John Schneider among most active GMs during NFL Draft in the last decade

It turns out that the stereotype about the Seahawks being one of the most actively-trading teams in the NFL Draft is true.

However, contrary to the narrative among fans, the Seahawks have traded up in the Draft just as much as they have traded back during general manager John Schneider’s 12-year tenure. The chart below only encompasses 2011-2021, otherwise you could add a few more deals from 2010 on this list.

Among the general managers who have traded up more on Draft Day than Schneider are Bill Belichick, who has effectively been the Patriots’ GM for over two decades, and Mickey Loomis, who has served as the Saints’ GM for a similar amount of time and obviously is not one to ever trade down. Belichick is also the only GM to trade back more than Schneider, and is therefore the only active GM who has made more draft trades than John Schneider.

Of course, context matters; Schneider often trades the team backwards in early rounds, and then moves up in later rounds, even occasionally jumping back into the draft to select players. Schneider’s last trade down from the team’s first pick was in 2019, when the Seahawks traded the 21st overall selection the Green Bay Packers and eventually used their original first pick to get Marquise Blair at 47th overall. They did not trade down the 29th overall pick, which they got from the Frank Clark trade with the Kansas City Chiefs and subsequently took L.J. Collier.

The Seahawks have six picks in the draft this year, but only have more than one pick in one round, the fourth. It will be interesting to see how Schneider adjusts his strategy with this sparseness of selections, albeit a greater crop than the three he entered the 2021 Draft with.