Seahawks name Green Bay Packers exec John Schneider to replace Ruskell as GM

Seahawks name Schneider GM

SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks hired Green Bay Packers executive John Schneider as their new general manager to work “shoulder to shoulder” with powerful new coach Pete Carroll in a revamped team leadership.

The Seahawks confirmed the hiring of the 38-year-old Schneider, a 17-year veteran of NFL personnel work, Tuesday afternoon. ESPN first reported the deal.

The team will formally introduce Schneider on Wednesday at team headquarters.

Schneider has been the Packers’ director of football operations since May 2008. He was the top personnel assistant to Green Bay’s GM for six years before that. He spent 2000 as Seattle’s director of player personnel in the Seahawks regime of former Packers coach Mike Holmgren and current Green Bay GM Ted Thompson. He was the vice president of player personnel for the Redskins for one year, 2001, before returning to Green Bay.

“We are happy for John and his family as he takes on a new opportunity in Seattle. He has been a great asset to the Packers,” Thompson said from Green Bay. “We appreciate all that he has done, and we wish him the best.”

Schneider replaces Tim Ruskell. The Seahawks forced Ruskell to resign as GM and president last month as Seattle was finishing 5-11 and losing its last four games by a combined 123-37.

The Seahawks are 9-23 since their last playoff game in January 2008, a loss at Green Bay.

Seahawks chief executive officer Tod Leiweke said last week there will be three doors atop Seattle’s remodeled football operations: “a cap/contract door” for money and number crunching, a job returning vice president for football administration John Idzik is poised to handle; a GM door that Schneider will sit behind; “and Pete will have his own, unique door.”

Leiweke said his job will be to ensure collaboration between the three positions.

The lack of a single authority in football matters is something Seattle hasn’t had since before Holmgren arrived as a Super Bowl champion from Green Bay to become the coach and general manager in 1999.

Leiweke said Carroll will work “shoulder to shoulder” with the new GM.

“The cool thing is, we are getting an outstanding coach as the centerpiece, and we are going to build around that,” Leiweke said of Carroll, reinforcing that Schneider will not have the same kind of sweeping powers NFL GMs traditionally have enjoyed.

Schneider, a native of De Pere, Wis., interviewed with the Seahawks on Jan. 12, hours after Seattle introduced Carroll as their replacement for fired coach Jim Mora.

Schneider beat out Omar Khan, a contract administrator with the Steelers, New York Giants college scouting director Marc Ross and former Titans GM Floyd Reese in interviews that ran through last week.

AP Sports Writer Chris Jenkins in Milwaukee contributed to this report.