3 & Out - Seahawks GM Schneider on acquiring Darnold & Milroe, trading Smith & Metcalf - The Herd with Colin Cowherd

Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
What is going on everybody? John Middlecoff three and out podcast.
Hopefully you were doing well wherever you may be. Is
the summer, it's hot, And today we have John Schneider,
super Bowl champion, general manager of the Seattle Seahawks, who
I was a big fan before, but you give me

(00:36):
almost an hour and it's not like I have a
personal relationship with him, just based on a text message
that one of our behind the scenes guy are stud
audio guy Adam, who had his number from his radio days.
He's like, Hey, would you want to come on the podcast?
And he's like, yeah, sure, how is next week work.
We didn't go through the team or a PR agency.
He's like, yeah, I'll just I'll be there, and he

(00:57):
was here for about an hour. He couldn't have been
any cooler. Big fan say it all the time as
I've done this, especially now with a podcast, if you
come on my show, like, I'm just immediately a fan,
even if I wasn't a fan of you previously, which
I was, because I admire John Schneider how good he
is at his job. So if you're a Seahawks fan,
you should be excited because your GM is a badass.

(01:20):
Excited for the combo and we will dive into that obviously.
If you're listening on Collins Feed, make sure you subscribe
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as well. And before we dive into John, you know,
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Last minute tickets, lowest prices guaranteed. Was dive into the interview. Okay,
very very excited. I feel like I know this guy
even though I just officially met him about two minutes ago.
Followed his career really closely, and you know, I banged

(02:48):
out John spy Tech. Now I got John Schneider the GM.
I just need to get John Lynch and we'll just
make the Johns the GM of the John Show. John.
How you doing, what's going on?

Speaker 3 (03:00):
Thanks for having me, man, It's cool. I appreciate you.

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Yeah, very excited to have you on. Do you I
know you're a Midwest guy at your core, but you've
lived on the West Coast a while, you know, as
a fellow West Coast or are you on a bus now?

Speaker 1 (03:12):
I'm kind I'm kind of feeling that way, you know,
like we were here in two thousand for a year,
the year we drafted Hotch and Corn and those guys
that class, and then then we went to the Redskins
for a minute, and then back to Green Bay. I'm
from green Bay, born and raised. And then yeah, we've
been out here for we just finished our sixteenth draft.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
So super blessed to be able to you know, be
out and in Seattle's loan and raise our kids here.
It's been awesome.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
That's pretty crazy when you think about it in a profession,
just pro sports in general, as chaotic as it is.
I mean when you look at your bio, I mean,
you spend a lot of time in Green Bay and
now you've been the boss for a long time, obviously
with Pete, now with Mike. I mean it's pretty unique,
you know, in your profession to be able to speed
in a one place that long. Obviously it speaks to
you guys have won.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Yeah, very very very blessed, you know, to have the
one you know, mister Allen, Paul Allen, Jody Allen, like
just that one owner.

Speaker 3 (04:11):
You know, the stability there has been amazing.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
When you got hired in Green Bay when you were
really young, did you ever have vision, you know, I mean,
were you just trying to survive or you'd be a
GM I mean, well, did you ever think back, like
this is what a crazy life that this turned out
to be?

Speaker 3 (04:30):
Yeah, totally.

Speaker 1 (04:31):
You know at the time that that group that we're
we're blessed enough to start with, you know, I know
you worked with with any Reid in Philly and the group,
and I didn't know at the time, just just coming
out of college.

Speaker 3 (04:44):
It was like nineteen ninety two.

Speaker 1 (04:45):
Free agency was just starting, so everybody was hiring the
new everybodys going to hire another like pro pro scout.
So the timing was just unbelievable. And obviously this was
like we prayed super hard on it, you know, and
then worked super hard at it. But that group of
coaches was like you it was like Andy and John
Druden and the staff that Coach Homer put together was

(05:07):
you know, ridiculous Railroads sherm Blewis.

Speaker 3 (05:10):
Mardy Morning with Steve mary Ucci.

Speaker 1 (05:13):
And I didn't recognize it at the time because I
mean I was just coming on, you know, college and
just starting out.

Speaker 3 (05:17):
We didn't have like, you know, all these degrees I have.

Speaker 1 (05:21):
Now, right, like I get these resumes, guys are like
my doctor at the sports management I'm like, well, shit,
I would have never got.

Speaker 2 (05:26):
A job now, you know what's funny? Sorry, sorry, I
keep going no, no, go for it. You know, I
get asked a lot by younger people. You know, how
do I get in? How do I get in? I'm like, well,
I don't know. I just I went to work for
Coach Hill and he knew Andy Reid. I got pretty lucky.
And I was watching some videos on you getting ready

(05:49):
for this, and you told a story how back in
the day you could just call someone to office and
they would pick up. I mean, I know a lot
of people that know you. I think would be pretty
hard for me to even get your office number. Uh
do you ever get back? I mean, can you tell
that story how that all played out?

Speaker 1 (06:09):
So Bob Harland was a president of the Agreement of Packers, right,
and he had just hired wrong Wolf, and I knew
I want to do this, but I don't know how
to get in to your point. But so I was
gonna coach So I was gonna Uh, I was uh,
you know. That was history and secondary education at the time,

(06:30):
University of Saint Thomas and Saint Paul and basically Bob
hired Rong Wolf, and so I was reading all about him,
and Ron was a history major, did an.

Speaker 3 (06:40):
Internship with Al Davis and just that's that's how he.

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Found his way. And I was like, I'll shoot, maybe
I'll just take a shot. Maybe he'll you know, take
a liking to you know, like small town you know,
like same same same town, packer kid, you know, all
that kind of stuff.

Speaker 3 (06:58):
And and uh so I wrote him.

Speaker 1 (07:01):
I wrote him like a you know, big letters to
tell them about my story and all that. And then
and then you know, I got the rejection letter, so
like I wrote them another one in another one and
basically kind of stalked him for a minute. And uh,
I just I just uh it was memorning of the
weekend and was like ninety one ninety two, I think
it was ninety two ninety two, and we got rained

(07:22):
out in northern Minnesota, and I was with like one
of my best friends and and uh so we were
camping and we got rained out. So I was we
were back at that at our place in Saint Paul,
and we we had read about Bob Harlan and Ron
how they like, you know, they would they would answer
their phone like randomly, like they would just they it
wasn't you know, below them, like yeah, when they're when

(07:44):
their assistant was there, they would answer their phone for him.
But if they were there on a weekend, like it
was like there was a story like in the Great Press,
was a or something. I forget exactly how it happened.
And I got Ron's number through a family friend, and
uh so my buddies, I just maybe we just give
him a call, and so, you know, I think I

(08:05):
had like two or three rejection letters at the time,
and then I just called him and he was he
was in there studying on a Sunday afternoon Memorial d weekend,
and we just started talking. And it's a five hour drive,
you know, from Minneapolis to Green Bay.

Speaker 3 (08:20):
And he's like, yeah, I didn't know we are.

Speaker 1 (08:22):
You're that freaking weirdo that keeps writing me letters and
and uh.

