Despite a decade of sustained success, the Seahawks’ organization led by Pete Carroll and John Schneider have rarely had members of the franchise poached for other jobs. Aside from a few defensive coaches, really only former Senior Personnel Director Ed Dodds (now the Colts’ Vice President of Player Personnel) has been hired away from Seattle. That is, however, not for a lack of interest.
Two key members of GM John Schneider’s personnel department, Scott Fitterer and Trent Kirchner, have come up as candidates in different GM searches around the league over the past several years. Fitterer has previously interviewed for the Indianapolis job and, as recently as 2019, the Jets’ GM job. Kirchner was also a part of that Colts search in 2017 and has been interviewed by the Lions and 49ers for their general manager positions as well.
While there is certainly still interest in Schneider’s two lieutenants around the league, the pair recently received new titles in the Seahawks’ front office. The two executives, who previously served as Co-Directors of Player Personnel, are now the Vice President of Football Operations (Fitterer) and the Vice President of Player Personnel (Kirchner).
NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported the promotions on Friday:
The #Seahawks recently gave new titles to Scott Fitterer (Vice President of Football Operations) and Trent Kirchner (Vice President of Player Personnel). Two respected executives groomed by John Schneider have been GM candidates in recent years, and Seattle is off to a 2-0 start.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 25, 2020
While both Fitterer and Kirchner are sure to continue to draw interest around the league to run their own teams, the new titles could help to keep the core of a well respected front office together for the foreseeable future. With young, ascending, homegrown players contributing to Seattle’s 2-0 start, that’s not a bad thing.