History of Seahawk GM's

[Spleenhawk2.0]

During the long wait for the 2015 season to begin, I have been reviewing the history of Seahawk GM's, with a special focus on the draft - and mostly looking at 1999 to present.

Here is a link to all draft picks by GM overseeing draft for the past 17 drafts

GM Draft Spreadsheet

A few things stand out to me:

1) John Schneider is the second longest tenured GM in Seahawk history already. John Thompson, the Seahawks founding GM starting in 1976 is the longest tenured GM, overseeing 7 Seahawk Drafts
2) Time has not helped the Tim Ruskell era at all. Looking over his drafts, he was able to draft only 5 or 6 consistent starters, and only 2 pro-bowlers I believe (Unger and Tatupu) and zero all-pro players. Take away his 2005 draft, which had considerable input from Holmgren and the coaching staff, and his drafting was miserable. Granted, he drafted rather late most years, especially early on - but so has Schneider.
3) One big lesson learned from looking at the draft - how important roster construction as a whole is. The ability to retain your own free agents - and understanding WHO to retain - along with trades, UDFA, and free agent signings obviously play a massive role in building a team. Even though Ruskell did a poor job at drafting, he was significantly less adept at roster construction as a whole, with questionable trades and bad free agent signings.
4) Looking at this grid also reminds of the YEARS of front office dysfunction - I am not sure the Seahawks have EVER had a healthy organization prior to 2010.

What do you think?

 

[jammerhawk]

Right after the team was formed the FO was pretty solid and the team improved quickly to being a mid-tier team from being an expansion team but after that things went downhill badly at times. The Ruskell/Holmgren period was a time where dysfunction ruled and Ruskell took credit for the O that Holmgren cobbled together, things were pretty awful during the Whittsett (sp) period as well and the holmgren period was marked by constant friction between the coaching staff and the FO who were not on the same page. Holmgren was a talented offensive coach but it should be noted he had difficulty working well with others.

All in all The Ground Chuck and Pete Carroll periods mark the only times in 39 years of the team's existence that the coaching staff has patently coexisted happily with the FO. Without a doubt it is a great time to be a Seahawks fan b/c JS and PC are simply doing it better than ever before and perhaps better than any other team in football.