Speaker 3 (08:28):
I was like, yeah, I can.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
I can be there, and I'll be there in four
I'll go like eighty, you know, I'll come down there.

Speaker 3 (08:35):
So I went down.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
I went down the Fallen like Tuesday or Wednesday for
an interview with with Ron and and Ted Thompson. John
Dorsey was there, Ted and John Dorsey had just just started,
and Brian.

Speaker 3 (08:50):
Brought us was was he works with I'm not sure
if he's still working with Dallas, but he was there
as well.

Speaker 1 (08:57):
So I interviewed with those guys and then yeah, we
just hit it off. And one hundred and seventy five
bucks a week and let's rip.

Speaker 2 (09:06):
You know what's crazy. It's safe to say scouting is,
at least from the outside, viewed as a sexier profession
in twenty twenty five. Then back then, probably much smaller
staffs than the crew that you haven't played, so probably
an incredible opportunity you just get in. Farv had just
been traded. I mean that I was born in the
mid eighties and I was a Niner guy, so that

(09:28):
rivalry had really started taking off. But I don't remember
the Packers ever being shitty. I mean that they were
not good before home Grin Farv and Ron Wolf and
Reggie right, I mean that, so you kind of came in.
They weren't just this rolling machine at the time, were they.

Speaker 3 (09:43):
No?

Speaker 1 (09:43):
Ron and Coach Houmgan really changed the whole culture. Oh
with the Packers, And.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
Yeah, I'd actually gone back to school, so I was
still in school.

Speaker 1 (09:53):
So we had like a jade term thing like six weeks,
you know, in January. So I had gone back and
so when like a summer with them during an internship,
and then I came back and that was the first
year on a restrict free agency. So you know, I
remember writing a report on Marcus Allen. It was like

(10:14):
a page and a half and Ron read it and
like you would critique our we actually wrote them at
the time.

Speaker 3 (10:20):
Yeah, and I.

Speaker 1 (10:21):
Remember him throwing it on my desk. He's like, hey,
I don't know. He gives it back to me.

Speaker 3 (10:25):
He's like, I don't have time to read War and Peace.
I'm like, okay, I get it. I get it. So
that's okay. I need to condense my thoughts.

Speaker 1 (10:32):
I need to communicate in a more clear manner and
like so that that really he was super.

Speaker 3 (10:39):
Generous with his his time to like teach us.

Speaker 1 (10:44):
So like like I said, at the time, it was
like John Dorsey ted myself and he really taught us
how to write. And you know, being a history major,
you know a ton of papers, writing a lot.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
That helped a lot.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
But you know, on his staff at the time, his
his his scouting after were there were uh three gentlemen,
Ray White, Teca Hoghanner, and Red cochrane, and those guys
were all on Vinceland Party's coaching staff offensive line coach,
defensive line coach, running back coach.

Speaker 3 (11:15):
So all of a sudden like thrown in these meetings.

Speaker 1 (11:18):
With guys that you know coached, Art Starr and Paul Horning,
and it was just like and there was a big gap.
There was like young guys. I'm not sure if you
know Sean Harrock and Scott.

Speaker 2 (11:28):
McClellan because Harrock was with the Raiders for a while
right after.

Speaker 3 (11:33):
Like we were, yeah, we were we were the young guys.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
They're all like like Scott's my age, Shawn's a year older.
But we all kind of came in at the same time.
And then there was this big gap, like you know,
these guys that had had coached and scouted for ever.

Speaker 3 (11:47):
So we would just sit.

Speaker 1 (11:47):
There and like like listen to these guys tell stories
and like what a what a blessing.

Speaker 3 (11:53):
Night, what a learning experience.

Speaker 1 (11:55):
You know, it's all these guys and John that's like
my first exposure to scouting and like real football, you know,
like you know, it is like Division three. We got
president with coach Hill and that's yeah, that was that
was a big deal with a learning environment for you right.

Speaker 2 (12:11):
Big time. I mean it was, I mean you went
in you know the NFL. I mean when was the
first year of free agency? Was that ninety four.

Speaker 3 (12:21):
Ninety three? I think?

Speaker 1 (12:22):
Because yeah, because the I think the loss he was
Fream McNeil and Reggie White and Don Mkowski actually and
it was it was actually in Minnesota. Judge Doty was
his name, and they ruled, you know, they ruled in
favor of the of the players. And so at that point,
you know, there really wasn't guys switching teams was really
there's there's a.

Speaker 3 (12:41):
Thing called Plan B. So pro scouting at the time
was really more about you know, trades, waiver.

Speaker 2 (12:48):
Claims, advancing opponents.

Speaker 1 (12:51):
And then advancing yeah, and then so yeah, it was
just and then Ted Thompson and Ron they both loved
college scouting, so they would leave, you know, in the
fall during the week and all of a sudden, like
I'm sitting there with coach Phonegren and always go like

(13:12):
amazing coaches and like you know, working with the trainers
and the equipment guys and you know, setting up workouts
and it ended up like like I wasn't running the office, John,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 3 (13:24):
But I was like like, Okay, I better figure this
shit out or you're gonna be out, you know what
I mean.

Speaker 2 (13:31):
And there wasn't text message or anything, So just you
there with Mike and the crew.

Speaker 1 (13:35):
Was was there a moment memo, you know, the pink
memo notes like no, I put the pink memo under
your desk, Coach.

Speaker 2 (13:41):
Like, was there a moment earlier in your career after
you kind of just could keep your head above water
and breathe and kind of realize, Okay, I'm gonna be
here where you're like, Okay, I'm actually pretty good at this,
either through something with Ron Woolf or Mike Holmgren. I mean,
Ron's in the Hall of Fame. I think Mike probably
could easily be you know.

Speaker 1 (14:01):
Wud be Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, I think probably.
You know when he Ron would you know, so like
Reggie McKenzie and Sammy Seal.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
And you must know Sammy, I know Sammy Yeah yeah yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (14:18):
When again, so I'm like twenty two and he kind
of like, you know, I would read their reports and
help them write you know, they were ahead of me
from like a just football knowledge in the NFL world
and all that, but I was kind of helping them
like condense their thoughts again and you know, right, and
then Ron had a specific you know report outline that

(14:43):
he we still do it like we had guys in turning,
you know, interviewing for internships right now, and I take
it to take them through it, right, And so I
think at that point, like when he allowed me to
kind of like help those guys, it was kind of like, oh, wow,
I could like I'm on the right track.

Speaker 3 (14:59):
Is that kind of what you're saying, Yeah.

Speaker 1 (15:01):
Specific players or because I started on the pro side, right,
So I went to pro side and I actually didn't
do much college scout until I came here in two thousand.

Speaker 2 (15:21):
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Speaker 2 (18:06):
You know, talking to my buddies that will see you
out at college games. And you know, to my knowledge,
you've been doing that throughout your entire career at G
as a GM. And I would say that's not always normal, right,
I mean, some of these guys can just be in
the office a lot. It's something is that you take
a lot of pride in. It's just something you know,
like you said, you just see it, saw Ted Thompson
and Ron Wolf do it. It's just it's just the

(18:28):
way you operate.

