By Mazvita Maraire Posted on

John Schneider on Jadarian Price: A Perfect Fit for Seahawks

General Manager John Schneider and HC Mike Macdonald were unable to move down on any one of the 2026 NFL draft. The team selected former Notre Dame running back with the 32nd overall pick in the draft Thursday evening.


Q. I assume you probably got some calls to try to trade down there and you were interested
in Jadarian, what was the thought process there?


JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, great player, great person. We thought he had some opportunities for
a minute. Fell apart. A lot of trading going on right ahead of us, but I mean, he kind of stood
alone. Great player. The person’s outstanding, the competitor, he’s a Seahawk. It’s really cool. We
were kind of concerned people were going to go ahead of us because we felt like he was so out
there in terms of mock drafts and what have you.


Q. You felt like someone was going to jump ahead of you, is that what you were saying?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Uh-huh.


Q. Talking about the culture you created how are you projecting?
MIKE MACDONALD: I think it’s a testament to our process and the alignment we have from
personnel folks all the way to Thomas Hammock, the process on the coaching side. I think the
great thing that we have done in the three years we worked together, especially the first round,
the guys we brought onto our team we’re really confident about the type of person they were and
the Seahawk way of doing business around here. That, in addition of being a great player and
being dynamic, and our vision for him and our offense, just can’t help but be really excited about
it. I think it’s a great fit.


Q. What about him says that’s a Seahawk, that’s the guy?
MIKE MACDONALD: It just comes in different forms. You learn about the person, about the
leadership, the resiliency, the humility, just the commitment to Notre Dame by staying there.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, loyalty.


MIKE MACDONALD: Loyalty. The family story. All these things. It’s a great, cool story.
Something to get excited about. You love talking to and you can envision him just sticking out
here. You can feel him in the building and feel like he’s one of us.


Q. Talked about the fit in the offense, do you see the skillset meshing with the offense that
Ken Walker had so much success in last year?


MIKE MACDONALD: Well, we’re going to run wide zone and he’s going to run wide zone and
we’re going to run some gap scheme. He’s going to run some of that too and then the pass game
he can come alive, too. I think that’s part of our offense in general, that we can take another step
in including our halfbacks in the pass game. Then, he’s a great special teams player as well. The kick return stuff, we’ll see how it shakes out in other phases, but he’s going to come in and
compete with the rest of the guys. Let’s go rock and roll.


Q. He was not a starter at Notre Dame for reasons, obviously, and only got (so many)
catches in his college career. What’s the challenge of trying to project some of that on the
workload front and the receiving front when you’re trying to figure out what he can be as a
full package for you when he didn’t necessarily have that in college?


JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, great question, but believe it or not, it really wasn’t that hard. His pro
day was outstanding. I’m very good friends with his agent. His agent went to him a couple years
ago and was like, ‘Hey, you need to improve in the passing game’ or whatever, so he would
listen to him. (He) went and got with the receiver’s group and worked with those guys, the
receivers coach, too. I just think it’s a pretty cool story that these guys get drafted in the first
round too, from the same school. It was really the story you watched all fall. I mean, these guys
were dynamic, the two of these guys. Different runners. I feel like it’s like talking to you guys
about JSN (Jaxon Smith-Njigba), just like with his high school career in Texas. Like 5,000 yards
and like 55 touchdowns.


Q. You both talked about loyalty. Over the past few years you’ve been rewarding players
that stay at their school instead of transferring. Why is loyalty such an important part of
being a Seahawk?


MIKE MACDONALD: I don’t know if we have explicitly talked about it. I think it’s just part of
the overall picture of the person we evaluate and it probably isn’t a coincidence that it keeps
coming up.


JOHN SCHNEIDER: I think that stuff manifests itself in the competitive scale, too.
There’s a level of certain character aspects that you have to conduct yourself in a certain manner
to compete at that level, too. Really just part of overall character score.


Q. You mentioned that in the first round the trades were hard to figure out what’s going on.
Were you surprised how many trades were happening over and over?


JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, it was weird. I thought we were going back for sure and then things
just went no, no, no. I think everybody must have been hyper-focused there with Rutledge, Chris
Johnson, Faulk, I forget who else right in there. Sorry, it just happened.


Q. Can you talk about the role your running back coach played in making this choice?


JOHN SCHNEIDER: We’re all part of it. He did some great Zoom interviews though.


MIKE MACDONALD: Thomas (Hammock) is a stud. He’s a beast. I think he’s just kind of dove
in head first with how we operate here and he’s someone that I’ve leaned on since he got here in
terms of the big-picture head coaching stuff. Obviously you trust his opinion. I mean, been
coaching high-level running backs for a really long time in addition to being a really successful head coach, so, but I think it’s about par for the course on position coach on position coach
involvement in terms of our process.


Q. What are some of the skills as a runner that stands out?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Man, instant acceleration, vision, cutback-ability, but his ability to work it
back, not just completely bouncing all the time. Just kind of like it back inside. And then
probably his contact balance.(On trying to trade pick No. 32…)


JOHN SCHNEIDER: You try to project these things out and we identified a couple of teams that
it might happen with, but it was a little — I don’t know who was trying to trade for him or not. I
can’t answer that.


