5 Things We Learned From John Schneider's Press Conference After Reducing The Roster To 53 Players

News and notes from general manager and president of football operations John Schneider’s press conference a day after the Seahawks reduced the roster to 53 players.

Aug 28, 2024 at 10:15 PM

John Boyle

Seahawks.com Senior Reporter

It's been a busy week for NFL front offices as teams reduced their rosters from 90 to 53 players on Tuesday, then signed players to their practice squads a day later. For the Seahawks front office, led by general manager and president of football operations John Schneider, that process included going through all of those decisions with a new coaching staff for the first time in more than a decade, and Schneider came away from the past few days happy about how it all played out.

"I just want to thank everybody, especially the personnel guys this weekend," Schneider said following Wednesday's practice. "All the work that goes into this roster cut down of 53. I can't tell you how much work that is going on behind the scenes. All the hours and hours of studying. It's not just for the weekend. It's not just for getting to 53, establishing your practice squad. It's really establishing the whole landscape for what the whole season is going to look like. Really thankful to the way Nolan (Teasley) and Trent (Kirchner) and Willie (Schneider) and Matt Berry, everybody the way everything was organized and all the work that went into it and thankful for the coaching staff staying up late last night when we shipped them some guys to check out and everything after they had worked all day working on Denver stuff. Then obviously the players, thankful to the players that came back, decided to come back and be in our practice squad.

"Really impressed with Coach Mike (Macdonald) and his staff. The communication, the clarity, what they want, the intent that's put into everything. It's been an amazing training camp to see. We're excited to get going. Happy for the guys that are here but as you know it's a long process. We're building this thing all year."

In addition to some injury updates, including the latest on Uchenna Nwosu and Abraham Lucas, here are five more things we learned from Schneider's press conference following Wednesday's practice:

1. The roster is at 53 players, but the front office is always looking at more than that.

On numerous occasions during his tenure as Seattle's general manager, Schneider has pointed out that the job is never done when it comes to building a roster. There are chances to improve the team throughout the year, not just in the draft and free agency, which means that while the initial 53-man roster was set on Tuesday, it's far from a finished product.

The Seahawks not only have 15 players on their practice squad—they can still add two more—they also will keep in touch with dozens of other players who they could decide to sign later in the season.

"The way we approach it is you're looking at all these players, all these teams and trying to figure out what everybody else is doing so that you know how to adjust, whether it's in October, late November, late January, making sure you have enough depth on your practice squad," Schneider said. "We talk about 69 players not 53 or 48 (active on gameday). Then really truly, we want 100 guys that we can count on. We'll have a ton of players through. We'll probably bring about 100, maybe about 125, 130 players through here a year to get physical, spend time with the coaches so that they're ready to go."

Schneider reiterated that point on a couple of occasions when asked about specific position groups. For example, when asked about inside linebacker, he said, "We like the group. Just like every position, we're going to keep working it. There's not four guys. It should be six to eight to 10. Same thing with defensive line, six to eight. You can never have enough guys. We're not doing our job, if we just say, 'OK there's four guys and here we go.'"

2. Schneider likes what he's seen from Geno Smith & Sam Howell, and a third QB is in the works.

The Seahawks currently have two quarterbacks on their 53-man roster, Geno Smith and Sam Howell, and none on their practice squad, but that could change at some point, either by bringing PJ Walker back on the practice squad, or by looking elsewhere.

"PJ may be back," Schneider said. "I'm not sure, we're still working through a lot of that stuff."

As for the two quarterbacks currently the team, Schneider likes what he has seen out of Smith, a two-time Pro-Bowler, and Howell, who Seattle acquired in a trade this offseason.

"I thought Geno looked amazing in all the practices and everything," Schneider said. "He got banged up there a little bit that week, but Sam's (Howell) done a great job coming in, learning a new offense. You've got to remember this is like learning a whole new language for these guys. It's a hard deal. It's the hardest job in football, period."

3. Why the Seahawks kept 11 offensive linemen on the initial 53-man roster.

Over the years, the Seahawks have usually kept nine or 10 offensive linemen on the 53-man roster, but for now at least, they have 11, including three rookies, sixth-round picks Sataoa Laumea and Mike Jerrell, and undrafted free agent Jalen Sundell. Schneider said having more linemen on the team just reflects a trend in the league with quality offensive linemen in such high demand.

"We thought about 12, and that's just the landscape of what the National Football League looks like, not just the National Football League, it's college football," he said. "It's not a position of great depth, and you need a whole group of guys working as one, so you need to continue to keep trying to figure it out; I think there are several teams that kept 11, maybe 12. There are a couple of teams that kept 22 on both sides of the ball, the interior, and then you figure out your back end later, and you'll see much more roster movement over the next several days as people kind of get settled.

4. The Seahawks have had their eye on Connor Williams for a while.

The Seahawks signed Connor Williams earlier this month with the intent to make him their center, and while they're getting him heading into his seventh season, he's a player who has been on the team's radar for a long time.

Due to his athletic ability, Williams spent his college career as a left tackle at the University of Texas, but he moved to guard in the NFL before eventually finding a home at center, which is where senior director of player personnel Matt Berry envisioned Williams thriving all along.

"He's played up and down the line of scrimmage, played outside in college, and moving inside to play center, we had projected him—Matt Berry really liked him as a center. He's like, 'Man, this guy's going to be a phenomenal center,'" Schneider said. "But again, with those numbers with offensive tackles, it's hard. There's a lack of depth at the position. So he was drafted to play tackle, and he went and played. Matt was always like, 'If we ever could ever play him at center, he'd be a great guy.' Miami ended up doing it with him. I would say the quickness, intelligence, leadership, toughness, second level, his movement stuff is you can see him on screens and stuff out running in space and he's just got a really cool spatial awareness to him when he is out there and he's a really good athlete for his size."

5. The Seahawks tried to acquire outside linebacker Trevis Gipson in the past.

The Seahawks added outside linebacker Trevis Gipson to give them more depth at that position, especially with Uchenna Nwosu dealing with a knee injury. And as Schneider noted, Monday's trade wasn't the team's first attempt at adding Gipson.

"We tried signing him a couple times, so I was giving them grief, though," Schneider said. "I was like, 'Hey, man, you can't make a choice to go somewhere else now because we actually traded for you this time. We signed papers and stuff so you're coming.'"