Speaker 3 (18:30):
I think. I think guys like.

Speaker 1 (18:35):
Like Jason Lee you know now spy, you know, I
think they would tell you it's like they're it's like
your safe space.

Speaker 3 (18:41):
You know, It's like you're.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Okay, I get to do what we do because being
a general manager really is managing a general fashion. You're
doing like there's things that we're just not trained for,
and you know, there's an adaptive piece that comes along
with it. And you're a leader, you're a communicator, you're
a kind of slur. So I think, you know, being
able to go to those games. I just love college

(19:07):
football too. I love the tradition, the patentry of it.

Speaker 2 (19:11):
I just I love the like you know, I.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
Love walking through the band, I love listening to the bank,
you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (19:16):
I just love all that stuff. And then you know,
being able to see uh and this is like a
coach phone run round wolf thing too, Like being able
to see quarterbacks how they conduct themselves in corners probably
the biggest thing you can take like from away from
a live look like that. And Seattle, Seattle is part

(19:40):
you know, it's it's it's helped now with with the
with the Big ten coming out here. You know we've
seen like Ohio State down at at UH in Eugene,
Michigan was here last year, so that's helped a lot.
But it's a it's a it's a difficult place to
scout from. So when we travel east, you know, we
usually try to go early and hit a game, maybe

(20:01):
it's a Thursday night game or you know, like you know,
a Saturday game and then go meet the team somewhere else.

Speaker 2 (20:10):
Will you look ahead when the schedule comes out and
try to map it during the spring or is that
way too far ahead? And do you kind of hit
a better field during the season.

Speaker 3 (20:18):
Yeah, we map it out.

Speaker 1 (20:19):
We're actually yeah, we're done with that, and now it's like, okay,
whatever pops up, you know during you know, during the season,
there'd be times where you know, I'd be you know,
planning to go somewhere and then.

Speaker 3 (20:32):
You know, Pete and I would have a you know,
a fire to put out, or there.

Speaker 1 (20:36):
May be something coming up at the end of the
week that we didn't necessarily feel comfortable being apart from
each other.

Speaker 3 (20:42):
So you know, we need to you know, you know,
stick to you know, to be in a united front.
So yeah, you set up your schedule and it's like
all right, I can make and they can make it.

Speaker 2 (20:53):
You know, you got hired. Were you in your late
thirties when you got hired with Pete?

Speaker 3 (21:00):
Yeah? I was.

Speaker 1 (21:01):
I was thirty eight, Okay, So John, I was like this.
I was like, like I said, really blessed to start
out early. And then it was kind of like like
on this like really fast track, like I was, you know,
I went to Kansas City, either to work for coach
Schottenheim or Terry brad Bradway hired me there.

Speaker 2 (21:21):
Mike's Mike, his son. Mike's a good friend of mine.
I love Mike bradwife.

Speaker 3 (21:26):
Okay, that's cool, that's really cool.

Speaker 1 (21:30):
They used to be played with like their little wrestling
guys when I was anyway, and make me.

Speaker 3 (21:34):
Sure even older again.

Speaker 1 (21:35):
But anyway, Uh yeah, So when I went there, I
was twenty five, and you know, all of a sudden,
I'm sitting in across from already Shottenheimer talking about like
should we start Elvis yearbacker rich Gannon in the playoff game?

Speaker 3 (21:49):
You know, It's like, whoa, I'm not qualified to be
doing this, you know, but yeah, just I think like that.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
Just so I was like on this trajectory, and then
coach Homern and Ted came out here, and then I
came So I came out.

Speaker 3 (22:06):
So we're kNs.

Speaker 1 (22:06):
We were Kansas City, Tracy emerend Kin's city from ninety
it was like ninety seven, ninety eight, ninety nine.

Speaker 3 (22:12):
So we just won the World Championship in New.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
Orleans against the Patriots and then so we picked up
we literally so yeah, we literally moved from Green Bay
to Kansas City.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
We got married with to Kansas City. Was there three years.
Then we came out here for a year, and.

Speaker 1 (22:31):
Marty Schottenhammer got hired in Washington to be the head
coach and general manager.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
So now I'm twenty.

Speaker 1 (22:37):
Nine, you know, working for you know, I was like,
you know whatever, vice president of Footbops or whatever, you know,
working for coach Schttenhammer and Daniel Daniel Steider. You know,
like that's a whole different learning experience too.

Speaker 3 (22:52):
Right there. I was like we were there.

Speaker 1 (22:55):
I think we were I think we were in our
house for eight months. You know, that was nine to eleven.
It was just crazy year.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
But it felt like that that experience right there was
probably like like three years packed into one. It was.
It was, it was, it was. It was a crazy year.
He used a lot there and then yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
And then you get fired, you know, so now it's like, okay,
well you have to kind of like you really just
to kind of like I don't want to see reinvent yourself,
but like, you know, pick yourself up, you know quick,
feeling sorry for yourself. I remember Sammy Steal beying like
and I went back to Green Bay, you know, and
Sammy is saying like at one point to me, he
was like, hey, man, like we need the old John back,

(23:35):
Like you need to like get your head out of
your butt, you know, because you kind of feel bad
for you know, you're like you're fired.

Speaker 3 (23:39):
It's like whoa I was on in that fast track
and all of a sudden, you're just you know, it's
so it was.

Speaker 1 (23:45):
It was really Green Bay was a great experience there
going back. We were there for eight more years and
then came out here. I was literally we were playing
Arizona and I was gonna you know, I had my
book for mister Allen and Tye that wiki and.

Speaker 3 (24:01):
Like it was gonna was.

Speaker 1 (24:02):
I was playing on hiring, like whoever got this job
was gonna was gonna. I was gonna hire a head coach.
So I had like thirty pages of in my book
of like always said coaches, we're gonna interview and get
rocking on. And we were playing Arizona on a Saturday,
so we're flying. I wake up like on a Friday
morning and this like thing comes across a ticker that
the Seahawks heard. Pete Carroll. I'm like, well, I guess

(24:23):
we're not moving to Seattle, baby, you know. And they
called me and they're like, no, like, we really want
this to be this really cool. He doesn't want to
be the general manager. He wants to have influence, and
the general manager's gonna be so he's gonna sit in
on the interviews, and you know, we think this would
be a great and I'd been.

Speaker 3 (24:40):
Here for years, so I knew that people in the
building and it was a great organization.

Speaker 1 (24:44):
So we came out on a Monday and interviewed you
know that Monday, and then I flew back to Green Bay,
came back.

Speaker 3 (24:51):
But yeah, I was thirty eight. Sorry, that was a long.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
Great I mean, man, we know you work with Pete,
you work with Pete for a long time, and obviously
you know you have so many guys that come through
you guys have so much success. And then your task
was it last year last January with hiring a new
head coach, you know, especially in a division with with

(25:17):
Kyle and Sean, it is a little sexier I think
to say, like people want to hire offensive coaches. But
your experience you've seen both, I mean home Grin obviously,
Marty Pete, you've kind of seen them all. Did you
go in pretty open minded to that situation? Obviously Mike's
defense was just I mean I knew a guy in
Baltimore that his nickname was boy Genius, So he's pretty

(25:38):
highly thought of if he If Mike was calling offense
a set of defense, I mean, let's face it, the
way he would be talked about, the way we talk
about offense would probably be a little different. Uh, just
that experience going into that open minded. Was he a target?
How that played out?

