For the first time in his 14 year career as a Seattle Seahawk, General Manager sat by himself yesterday to talk with reports about his search for the next head coach. I listened to the press conference in traffic and watched it later in the evening. Some have nitpicked his emotions when discussing Pete Carroll, and called his opening statement “rehearsed” because he read from a script, but I found his presser both fascinating, and highly encouraging.

First off, John is no Pete when it comes to charisma with the media. He’s likable in sort of a midwest Chris Farley-light sorta way, in moments, but I don’t think he should be criticized for bumbling a bit reading what he wrote down in his opening statement, nor should he be made fun of getting caught up in emotions when talking about his co-worker and friend for the last 14 years after he was let go last week.

It is safe to say that John and Pete probably did not see eye to eye on a lot of things over the years, but I believe it when both have said how tight they are with each other. I don’t think John did any Game Of Thrones or Succession styled back stabbing of Pete to get him fired and gain further power over the team. When ownership asked him what he saw as the issues holding this team back, I think John most likely gave a very honest and candid answer that was probably very different than Pete’s. That is how I would read all of these tea leaves.

When fielding questions, John made a big point about this team becoming stagnant over the years, and not really moving forward. This has been the same complaint most Seahawk fans have had for many years now.

He also talked about the need to keep up with the current landscape of the league, which has become more offensive and analytic driven with the top winning teams. Many of the cool kid fans of Seahawks Twitter X, for years now, have implored this team to move off of Pete Carroll’s old school-ness in favor of a coaching staff who would embrace such trends. Well, listening to John, it feels as though they are about to get their wish.

Having gone through this presser a couple times now, I believe, in his ideal world, John Schneider would love to find a bright offensive minded coach to lead this team into the future. Schneider comes from the Green Bay model, his biggest mentor is the legendary Packer GM Ron Wolf (who he spent a lengthy amount of time with on Friday chatting with), and steeped in the model is the tradition of having offensive minded head coaches who develop young quarterbacks.

There are enough tea leaves out of this press conference to conclude that Schneider wants to draft a bright young quarterback around the corner, and pair him with a Green Bay style coach. People will read into his comments of Mike McCarthy, and draw a conclusion that Schneider wants him here in Seattle should Jerry Jones cut him loose, but wouldn’t read too much into that, just as I am not reading into the idea that Dan Quinn is his top candidate.

John talked at lengths about following the current trends, analytics, and sports science. He said his one directive from Jody Allen was to find a coach who will maintain the built in positive culture of this team, but the rest of the time, he talked about keeping up with the Joneses within the division. I think it would be an INCREDIBLY hard sell on this fanbase to replace the legend of Pete Carroll with Mike McCarthy or Dan Quinn after that playoff debacle in Dallas. John is probably smart enough to see that.

Therefore, I suspect that, of the long list of candidates who Seattle has formally requested interviews with, Detroit OC Ben Johnson, Houston OC Bobby Slowick, and Miami OC Frank Smith are probably sitting top on his list to this date. I bet John would love to meet with one of these guys and be wowed with their plan for this team, and their plan to put together a great staff.

Right now, Ben Johnson feels like the hottest name with Seahawk fans, but for my money, I would circle the name of Bobby Slowick perhaps being the dude for this gig. It has been widely rumored that Johnson has a back channeled handshake deal with the new GM for the Washington Commanders to follow him there, and I am going to buy those rumors. Slowick, however, doesn’t have such rumors swirling around him.

What Slowick does have is a history that sorta ties him to the Green Bay Packers when John Schneider was the assistant GM there, and Slowick’s dad was on the staff in the early 2000’s. It is safe to assume that Schneider knew of a teen age Bobby Slowick then, and tracked his coaching career over the years. Last year, Slowick left his position of pass game coordinator on Kyle Shanahan’s staff in San Francisco to follow DeMeco Ryans to Houston, and be the guy running his offense. In the past, Shanahan has raved about Slowick, and their connection started in Washington when Kyle’s dad Mike ran that team.

Slowick’s career is very interesting as it connects to Schneider’s likely needs and wants. He started out in 2010 with Washington as a film analyst, and eventually a defensive assistant (what his dad was in Green Bay), but then after the older Shanahan was fired, he went to work at Pro Football Focus, the leading football analytic company as a Senior Analyst. When Kyle got the job in San Francisco in 2017, Slowick followed him, and has worked for Kyle as a defensive assistant, an offensive assistant, and eventually Kyle’s pass game coordinator.

Never mind the fact that, last season, Bobby Slowick took over the sad sack Houston Texan offense, made it an explosive unit, and coached rookie quarterback CJ Stroud into a star. That’s all dandy on the surface, but looking deeper into his career, it is clear that Slowick knows offensive AND defensive football, well, and he is steeped in football analytics.