Q. Jadarian Price measured 203 at the combine. How does that factor in the eval, and what
would be the ideal weight you would want him to play at?


MIKE MACDONALD: I think that’s a little light. I think that was a few pounds lighter than he
said he played at. Once we figure out what the best body comp is for him — I don’t know if
there’s an ounce of fat on him, but we’ll look at him and see what’s best for us and best for him
and go from there. We’ll see.


Q. He has 11 touchdowns. What does that say about his decisiveness?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, like I said, one of his super talents is basically just his ability to
cutback and crease it. He has home run speed. He has a lot of explosive runs. He’d returned three
kickoffs for touchdowns in his career; Two this year. That’s such a unique feel. The USC game
was ridiculous. Yeah, just like that. That instant acceleration.


Q. Talk about how you got your team and also trying to figure out where other people are
going to pick. Was this a harder year to kind of scout where people were going to fall in this
draft?JOHN SCHNEIDER: There was a big gap. But, yeah, it’s been a unique first round.


Q. You have Rashid, but do you anticipate Jadarian helping out on the kick return?


MIKE MACDONALD: We’re going to train him and take it from there. That’s probably all I
know right now.
Q. Talking about Jadarian, he’s a Seahawk, is it instantaneous, do you know right off the
bat?
MIKE MACDONALD: John can answer it, but to me, it’s a culmination of the process. I think
the common denominator is the shared excitement from everyone that’s had an encounter with these people, and that’s what gets you fired up. A lot of people you respect, they know him way
better than I do and then that’s what gets you fired up about it.


Q. Is there any concern with only having three picks the rest of the draft?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, there’s concern. No, absolutely not. (Laughter) No, I did honestly
think we were going to be able to move there for a minute around still maybe have a shot at him,
but sometimes these things just don’t work out. We talked about it on the radio show today. 2021,
I believe, we had the three picks and we really wanted Dee (Eskridge) and so we picked him and
then the next pick, it was like we couldn’t really move and then same thing. So just at some point
you have to make a decision.


Q. As you guys studied Jadarian, was there a play that really stood out?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Cool kids call him JD.


Q. Was there a play that you watched over and over again that really stood out?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Good question.
MIKE MACDONALD: Against Pitt?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, that was cool. The Arkansas, caught a swing pass.


Q. Philosophically, are you like ‘hey, he’s a first round guy.’With Zach hurt right now, has
he won from the first snap or does he have to work his way up? Where does he stand on
that type of thing?
MIKE MACDONALD: I don’t have a standing philosophy, honestly. Just come in, coach him up.
He’ll get reps at some point. We’re not just going to stick him right there with the one’s. He’s
going to have ample opportunity to earn a bunch of carries and a bunch of touches.


Q. Mike, you mentioned Jadarian’s family life. He talked about his mom. Did you see how
that made him, what kind of impact that was?
MIKE MACDONALD: I’m hearing the story from the people involved in the process. It’s an
interesting exercise to put yourself in their shoes from when that happened in their life and that
really grounds you pretty quickly, you know? A lot of these guys throughout the whole process
you’re just like holy smokes, man. For them to be able to put themselves is this situation, their
lives, given a lot of things they have had to go through is just really, really impressive so you
can’t help but respect some of these guys.


Q. On the scouting report, there were concerns about ball security. What have you seen
from him in that area when scouting and evaluating him?

JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah, I think it’s three times in the last two seasons, and it’s something that
— Thomas Hammock’s awesome. He’s already talking to him about some of these things in these
Zoom calls. So, yeah. I’m sure it will improve.
Q. Mike, as you’re evaluating whether he is RB1 or RB2, wherever he is — what is Zach’s
timeline by the way? Just a rough timeline?


MIKE MACDONALD: I can’t give you a timeline right now but he’s killing it as we knew he
would. If you’re going to bet on anybody, it’s Zach Charbonnet. I’m excited for him. He’s in great
spirits. The guys downstairs are doing a great job with him. With these long-term injuries — I say
it all the time, you have to just stack these things. You have to be able to get to the next thing and
go rip it and that’s what he’s doing. I’m excited for Zach.


Q. John, whether it was Jadarian or somebody else, how big was the priority coming out of
this draft with a running back for you guys?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: It was important. We weren’t going to completely force it, but it was
important. There’s still some darn good running backs left. Yeah. We just lost a really good
runner in Ken Walker, so, yeah.


Q. Br Broaddus said if you could draft a running back every pick, you would.
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Yeah.


Q. What’s your background (with that)?
JOHN SCHNEIDER: Well, I played the position growing up and then when I started, it was like
the position I was best at evaluating. I didn’t really know how to evaluate safeties very well or
quarterbacks so I was kind of like, well, this running back’s pretty good and that running back’s
pretty good and that guy is good at this and that. Yeah, he’s not wrong

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