Speaker 1 (25:53):
Yeah, you're it, You're on it. He was, you know,
kind of I had the same experience that you did.
You know, heard a lot of this guy. I read
a lot about him. I wasn't able to hit Michigan
in the year he was at Michigan. But obviously we
saw the result. You know, yeah, I think, yeah, you're
going into something like that, you're you're extremely open minded.

Speaker 3 (26:13):
My my background would say.

Speaker 1 (26:16):
You know, you lean towards the offensive coach stability with
with the quarterback.

Speaker 3 (26:21):
Uh, and that's legit.

Speaker 1 (26:22):
You know, Mike McCarthy's one of my close closest friends
in the industry, and and so you know, we were
part of that hiring process with Ted Thompson in Green Bay.
So I felt like I had a pretty good uh
feel for like where where we were headed. But once
we were able to speak to Mike, because you know,
they had the they had to buy and all the

(26:45):
stuff with Pete wasn't we didn't, you know, with ownership
coach Carrol all I wasn't settled like right away early
in that week. So whoever has to buy you can
interview that that first week after the season, and we
we weren't, you know, we weren't approved by the league
yet to get going, and so we weren't there was

(27:05):
a chance, you know, I was just I remember being
very nervous about, you know, the ability just to interview him,
because like do you wait through the Super Bowl or not?
And you know, the guys, you know, Chad Breaker in Tennessee,
Dan Morgan in Carolina, Rich McKay in Atlanta, they had

(27:28):
all interviewed him, and so you know, I had a
very close relationship with all those guys and they're like, man,
your personalities would be great, and he blew like, you know,
like he was amazing in the interview. You know, I
can't remember the Atlanta situation. You know, they hired raheem

(27:48):
pretty quick. There was a couple days where guys got
hired pretty quick. But you know, Carolina and Tennessee were
going offense, and so you know, we interviewed. It was
basically was going to come down to that championship week
and so we're either gonna I remember basically this is
so bad, but imember going to church basically praying on
like I really hope you Troy Losers and I hope

(28:08):
all more losers today the championship.

Speaker 3 (28:11):
And they both did. I was like, oh, now I'm
gonna go talk to these guys and tell them all
hopefull they lost.

Speaker 2 (28:17):
Is there a way to fix that, because, like, you know,
it's hard. It's hard because you've been in these situations
where you're making Super Bowl runs and you know you
want these guys to have success and financially changes their life,
but also it's like we're trying to win.

Speaker 3 (28:30):
You know.

Speaker 2 (28:31):
I don't know if there's a perfect answer for it.
Is there.

Speaker 3 (28:34):
It really isn't.

Speaker 1 (28:35):
We've discussed it over the years, league meetings, number of
committees that were involved in it really isn't a perfect
I mean I think we're constantly like like we do
every year We're constantly trying to tweak things to improve
the products. So I think that's something that you know,
we'll discuss as well. Was move forward, but yeah, you
know we went through with with Gus Bradley, you know,
Dan Cooyn, you know DQ. It's like, it's so interesting

(28:58):
because you're kind of helping guys, want to help them
get ready, and then you're playing in big time games,
you know, so and we I think you went straight
from here to Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (29:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (29:09):
Yeah. Do you feel a different pressure now with Mike
given that you know, you're the veteran I mean literally
been in the league for a long long time and
he's young. It's almost flip flopped like with Pete and
you when you were on boarded I guess back in
twenty ten.

Speaker 3 (29:24):
Wow, great question man, Yeah, yeah it was. Yeah, I
definitely feel like the older brother, much like Pete was
with me.

Speaker 1 (29:34):
You know, I don't know if it's pressure, because where
every every day is a you know, you're just stacking
to get better every single day, so that hasn't changed,
but it's definitely more of a you know, I could
I could talk with you about you know, like studying
ratt to your point earlier like, yeah, wow, you gotta

(29:55):
have patience with quarterbacks. I was like, that was my
first explosion, you know, a big time NFL quarterback, Like
there was a lot of interceptions, you know, yeah, you know.

Speaker 3 (30:05):
But just talking about that, and whereas Mike's like, Mike's
kind of like what was Brett Farblake?

Speaker 1 (30:11):
You know, it's you know that sort of stuff. So
the experience is different, right, you know, like freaking ready
to draft for Russell Wilson here he was targeted, and
Pete and I are sitting on the phone, you know,
talking to you know, coach Grant about Frank Tartanon, you know,
like on the phone, like lack of height, you know,
great feet moving around. You know, It's like it's just different.

(30:32):
You know, Pete, Pete's twenty years older than me, and oh,
I say, well, Mike's thirty eight and I'm fifty four.
So you know, we went from having the you know,
a partner with Pete in all that experience to a
thirty eight year old guy's you know, brain's on fire
and it's just a really clear, intelligent communicator.

Speaker 2 (30:57):
Clearly, a tough part of the league is, especially in
a program like yours, where you have a bunch of
success and have like legendary players, is either not extending
them cutting them, and you've had since you've been the GM.
I mean, it's just public because these guys are really famous.
But when Pete was there, it wasn't like good guy
bad guy. It was like you guys were kind of

(31:18):
lumped together. You know, Pete's pretty famous too, so it
was like it was just on both of you guys.
Does it feel more now that, like in a weird
way now you have a young I would say a
little bit of a younger team now, so ideally it
plays out where you have these tough decisions, but you
kind of take on the role as the bad guy
now in some of these tough situations because he's the
head coach or iss. Just have you even thought do

(31:40):
you think about it like that that's it?

Speaker 1 (31:42):
No, Yes, I'd be lying if I said, it's just
this is the nature of our job, right, you know,
the head coaches to get up front the team every
single day, you know, and project that leadership. And I
got you back and then yeah, somebody, you know, somebody
has to be somebody has to be the parent.

Speaker 3 (32:00):
You know. Somebody was just.

Speaker 1 (32:01):
Asking me this the other day just a friend of
mine was asking about it, was like, do you feel
like the mom you know, I'm like, wow, that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (32:07):
That's a interesting way to look at it.

Speaker 1 (32:08):
Like, you know, at some point, you know, whether it's
negotiations or you know, rules or you know, the decisions
that we make, you know, it's somebody does have to
be you know, the bag out of your point and
that's the nature of this position.

Speaker 3 (32:27):
And I don't I don't think that will ever change.
And you can't. You can't shy away from it. You know.
Mike talks about it like you know, going through, not around, like.

Speaker 1 (32:36):
We're gonna go we go through it. So we attack
everything like head on, and I think it's a really
cool way to look at things. And we've always conduct
ourselves that way. So yeah, you know, keeping it honest,
keeping it real, that's that's the responsibility of a general manager.

