture, He's a culture guy for sure,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: a lot of fun. T Bone called t Bone is
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: his nickname, Mike is Yeah, I think so. Oh man,
• 12:22
  Speaker 1: what you guys see every day is the clarity, big brain,
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: uh problem solver can just think on a fly like
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: he's uh, he's super like pliable. His brain's just you know, yeah,
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: he's just clear and really intelligent football coach like, but
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: it's not. I think it's kind of like, you know,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: if you sat down and played you, you know, with him,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: he you know, want to kick your ass too.
• 13:01
  Speaker 2: I don't. We don't look at it like that.
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: We look at it as like another tool, like we're
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: able to like evaluate how they handle themselves. They're further
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: along with the way they manage their money, obviously through
• 13:12
  Speaker 1: something crazy in the background will know because of their
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: college experience. But we look at it as a tool
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: to be able to you know, be able to move
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: them forward our program as soon as they come in
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  Speaker 1: the building. And yeah, it's just more more of like
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the evaluation process. Our staff, our college staff does a
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: great job of interacting. We're you know, constantly talking about
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: you know, hey, if I went to Minnesota last year
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: and you went to Wisconsin, like these guys switched. We're
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: constantly talking about you know, here are we hearing the
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: same thing and we're getting the same messaging?
• 13:48
  Speaker 2: And if we're not, who we going to next?
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: Like how are we building our background our background information?
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: You know, what are what are our different sources and
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: our guys are they do phenomenal?
• 13:57
  Speaker 2: Like I said, are we really working on a relation ships?
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: And our guys do a phenomenal job with it. Aaron
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: Heinlein in particular, these guys like like it really it's
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: it's it's very important to them and and uh they.
• 14:10
  Speaker 2: Just they just really work at it. And so those
• 14:11
  Speaker 2: guys all work great together. It's a great question.
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: Uh, you know, it's interesting the combines have become a
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: little bit more about, like I said earlier, about what
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: the like free agency and trades and what's the spring
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: going to look like? And then like we just kind
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: of the medical portion's huge, you know, basically started because
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: you know, the Jets drafted a guy that was legally
• 14:44
  Speaker 1: blind in one eye, So the medical parts huge for us.
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: And then all the interviews, the character the person, and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: then it all just kind of starts, you know, building.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: These guys are going on my Monday, they're starting to
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: go to schools, you know, to go to the pro dain.
• 15:02
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: I just say it's like it's like it's like the
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: it's like a I was just telling Jared, it's like
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: a it's like a reset, like all right, here we go,
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: we're moving, you know, and we don't know what next week.
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: I mean, here we go, Like we're gonna be into
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: the free agency next week. Like I can't tell you
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: what it's gonna look like as of today.
• 15:28
  Speaker 2: Uh. Yeah, those guys are very talented young men. Uh.
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: I mean, you guys saw what Riley can do. You know,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: Elijah was having a great season before his injury. We
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: were lucky to get him back for the Super Bowl. Uh,
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: he's got a super bright future. They're both really young,
• 15:45
  Speaker 1: they're both you know, they're both they've bought into our building.
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: They bought into our people, they brought out of the
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: strength conditioning staff.
• 15:53
  Speaker 2: So excited for both those guys. Well that's what the
• 15:59
  Speaker 2: cool it's say.
• 16:00
  Speaker 4: But like let's running back and like, yeah, yeah.
• 16:15
  Speaker 2: I think our starts with their head coach.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: It starts with it starts with you know, strength conditioning guys,
• 16:21
  Speaker 1: the coaching staff, and then the players you know, like
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: loving on each other and wanted to you know, wanted
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to play for each other and ultimate team sport man.
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, it's the coolest, it's the coolest thing going,
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: you know. I mean obviously we're a little biased here
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: at the Combine, but like I mean answer literally like
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: playing for each other and and uh, I just think,
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: you know, Mike, you know, working with Steven Hawshka Mike
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: Serve last year, you know, really like you know, emphasizing
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: the connected connectedness was was it was a really cool
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: it was a really cool lesson in team building.
• 17:07
  Speaker 2: Uh. Down cycle.
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: Uh, I wouldn't say that every every draft class is
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: totally different, you know, So.
• 17:14
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I wouldn't.
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: I wouldn't say it's a It's just there's just certain
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: numbers at different positions every year, you know. Should I
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: remember one year we had like maybe like seven corners
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: on our ole board, and.
• 17:26
  Speaker 2: Like it's like who we who we're gonna take? You know?
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: So no, I don't think so I think these these
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: these guys are just like they're even you know, after
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: the you know, in the locker room, you know, at
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: the parade, every they were all just like you know,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: talking about next year, and yeah, they're just it's it's
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: just cool, like there's a there's a great mix of
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: veteran leadership, dogs HM, young dogs, athletes, speed, and then uh,
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: the guys that are that are willing to buy into
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: to uh you know, development in their coaches, and again
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: the people in the building that are supporting them.
• 18:15
  Speaker 4: More cool, you guys right, get over here, man
• 18:24
  Speaker 3: M