By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

Biggest quotes from John Schneider’s press conference on the next Seahawks head coach

Seahawks  Vice President and General Manager John Schneider spoke to the press for the first time after  Pete Carroll’s dismissal as head coach. It was the first time Schneider spoke to the media without  Carroll in over 14 years .  Safe to say the press conference signified the beginning of the Schneider area.

OPENING STATEMENT

 “Welcome everybody. Hey, emotions have been all over the place, right? The last couple of days. I feel like I’ve been on my phone since Tuesday morning or something, Tuesday afternoon. Unfortunately, or fortunately, however you look at this, we are all here today because we underachieved in 2023. We all did, and now we’re in a situation where we all need to get better. We understand that the 12s, the fans, the community, Jody (Allen), everybody in this building, deserves better. We had high expectations for 2023. We overachieved in 2022, quite frankly, we underachieved in 2023. I think everybody recognizes that, but again, it’s a time for all of us to look in the mirror in this organization, myself included obviously, and improve, learn, and move forward. Pete (Carroll) and I could split today and have podcasts for years on end and just sit and rift about all of the decisions, all of the discussions, all of the debates, the ups, the downs, everything we’ve been through, we’ve been so blessed to have that relationship. I consider myself extremely fortunate to have hooked up with Pete 15 years ago now.

WHAT EXCITES HIM  ABOUT THE UPCOMING COACHES SEARCH

“I think the learning, evolving, looking forward. Where is the game going? Fourteen years is a long time for one coach to be in a spot, and it’s been incredible. God rest his soul, Marty Schottenheimer would always tell me, ‘One coach can’t stay in one spot for more than 10 years.’ He retired when I was with him in Kansas City for a year. It’s just that opportunity to learn from all of these people that are doing incredible things in college football and around the National Football League. If you’re stagnant in this league, you’re behind. I think that’s probably the most intriguing thing, is to learn and be open minded.”

WHERE THINGS ARE IN THE SEARCH FOR NEW HEAD COACH

 “We’re very much in the initial processes. Fifteen years ago, it was a totally different setup. There’s a lot of boxes that need to be checked and we need to make sure that we’re staying instead with all of the rules that are put in place. We’ve sent in several consent forms, and we’re hoping to begin interviews tomorrow.”

DID THE TEAM BECOME STAGNANT?

 “Not necessarily. I think it’s more of like a growth. Okay, ‘How are we getting better every day?’ I think Pete (Carroll) would tell you that. His motto was always, ‘What’s next?’ Maybe stagnant is not the best term, but how are we learning? How are we going to crush this thing moving forward? We always talk about coming to work every day and knowing what kind of influence you’re going to have on the organization, that’s what makes a great culture. Pete and I are very proud of the culture that we established here. I think the thought of everybody looking in the mirror, that’s what that means, and that’s every individual in the organization. Whether it’s in ticketing or marketing or college scouting or nutrition, equipment, whatever. What are we doing to get better every single day and what kind of influence am I having on the organization? My previous experience in going through this, again this was with Mike McCarthy’s search, it was a long time ago with Ted Thompson, but we learned so much. It’s not necessarily where we’ve been, but it’s about how much you can grow.”

WHAT  QUALITIES  E PRIORITIZES IN THE NEXT HEAD COACH

“Our culture and how are we evolving. Who’s going to help us move to the next level? How are we going to compete with everybody that we need to compete with and advance this organization moving forward? We’re going to learn so much in this process about the ideas. I’m proud about all of the connections we have around the National Football League, and we’ve learned a lot already. To be able to understand what that looks like. Different opinions, different philosophies, open the door to different ideas, whether it’s a defensive head coach or an offensive head coach or a special teams guy that is becoming a head coach. I think that’s all really important.”

CURRENT MAKEUP OF THE TEAM

“I think it’s a young, talented team that feels like they’re right on the cusp. I think there’s a lot of guys who have a ton of confidence in their abilities. They’re all highly disappointed in what just happened, and I think, to a man, they would all tell you—and I know this from the exit interviews that I had—that we still should be playing. Everyone was very disappointed. But I think it’s a great core, I think we’re a very attractive job because of that. There’s young talent all over the place. I think we were the fourth youngest team in the league or something like that, and the Packers were No. 1, first team since 1977 to make the playoffs.”

HOW WIDE OF A NET WILL TEAM CAST TO FIND THE RIGHT COACH

“Too many is not too many. We’ll handle it just like our free agency process, our draft process. We’re ready in everything, anybody that you can pretty much think of—I had a gentleman email me the other day whose buddy is a Pop Warner coach down the road, and he’s extremely interested too. It’s just really been amazing the calls and the notes and everything you get. It’s really a—I don’t want to say a confidence booster—but it’s a great reputation for this organization, a really cool feeling throughout the National Football League of what people think of this organization on the outside. I think people recognize it’s a very intriguing job, and one that you can come in and have a great partnership with everybody here and get rolling. I think people will recognize that.”

ON HIRING AN EXPERIENCED COACH AS TO A NONE EXPERIENCED COACH

“It’s a balance. It’s definitely a balance. Are you going to take a shot with somebody who has never been a head coach that hasn’t necessarily had those ups and downs when there’s some hard things to go through? I think Pete (Carroll) alluded to that in his press conference the other day. It’s a hard job. You’re going to go through some pretty dark times. You’re going to go through some great times too. The key is to stay right in the middle of that and not be on a rollercoaster, and to know that when you win a game it doesn’t mean you have all the answers and you’re the best thing going. Then, when you lose a game, you’re not the worst team in the National Football League and you don’t have any good players. So, the balance is to be right in the middle of that. There’s something to be said to that experience, absolutely. People going through tough times with the media, or just any other pressures.

People are high-end achievers in this industry as you’ve been exposed to, and they put a ton of pressure on themselves. Our key here is to let people know that they have people that are going to help them be the best head coach and have the best staff that they could possibly have, and they’re going to know that we can support them whether they have been a head coach, or they haven’t been a head coach. That’s a great philosophical head coaching-search question for sure.”

Discover more from Cascadiasports.net

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Leave a Reply