Speaker 2 (32:52):
And you know, you want to be.

Speaker 1 (32:55):
Able to take as much off the head coach as
possible so that everything that's everything has put on the field.

Speaker 3 (33:01):
The players were like, Okay, coach has my back.

Speaker 1 (33:04):
You know, he's gonna teach us. I'm gonna get better.
We're all gonna have We're all gonna.

Speaker 3 (33:08):
Have success together. And that's that really is. Like I said,
that's it's a cool partnership. But there's you know, there's
a there just to have this. You know, well you've
seen it. It's just this different roles.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
Yeah, I think. I don't know if it was the
owners meetings or maybe it was at your pre draft
press conference where you just kind of came out because
you asked about the Geno trade and you said, hey,
we offered them money, like we tried to extend them.
And I was just thinking, like, would you ten years ago,
would you have been that candid and in that situation
or just kind of played the GM cliche role. Is

(33:41):
it safe to say, I mean this in a good way,
like you give a shit level of like worrying about everything.
You have more confidence now you've done this longer where
it's easier to be open about a situation like that.
Or is that something that you would have been pretty
transparent with no matter what, because you're like, we like
this player. I mean that was the reason we signed him,
you know, I didn't try to just trade them for
a third round pick for the hell of it.

Speaker 1 (34:03):
Yeah, I think, Yeah, it's basically i'd you describe it
like any job, your confidence level is gonna just by
the nature of your different experiences that you put together
over the years, you're gonna have your confidence level is
going to improve. There's there's no question about that. But yeah,

(34:24):
I think, you know, one of one of the coolest
things that I learned from Ted Thoms and got rest
soul and Marty Schottenheimer got rest his soul as well,
was that that how you treat players.

Speaker 3 (34:37):
Both those guys were like nowadays, will be.

Speaker 1 (34:39):
Your like fifty third player every year, worrying about making
the team, really good special teams players. So how you
treat especially something that I never had, like anywhere near
the opportunity to play in the National Football League, how
you treat the players with like clear on and integrity

(35:02):
and understanding like what they're truly going through and what
the what the locker room it's going to look like.

Speaker 3 (35:08):
So I think that the experience I had with.

Speaker 1 (35:10):
Ted and Mary really helped me in terms of, like,
you're not always going to like what you hear, but
you're going to hear the truth. And we can disagree
on on whatever we're discussing, but I'm not gonna be
sitting here just trying to yes.

Speaker 2 (35:26):
Yet, You've been pretty open with the DK situation too,
about the lines of communication. You know, his unhappiness. You
were honest with where you stood with it. You know,
you're talking about a third contract. Guy. Do you think
looking back at some of your situations, you know, whether
it's with Shirm or Bobby Wagner, goes guys over the
years make those situations easier for you to handle, because
it feels like that trade and that situation was relatively seamless,

(35:50):
at least for the outside for you guys with I mean,
I would say, I mean, you've had a lot of
good draft picks in your career. That's got to be
up there near the top. I mean, this was a
pretty integral player for were you and one of you
crowning achievements as a GM drafting a guy in the
late second who who? What do you have twenty eight
touchdowns for through his first three years of his career
or something?

Speaker 3 (36:09):
Yeah?

Speaker 1 (36:10):
Yeah, you know, every every situation, every individual is very
different and you can learn from you know, there's there's
situations that we've been through that for one reason or another.
The community lines of communication get jacked up or the
timing is offered. You know, we've had several players that
that represent themselves, you know, Russell Locoon, Sum Bobby. For

(36:38):
a while there, I felt like we were the testing
ground for that.

Speaker 3 (36:40):
You know. Uh, those those are those are always really
difficult situations.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
And so is is that you and him asking like
he's just peppering you with questions about his contract and
you are talking like he would do an agent or
do you have to massage that one a little different?

Speaker 3 (36:55):
Yeah, you have to.

Speaker 1 (36:55):
You have to massage it a little different because like,
no matter what you're you know, agents, you know they
have there's a there's a buffer there, and it helps.

Speaker 3 (37:06):
It helps with you know a certain level of communication
that goes into the seriousness of these talks.

Speaker 1 (37:13):
And so you're when you're when you're you're constantly trying
to adjust the way you're speaking because you're you know,
like these are all like we've all been through negotiations.
It's it gets really personal and you can say it's not,
but really it is.

Speaker 3 (37:27):
It is.

Speaker 1 (37:28):
And so uh, in regards to d K, you know,
he we had a ton of conversations last off season
about you know, like his his his legacy.

Speaker 3 (37:41):
Where he wanted to go, he stayed. You know, he
wanted to be here.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
Once he met the new coach's staff, he was excited.
And then you know, this year it just happened again.
You can't change the way people think. As much as
we love him and we want to have him here,
you know, when when when people want to leave, it's
it's difficult to try to convince them to stay. So yeah,
we just had you know, very honest communication, like for

(38:11):
probably about a month and a half, and I asked
him to take some time and think on it, and
then he did.

Speaker 3 (38:17):
And then by the time we got to the to
the UH to the combine.

Speaker 1 (38:21):
I say that in regards to like Bobby and Sherman Russell,
because I had that relationship with him, so I was
speaking more to him than I was his agent. And
so once we got back from the combine, we had
another real open talk and then we just we told
him we were in. We would we would we would,

(38:43):
you know, concede to his wishes and and UH, no promises,
but we'll see where it goes. And Pittsburgh, Omar and
those guys are really aggressive.

Speaker 2 (38:53):
Do you ever get numb or or do you feel
numb to the amount of money as a GM y're
negotiating with, you know, just to these player contracts, I
would imagine you deal with coaching contracts too, where you know,
when you first got to Green Bay, I what did
what did Reggie sign for three four million dollars a year?
It couldn't have been much.

Speaker 1 (39:10):
Yeah, it was like it was a total of I
think they had twenty four million dollars like like in
their coffers, and I think they gave him fourteen of
it or seventeen of it.

Speaker 3 (39:18):
Yeah, right, Yeah, that was.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
Like that's a that's like a Cooper Cup signing bonus. Now.

Speaker 3 (39:25):
Yeah, yeah, I've tried to.

Speaker 1 (39:30):
I've tried to surround myself with younger talented guys like
Joey Lane does our cap for US now, and so
you know, he's like, okay, yeah, ten million dollars, this
is what it means, John. And then it's like, okay,
they can show me like every every every position and
that helps me. But yes, you're right, it's like whoa.

Speaker 3 (39:52):
And then.

Speaker 1 (39:54):
When I see the you know, when I see like
the baseball contracts and NBA contracts, Yeah, floored. You know
our ownership group. Jody owns the Blazers. You know too,
mister Roland, you know Random Blazers. And I was always
pepper those guys in their gms about like the guaranteed
money like that just it flures me. But hey, at
the end of the day, it's it's it's entertainment, right,

(40:15):
It's entertainment business and we're all blessed to be a
part of it.

