John Schneider is the Seattle Seahawks general manager. He previously worked under Ted Thompson and Ron Wolf with the Green Bay Packers. He’s also from the Green Bay area.
Oh, and he’s proven he can build a Super Bowl team.
So, when you connect all those dots, you might as well figure Schneider is coming back to Green Bay to work for the Packers again at some point, right?
Well, that’s what Mike Vandermause did in Sunday’s column.
Vandermause suggests that Schneider would be an ideal replacement for Thompson, whose contract expires after the 2015 season.
That’s all swell, and we would certainly welcome a general manager that doesn’t built exclusively through the draft, but it’s not that simple.
Packers president Mark Murphy is on record as saying Ted will be the team’s GM as long as he wants (providing the Packers are winning, we’ll assume). In fact, Murphy has been trying to extend Thompson’s contract.
But let’s say Ted retires after his current contract is up. The Green Bay job is appealing for a number of reasons, at least for Schneider.
First, you’re working for the top franchise in the league. It’s kind of like if you’re a college football coach, the premier jobs in the country are Notre Dame, USC and Texas. A job with the Packers is the equivalent of that on the NFL level.
Second, are the ties to Green Bay and being near home.
Third, and probably most importantly for Schneider, is he’d have complete control over personnel in Green Bay. In Seattle, coach Pete Carroll has final say.
At any rate, we’re not there yet. Ted has to exit the picture before the Packers can really begin salivating over Schneider. That move seems like a no-brainer when the time comes, though.