I am not writing this piece to predict that Bobby Slowick is going to be the next Seattle Seahawk head coach in the next week or two. What I will say, however, is that Slowick ticks A LOT of John Schneider’s boxes, especially if Schneider wants to draft a QB this Spring (I think he does). Therefore, he is the guy that I am willing to put pretty decent odds on. If he interviews for this gig, and truly impresses with his vision on what staff he would put together, and he feels like a good culture guy, I think this gig might be his.

The other guy who I think might have a bigger shot at this job than people are expecting his none other than Mike Vrabel. A lot of the top NFL insiders are connecting the former Patriot legend to Seattle, and it has been noted, repeatedly, that he is friends with Schneider. It has been so much so lately, that I am starting to believe the idea of “where there is smoke there is fire” just as I bought into it about Carroll maybe moving on, and Russell Wilson being traded a few years ago.

People will scoff at the idea of Vrabel taking over for Pete Carroll in Seattle, but a deeper dive into him kinda shows that he is much more than a defensive minded head coach. Over the years, Vrabel has been one of the leagues more forward thinking analytic driven head coaches in the league, and he put together one of the best offensive staffs when he got to Tennessee. Green Bay head coach Matt LaFleur was his initial offensive coordinator and that immediately landed him the Packer gig. Arthur Smith then took over, and guided Tennessee’s offense into a top five DVOA unit, and that landed him the Atlanta job.

It is not too far out of the realm of possibility to image that, if given the opportunity in Seattle, Vrabel would bring Arthur Smith along with him, and because things didn’t go great for Smith in Atlanta, Smith could have an extensive stay in Seattle bringing along a young quarterback.

Arthur Smith might be thought of as a great coordinator who just really isn’t head coaching material. The league is full of these coaches, and while most fans probably prefer Schneider to land Ben Johnson, or Bobby Slowick, who is to say that both guys won’t end up more on the side of Arthur Smith’s fate than that of Matt LaFleur’s storyline?

If we really spend enough thinking about Vrabel as the next Seahawk coach, I don’t think he can be as simply written off as a Dan Quinn (who will be interviewed) or a Mike McCarthy (if he gets fired). Vrabel is highly respected across the league, and his firing came as a genuine shock across the NFL landscape. Personally, I think he is a strong CEO type of coach like Dan Campbell in Detroit and Dan Lanning in Oregon, as much as anything, and he is young enough, with enough pelts on his wall as both a player and coach, that my hunch is good people would follow him here, and players would buy in quickly.

If Mike Vrabel interviews for this job, all I think he would have to do is convince his friend John that he will have no problem with John calling all the shots with personnel, and he would have no issue with bringing along a young quarterback. I get that people believe that a rookie QB needs to be paired with an offensive head coach, but look where Vrabel came from. It was defensive minded head coach Bill Belichick who embraced a young Tom Brady over veteran Drew Bledsoe, and then embarked upon a long historic campaign of Super Bowls with the young gun.

I am saying it now, I think Mike Vrabel in Seattle is a real possibility, at the very least, and I would not be shocked at all if he ends up the dude. If John isn’t a hundred percent sure on any of these younger offensive coordinators, or Baltimore DC Mike McDonald (who I like, by the way), or Dan Quinn, I think that opens that door for Vrabel to bust through it.

And no, I do not think Jim Harbaugh will be a candidate. Not that I don’t think he is a great coach or a good culture guy. It is more so that I think he would want more control over personnel than Seattle would be willing to give. It is iron clad in Schneider’s contract with the team that he now has full control over all personnel decision making, and he has full control over coaching hiring and firing. Harbaugh isn’t going to want to work under those parameters.

In the end, given what John Schneider revealed in his presser, I am highly encouraged about this team moving forward. I think his search for the new coach will be broad, and that is right to do. I love that he is willing to look at all these bright young assistant coaches instead of going for whatever previous head coaches are and might end up on the market. I dig that he used terms like “evolving” and “current trends” frequently in his press conference.

I thought he might have dropped a few interesting nuggets in this press conference that made me believe drafting a quarterback this Spring is a very real possibility, and it should be. This year’s draft class appears quite loaded with them with as many as eight being discussed has potential franchise starters.

I am not going to predict who this guy will be. I have strong hunches on Slowick and Vrabel, but I am also very prepared to be surprised.

I just feel like Seattle is now on a path to get more modern with this this league, and I am excited for that. I believe that this team had gotten too stagnant over the years, and now I am looking forward to them breaking out of it.

John is right. This roster has bright young talent. Seattle is a great destination. The facilities are world class, and the fan base is super built in.

He has every reason to believe that he will attract a really good coach. I am looking forward to this process.

Go Hawks.