Speaker 2 (40:19):
Okay, A couple of quick scouting questions for you, Sam Donald.
You guys sign him obviously, the connection with your new
offensive coordinator Kubiak, who's with Kyle and they were with him.
Do you go back like how much do you rely
on him coming out?

Speaker 3 (40:33):
Uh?

Speaker 2 (40:33):
The information is that more character based, play based and
then evaluating the play over the course of his career
and how Sam Donald ended up as this starting quarterback
for the Seattle Seahawks.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Yeah, really just preparing for you know what that period
of time right around the Senior Bowl and the combine
is really like a preparation for like what's the landscape
can to look like and how quickly can we pivot?
So you know, if if if if things are going
a certain way with the negotiation, how do we how

(41:07):
do we pivot, So getting everybody on the same page.
Still relying on Coobs for sure, like the experience you
had with Sam Kevin O'Connell. Uh, you know a professional
friend of mine. Uh, you know Ryan Grigson is is
there now to Minnesota, Rob Brazinski. You're relying on on
our contacts and like the character, the character, the leader,

(41:28):
everybody's coached him over the years and then watching his
progression and watching him improve. You know, we don't have
NFL Europe anymore, and so these guys they just you know,
the twos and threes then't they don't you don't they
don't get the reps they used.

Speaker 3 (41:40):
To and uh, you know, we don't have as much
time with them to develop these guys, and so.

Speaker 1 (41:48):
Talking to everybody, you know that it's the same thing
with Gino, like all the coaches that have coached them,
like like contacts over the years, like talking to them
about how he's he's improving, he's proven this area, he's
improving that area. And then to put that on film too,
to study as a group, you know, to have like
you know, sit down with with Coobs and the offensive
staff and Mike and uh, you know, work through the

(42:11):
UH process of evaluating his progress and and and what
that looks like and can we help him?

Speaker 3 (42:17):
Can we not?

Speaker 1 (42:18):
So Yeah, it's all It all goes in all like
all the character, all the background that we've you know,
learned over the years from you know, from my friend
like Fit and you know Scott Fitter and Dan Morgan,
those guys in Carolina, and then you know all the
coaches have been around.

Speaker 3 (42:33):
Them with the Jets and then coops you know in
in UH in San Francisco.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
Well, Gino and Sam I think are good examples, like
everything you've ever heard about him, great guy, great guy,
great guy. And I'm sure you hear that when you're
scouting a player like that or from other places. But
like when you're gonna sign a guy you extended gene
or first signed him, I guess as the backup originally,
but Sam as your starter. At what point do you go? Okay?
I got fifteen people telling me like, I feel really

(43:00):
good about bringing this individual because you can't just go off. Hey,
Middlcoff told me he spent the weekend with them. Awesome, dude, Like,
you know, there has to be some sort of lines,
like we're good with this.

Speaker 1 (43:11):
Yeah, that's where you know, that's that's where you know
we made some of our biggest mistakes is just not
taking as much time, you know as we possibly we
should with all the contacts that we have, right and
so have we covered all our bases of and we
have we checked all the boxes and making sure.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
That we're.

Speaker 1 (43:31):
We're we're signing and we're signing the appropriate person for
our building because we we think we have a we
love our we love the people, whether it's you know,
our equipment, staff, video, our training, our sports science groups amazing,
So how can we take care of these people and
are we going to be able to support them? And
so that that's really the bottom line with it, and

(43:52):
just where he's where he's been going seeing him, you know,
having the having Koops Clinton, you know, with him in
a very very similar system.

Speaker 3 (44:02):
It's it's hands on. So yeah, it's it's it's all
of it.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
Okay, A couple of quick draft questions you draft is able?
The North Dakota State offensive lineman uh felt like there
was a lot of buzz those last couple of weeks
where you get hurt, to get nervous, like way too
many people are talking about this guy.

Speaker 3 (44:17):
Yeah, yeah, we better drafted were get kicked out of here?
You know? No, yeah, we were.

Speaker 1 (44:24):
You know, we had heard, we had heard whispers about Dallas.
You know, I think Dallas was twelve right in there,
twelve or twelve or fourteen there and so.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
Twelve twelve okay. Yeah, so.

Speaker 1 (44:36):
You know when once Booker was like whoa, okay, so
now it's going to start coming towards us. So yeah,
we'd floorded with going back a little bit. We definitely
really wanted to pick a couple of times in the
second round. We really liked the second third round this year.
So yeah, once to your point, once Booker was taken,
you know, we decided like, okay, like we can't. I

(45:00):
want to say, Minnesota was twenty four or twenty five,
so you're like, we can't get you past you know
that area. As we had we kind of felt like
they would be looking for offense.

Speaker 2 (45:09):
Well, is there a point where you have to get
to to feel comfortable with a smaller school player drafting
him really high North Dakota State, you could argue borderline
like Boise State or something. So it's not like tiny tiny,
but it's the relative to Bama, Georgia, Ohio State that
it's definitely a gap.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Yeah, that's like.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Jim Naggy in the Senior Bowl experience, right, like seeing
him down there and being able to watch him dreg
talking about now like jumping in stealing reps left guard,
right guard, center.

Speaker 3 (45:38):
Right tap.

Speaker 1 (45:39):
I mean he was like just like if any of
those offensive linemen were like like just chilling in those drills,
he was jumping ahead of them, excuse me, and trying
to steal their reps. So watching him watching you can
see him compete against you know, that's a big time
you know, like to your point, yeah, defensive lineman. The
defensive line group was outstanding down there too, So that's

(46:02):
where you know the comfort level. And then just knowing that,
you know, like their championship team, I think you know,
all those guys were like start our starters in the NFL. Now,
so yeah, at at you know, seeing the background in
the history they're taught real well there and uh yeah,
being able to have that Senior bal experience first hand
is really impressive. And then you know Matt berry And

(46:24):
is an offensive line expert here Steve Hutchinson, you know,
you know, a Hall of Famer has been working with US,
So having those guys at their comfort level as well
and then having the coaches behind was was was huge
for US.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Uh Em and Warrior your second round pick. You know,
I don't want to compare them to DK, but I
mean athletically six three two, twenty four, three eight forty three,
invert twenty reps. DK got him there twenty seven, but
similar just the the explosion. I mean, got to be
one of the better athletes you've ever drafted in your career.

Speaker 3 (47:00):
Yeah, DK, Yeah, that's a really good point. DK.

Speaker 1 (47:02):
And you know, the numbers are ridiculous with Nick. You know,
I remember I think we were we had left. I
had to go do something the combine. So we had
left at Dome and we were at a coffee shop
or something, and you know, they had they had a
combine on there and he read and I was like, they.

Speaker 3 (47:19):
Showed his testing numbers. I was like, I was looking
up that I was meeting with. I was meeting with
an agent down there, and I was like, well, there
he goes. We won't be able to draft down you know. So, yeah,
the numbers were crazy, and he's.

Speaker 1 (47:31):
So young, you know, That's the thing, like twenty one,
you know, like three years really playing. They didn't know
if they were going to play him at linebacker or safety.
At South Carolina, he goes there, they throw him in,
you know, with the safety group, they lose two starters,
like first quarter, first half of the first game, and
he's here, he goes he's starting, and it's really like

(47:52):
that those three years ago.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
Quick. I mean, I know you you probably felt like
that scouting too, like how fast that goes?

