On the day the trade of Russell Wilson was officially announced March 16, 2022, all involved on the Seattle Seahawks side stated vehemently that they did not view the team as heading into a rebuild.
“We have a clear vision about the direction of this team, and this is an exciting time for our organization,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said that day in the official announcement.
A few weeks later at the NFL league meetings, Schneider spun it even more positively, insisting the team might look different but that didn’t mean the Seahawks would have to rebuild in the traditional sense of losing for several seasons before winning again.
“I think it’s an exciting thing, because the fans don’t know what’s coming,” Schneider said.
Many around the league figured they did know what was coming – some long, tough seasons for the Seahawks.
The Athletic gave the Seahawks a D grade, writing in part, “For now, it looks like they rushed to make this trade when they didn’t need to and are poised to take a significant step back.”
And ESPN’s Mina Kimes – one of the foremost football experts on that network and a longtime Seahawks follower – took to social media minutes after the trade was made to write, “Initial reaction: The likelihood this works out for Seattle long term is very, very low.”
Four seasons later, and Schneider has been proven right.
The Seahawks didn’t go through a rebuilding phase, responding with seasons of nine, nine, 10 and now 14 wins, going 42-26 in the regular season since the Wilson trade, the eighth best record in the NFL.
Schneider has indeed been able to achieve his oft-stated goal of fielding “a consistent championship-caliber football team” while getting the Seahawks back to an elite level.
But in the most literal sense of the word, the Seahawks did, in fact, rebuild.
When the Seahawks beat the 49ers 13-3 on Jan. 3 to clinch the NFC West and the No. 1 seed in the conference heading into the playoffs, just two players on the 53-man roster were with the team when the Wilson trade was made – kicker Jason Myers and punter Michael Dickson (Jarran Reed spent the 2022 season on Green Bay’s roster before later returning and Uchenna Nwosu was signed the week of the Wilson trade).
Everybody else has been acquired since.
How did the Seahawks enact an overhaul of their roster to build another team with legitimate Super Bowl championship hopes?
Here’s how:
They simply drafted better
Of the 53-man roster that beat the 49ers, 26 were drafted since 2022.
Of that number, 13 are starters and a handful of others are key rotational or special-teams players.
From 2010-12, the Seahawks drafted seven Pro Bowlers (and an eighth, if you count receiver Golden Tate, who made one after leaving Seattle).
The Seahawks drafted only five Pro Bowlers over the next nine drafts.
They’ve drafted three since 2022 who have made the Pro Bowl (Devon Witherspoon, Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Riq Woolen) and a few others who seem destined to make it soon (Charles Cross, Byron Murphy II, Nick Emmanwori and AJ Barner, to name a few).
The biggest reason they’ve drafted better of late?
Maybe the one that’s the most obvious – having more high picks.
The Seahawks went from 2013-21 without ever drafting higher than 27th.
Thanks in part to the Wilson trade giving them the ninth and fifth overall picks in 2022 and 2023, respectively, they have had five picks between 5-20 in the first round since 2022.
But many teams get high picks and remain bad – consider the Arizona Cardinals, who have had six picks at 16 or higher since 2019, including the first overall.
Credit the Seahawks for hitting on all five of their recent top picks – left tackle Cross (ninth, 2022), cornerback Witherspoon (fifth, 2023), receiver Smith-Njigba (20th, 2023), defensive tackle Murphy (16th, 2024) and left guard Grey Zabel (18th, 2025).
All five are starters and Witherspoon (three) and Smith-Njigba (two) already have multiple Pro Bowls.
The Seahawks have hit big on some later-round picks such as Barner (fourth round) and Woolen (fifth round), getting seven other starters from the second round on.
They’ve succeeded with aggressive trades
Under Schneider, the Seahawks have never been shy about making trades, either during the season or the offseason, even during the early Super Bowl years (notably Percy Harvin in 2013).
The three big in-season trades the past three seasons – defensive lineman Leonard Williams in 2023, linebacker Ernest Jones IV in 2024 and receiver Rashid Shaheed this season – not only all hit spectacularly in terms of their playing ability and fit in the locker room but filled positions of need at critical times.
All three made the Pro Bowl this year.
It’s easy to contrast those moves with, say, the trade for Jamal Adams and wonder if the Seahawks are doing something differently.
It’s worth remembering in-season trades in the Pete Carroll era for the likes of Duane Brown and Quandre Diggs also paid off well. Maybe things just work out better some times than other times.
They’ve hit big on some free-agent signings
For most of Schneider’s tenure, the Seahawks have ranked near the bottom in spending on external free agents, preferring to spend the bulk of their money re-signing their own core players.
But as the roster needed reshaping following the end of the LOB/Wilson era, the Seahawks had to dip into the free-agent waters.
That was especially true this year when the Seahawks were forced to go the free-agent route to make big moves after trading quarterback Geno Smith to the Raiders and receiver DK Metcalf to the Steelers.
They replaced those two with Sam Darnold and Cooper Kupp and signed defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, in part to replace the cut Dre’Mont Jones, a big free-agent signing that didn’t work out.
Those three players make up the bulk of the $205 million that they spent in free agency this year, with $101.5 million guaranteed, which according to Spotrac.com, each ranked among the top five in the NFL in 2025.
Consider that the Seahawks spent just $122 million combined on outside free agents from 2020-23, which ranked 25th, according to a chart from The Athletic.
One reason they felt comfortable with all three is prior relationships the players had with coaches.
They hired the right coach
Schneider’s best personnel move might have been off the field in hiring Mike Macdonald to replace Carroll.
Macdonald is getting serious consideration as Coach of the Year, including from Kimes, who has many times acknowledged her initial incorrect assessment of the Seahawks’ post-Wilson outlook.
Kimes recently stated Macdonald would get her vote for Coach of the Year: “He has turned them into the best defense in the NFL. This man has now (done) this in two separate places (Seattle and Baltimore). If that’s not an unbelievable coaching job, I don’t know what it is. They’ve obviously drafted well, but they’ve also developed well, and it’s an incredibly coached unit. I think he deserves credit for that.”
Carroll had final say over personnel moves. Schneider now has that. Maybe there’s something to be said for a structure that has allowed each to focus on what they do best.
“All we’re doing is trying to chase this vision of who we want to become as an organization and John set the tone of that,’’ Macdonald said. “… John is kind of the living, breathing example here on a daily basis, and he’s created an incredible environment to work. I mean, it’s just been awesome. I love working with him.”