Speaker 2 (47:59):
Uh, Jalen Milroe. If you just watched that first half
against Georgia, I remember sitting on my couch that night game,
you could have argued he was the best player in
the country. I mean, so the he's shown in the
highest level, brightest lights. Obviously he's had you know, a
coaching change, a lot, a lot of moving parts, but
the highlight plays. And again, you didn't draft him tenth overall.
I mean, this is a third round pick. From a

(48:20):
character standpoint, everyone seems to like him, freak athlete. That
the process of evaluating him when he came on to
your radar and how that played out, yeah, uh.

Speaker 3 (48:32):
No one.

Speaker 1 (48:32):
And I saw him play live at we flew in
Madison and saw him play there and it was it
was very impressive. You know, first of all, when you
see him in first and you know, oh, this guys,
this is the guy I running twenty two miles an
hour right here.

Speaker 3 (48:45):
That guy. You know, he's a he's a physical specimen.

Speaker 1 (48:50):
But to be able to watch him interact with his teammates,
you know, how he conducted himself on the sidelines, interact
with the coaches, and then all the different people that
have coached him over the years, getting their insight, their
input about the work ethic. And that's really what stands
out when you're seeing somebody.

Speaker 3 (49:10):
Like this, you know. And I go back to Brett again,
because Brett was like they had those wow throws and
then those woe throws.

Speaker 1 (49:19):
You're like, whoa, whoa, that was amazing or no, no, no, yes,
nice throw, you know what I mean. But like there
was a little bit that with with with Jalen as well,
and then Brett's work ethic. You know, I'm sure you've
seen those videos where he didn't know what a nickel
defense was, didn't know what a dime defense was.

Speaker 3 (49:35):
It was just a baller.

Speaker 1 (49:37):
And but the work ethic on Brett was huge, and
the competitor, and so you know, I hate like those
you know, comparing the talent levels and all that kind
of stuff, but like the makeup of the person.

Speaker 3 (49:51):
We had him out here on a you know, a
thirty visit Jalen, and he really impressed everybody.

Speaker 1 (49:57):
And uh and I'm talking like, like I said, like
our player development people, the equipment people, our cafeteria, the
people in the cafeteria.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Everybody loved the person and and then the competitor.

Speaker 1 (50:11):
And now we can see it out here. Excuse me
as his work ethics outstanding. You know, he's here at
six o'clock leaving at seven. You know what I mean,
He's just he is whatever he said about about the worker.
And then you know the he's been throwing the ball
real well.

Speaker 3 (50:23):
And then uh, by the way he can take off
and score from like seventy yards. You know, wow that
just happened. That game, that game that you're talking about,
did that really? What a crazy game? Right? Like?

Speaker 2 (50:36):
Wow, that that was wild. It's and it's not like
Georgia has me and you playing on defense. I mean,
they got they got some uh I mean, but back
to the Darnald. The character of the maturity factoring that
in when you're gonna pull the trigger on taking a
guy on the second day of the draft coming from Alabama. Yeah,
the conversations, how did you factor that?

Speaker 1 (50:57):
It was like here he is, this is the spot
where these are these are the we're sticking with our
board and then you know, we have the buy in
and here we go, like he doesn't have to to
start like day one.

Speaker 3 (51:09):
Guys, like you know what I mean, like every every
knows that going in we have a plan, right and
uh so being able.

Speaker 1 (51:16):
To be comfortable with that, Okay, this is where he is,
This is where we feel comfortable drafting him, and you
know the these are the positions we want to hit first,
you know, and then uh yeah, it's interesting when you
bring up Nick. You know Nick like I don't want
to say ran him down the other day in practice,
but Nick was flying across the field and kind of
shoved them out of bounds a little bit, you know,

(51:37):
didn't shove them for the NFL p A.

Speaker 3 (51:39):
It wasn't even shove them.

Speaker 1 (51:42):
Over there and tapped him right, and uh but uh,
our our TV coach Jeff Howard's like we've seen that
because we literally like Nick was the only guy we
saw run him down in college, like you couldn't find
anybody catching.

Speaker 3 (51:56):
Him, and uh so it's just like when you want
the take off, you're like, it's just shocking, you know.

Speaker 2 (52:03):
So it's safe to say Seattle's got a little faster
in this draft for those two guys.

Speaker 1 (52:07):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah yeah. It wasn't like a it
wasn't like a what we need to get faster thing.
It was like, here they are and they're good players.

Speaker 3 (52:17):
We love the upside.

Speaker 2 (52:18):
Okay, I know you're a busy man because I don't
know you run an NFL team, So I'll get you
out of here on this the Gemini dot Com uh
question of the day. You can get crypto rewards every
time you make a purchase Gemini dot Com slash card.
If you could give your twenty one, twenty two year
old self some advice when you were getting hired by

(52:39):
Ron Wolf and going to what turned out to be
a legendary run with the Green Bay Packers to the
Super Bowl winning GM that you're sitting here right now,
what would you tell a young, hungry, bright eyed, and
bushy tailed John Schneider.

Speaker 1 (52:53):
Yeah, uh, have some patience, man, Go down, Go down.
Give yourself some great you know, and uh, you know,
like easy to say say now, right, but we all
have goals and ambition.

Speaker 3 (53:10):
You know.

Speaker 1 (53:11):
It's like wow, just like sitting small of roses sometimes,
you know, and and yeah, that's that's just the patience, right,
like things are God's got you. Things gonna happen, Things
are gonna happen for you for a reason. You know,
just have some patience and yeah, I think things are
gonna things are gonna go your way.

Speaker 2 (53:32):
Were you headed this summer anywhere? Fun?

Speaker 3 (53:35):
My niece is getting married in Florence. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (53:38):
Yeah, Yeah, it's a big family trip. Yeah, so it's
gonna be it's gonna be exciting. I can you go
see some family in Wisconsin, some family and friends and yeah,
being here at this time of the year is like
when the sun valley. No, it's it's gorgeous water, like
we'll here, Uh, I can't, can I flip it?

Speaker 3 (54:04):
I was like this, I don't know if you can
see that.

Speaker 2 (54:07):
It's a decent office. You look at that, you know,
and then you.

Speaker 1 (54:12):
Got to remind yourself of that when it when it
gets dark it's like three thirty in November, you know,
is that.

Speaker 2 (54:17):
The office you were. You told the story when you
were going to get the job that you were promised
the overlooking and then Pete took it. Did you steal
that office back or.

Speaker 4 (54:24):
Is that yeah?

Speaker 3 (54:26):
We we ended up we ended up switching after what
how many years? Right, like we ripped all the carpet
up in here and like, yeah, we like made the change.
Tim Rusko was.

Speaker 1 (54:34):
Down here and coach Holmbron was at the other end,
and uh yeah, the guy who was giving me the tours, Like, well,
you know, Coach Omberon actually has.

Speaker 3 (54:43):
A really cool office. It's huge. Yeah, I don't need
a shower that you know. An it was a six
y five coach Homebren, you know what I mean.

Speaker 1 (54:50):
Like but it was it was going keeping nice to
joke about all the time. It's like, wait a second,
I think this was the one. So but yeah, so
this is the this is unportionately like looks over the
water and then the other ones that look over the field.

Speaker 3 (55:04):
But you can still see the water here, but it's
this is a beautiful area.

Speaker 2 (55:09):
That's awesome. Well thanks a lot, John. I can't I
can't tell you how much I appreciate your time and
how much I've just admired you from AFAR.

Speaker 3 (55:15):
So we'll say, good job with all the stuff you're doing. Man,
it's fun listening to you. Guys.

Speaker 2 (55:20):
We'll have a great summer and we'll talk soon for sure.
Appreciate you, man, have a great summer.

Speaker 5 (55:26):
See John blending Vice's signature dynamic storytelling with the high
octane world of sports. Vice Sports brings an exciting and
diverse range of programming that goes beyond the game, catch
action packed live events, and exclusive sports documentaries and profiles
only on Vice TV.

Speaker 2 (55:45):
Well that didn't suck that I I can't that was
that was awesome. Two things though, before we get out
of here, really stood out to me about John. Observing
him from a distance for a long long time, He's
always come off I say it like a little different
in the sense of he's not trying to have like

(56:05):
corporate speak or worried about like looking and acting like
the perfect GM. He just feels like a very authentic guy.
And obviously, when you have success in the position, it's
easier to do that than maybe your first month on
the job. But I do think it's important the reason

(56:29):
you become who you became when someone hires you for
a big gig, whether that's in the NFL or that's
someone listening right now they just got a promotion. Wherever
they work, it's because of who you are and what
you've done. And I think sometimes especially in these public
facing jobs like being a GM or being a head coach,

(56:49):
or you know, in the corporate world, being a CEO
or even some sort of management position, people just start
talking like they think that it's spoke to sound like.
I don't know James Gladstone at all. I've never heard
anything bad about him, but the reason he got so
heavily I would say laughed at during the Travis Hunter

(57:12):
draft that like couple day period because it felt like
he was talking like someone would want you to talk
if you ran like Apple or you ran Facebook or something,
you know, and it's like, is this how you actually talking?
And maybe it is. But when I watch Watch and
Talk and just listen to John, he talks and comes

(57:35):
off like he does with me, like he does in
a draft press conference, like he did ten years ago
when he was side by side in the peak of
Legion of Boom's powers. And I think that's a quality.
You know, it's hard. I mean, you got to be
self assured you got to have some success. But I
think when you can stay true to who you are,

(57:57):
that is a very very powerful quote for success. And
the other thing is typically when you get hired in
a big job, it's for a specific skill that you
have shown that you have in the bag, right, whatever
industry it may be. And in football, John Schneider once

(58:19):
upon a time got hired with Pete Carroll in twenty
ten because people thought highly of him as a scout,
like this guy can evaluate players, he knows what it
looks like, he can pick him and his ability to
evaluate who can play and who can't play is what
separated him over the course of his young career. I

(58:41):
mean he got hired at thirty eight years old, and
he talked about in that interview like I love going
to watch college players and I can't tell you how
many times my friends have been at a game. I
remember a couple of years ago, like when Will Levis
was coming out, and at one point in time, people
thought Will Levis might be like, I don't know, number
one over pick and then it was clear as last

(59:02):
year got a little weird and obviously he shouldn't have
been the number one overall pick. But John Snider was
just like a Kentucky game. Why because he wanted to
see the top player or potentially And he still goes
to all these games. And he didn't get hired because
he was a lawyer and a dominant negotiator. He got

(59:23):
hired because he can watch football players and tell you
who and who can't play. And ultimately that's his I mean,
he has a lot of different hats as a GM,
but his job, his number one job, the way that
we all evaluate him on, especially his ownership and the
fan base. And I'm sure he does a great job

(59:44):
of because I've never heard a bad thing, like how
he interacts with the cafeteria people, how he interacts with
the coaching staff, Like all that shit matters when you're
the GM. But it's like, can you pick good players?
Can you build a team that consistently wins? And even
the last couple of years, like Seattle's been a little
out of the mix, it feels like they went nine
and eight, nine and eight, ten and seven, So even

(01:00:07):
their weird low points aren't really that low. Imagine what
like the New York Giants would do. John Morrow would
sell his like left leg to be like, yeah, our
shitty years are ten and seven missed the playoffs, but
he knows that any state because it's easy to be like, hey,
I don't really want to do this. Do I really

(01:00:27):
want to go watch South Carolina play Georgia when I've
been grinding my ass off during the week family stuff,
and then you know, do I want to go out
a day early from the team to make sure that
I make that game, or even I fly out with
the team because we're playing the Atlanta Falcons and I
immediately get into a car and drive to Georgia to

(01:00:49):
watch this game at eight o'clock at night? Like is
that what I want to do? Because I'll promise you
that some gms are like, nah, I'm not doing that.
It's going to my hotel room, have a snack, get
a workout, and hang out, watch some games on TV.
That fucking guy's at the games. I mean, I don't
think it's random that he's successful. Like anything, you have

(01:01:11):
to work at your craft, and that would be a
position once you start managing all these things to be like, yeah,
I don't need to do as much as I once did, right,
especially now, Like at one point in time when he
first got hired. Pete was the boss. John was working
for Pete like the Mike McDonald John Schneider related, like

(01:01:33):
John's one of the more powerful guys in the NFL,
and rightfully so, he's earned that, but he could He
doesn't have to go to college games, does not have
to do that. I mean, I can't tell you how
many people like I posted a pick yesterday, uh just
like you know on Twitter and Instagram, and I had

(01:01:56):
a couple buddies that are like aspiring gms shoot me
X messages, like guy's a badass. I want to be
like that guy, be myself, not worry about the bs,
and just do the damn job that we all liked
and loved doing. You know, John Schnyder got into this
role in this job in the nineties when obviously the

(01:02:20):
NFL was big. But GM's making ten million dollars. The
highest paid coach probably back then was making a million dollars.
It wasn't about the money and the fame. That's why
I think like Belichick and Pete, Carroll and the Hardball brothers.
I mean, these guys got involved in football when there
was Andy Reid's first coaching job probably paid him like

(01:02:42):
five hundred dollars a month. You know, they got into
for the game because they love football, not they didn't
love what football provided, the money, the fame, and I
think it's rare that you're able to kind of keep
those kind of roots, and it does feel like he's
able to do that. So, like I said, I think

(01:03:04):
highly of him From AFAR, It's gonna be hard for
me not to root for John Schneider to keep having success.
You come on my podcast, you aren't a fan, especially
if you give me a lot of time and are
coolest shit. So hopefully he enjoys the summer and hopefully
you guys enjoyed the interview.

Speaker 1 (01:03:26):
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3 & Out - Seahawks GM Schneider on acquiring Darnold & Milroe, trading Smith & Metcalf

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