John Schneider's calculated gamble

The howling over John Schneider’s failure to improve the middle of Seattle’s offensive line has subsided a bit.

Signing a pair of former Pro Bowlers has a tendency to tide people over for at least a few days. And we’ll get to the additions of defensive end Demarcus Lawrence and Cooper Kupp in just a second.

But first, I wanted to link an essay of mine that was published earlier this year in Seattle magazine. It relates to a fellow who’s occupied my thoughts more than I would ahve have liked in the 20 years since my mom divorced him. Except I’m not thinking about my stepfather quite so much anymore, and there’s a reason for that:

I’ve always thought of a grudge as some sort of psychological trans fat: I know it’s not good for me, but it’s in enough things I like that it must be at least a little bit delicious, too.

I hold a grudge against – in no particular order – Howard Schultz as a public figure, the Oklahoma City Thunder as an organization and the Oregon Ducks as an overall entity.

That’s sports hate, though, and while I wouldn’t ever say it doesn’t matter, it’s also largely superficial.

I’ve also discovered that grudges do hold some advantages, too. They are an effective way to focus yourself. I wrote about this last week at Grudgery, which is a free newsletter all about the dark art of staying mad. (No, this is not a shameless pitch for you to subscribe. The Dang Apostophe will include links to everything I write over there.)

Russell Wilson with bread:

Russell Wilson without bread:

OK, so where was I?

Oh yeah, the two studs Seattle signed: Demarcus Lawrence and Cooper Kupp.

They’ve both been stars. Each plays a premium position, Lawrence as a defensive end in Dallas and Kupp as a wide receiver for the Rams.

Lawrence is going to turn 33 next month, Kupp will turn 32 in June so everyone should agree they’re each on the back half of their respective careers. The question is whether they’re getting set to tee off at the 12th hole or the 18th.

What I find most interesting about these moves is that this is not the bucket of players that John Schneider usually dips into when he’s acquiring veterans.

Oh, he’ll take a flier on the highly drafted guy who never fully panned out elsewhere. A one-year deal for offensive lineman Luke Joeckel, two years for linebacker Barkevious Mingo.

He’ll deal a draft pick for a guy in a contract year like he did with defensive linemen like Jadaveon Clowney, Sheldon Richardson and most recently Leonard Williams.

He’ll sign veterans who are looking for a finale encore as Seattle did with tight end Greg Olsen back in 2020.

But he doesn’t usually swoop in to scoop up another franchise’s recent cornerstone by providing multi-year deals like he did with Lawrence and Kupp.

The reason, I thought, was fairly simple. Players like Lawrence and Kupp have built up so much equity with their teams over the years that their value to that team exceeds the straight-up on-field production. They just mean more there, and when that team – with all that built-up equity – decides to move on, well, that’s a pretty good sign of where things are headed with that particular player.

Obviously, that’s overly simplified. Dallas is staring at an imminent high-stakes negotiation with Micah Parsons over a contract extension, and Kupp isn’t signing the same contract in Seattle than he had with the Rams.

For all the attention that has been devoted to Schneider’s inability to spend big on free-agent offensive linemen, I do find it interesting how he’s choosing to spend the salary-cap space the Seahawks do have this season.

Is it a recognition that what the team had been doing wasn’t working?

Is it a sign of desperation?

Or maybe this was just a unique opportunity with these two players.

The risk here is pretty obvious. Both are on the other side of 30, each has been injured recently. Lawrence suffered a season-ending foot injury last season, appearing in only four games. Kupp has missed more than one-third of his team’s regular-season games over the past three seasons.

However, if you are going to bet on two guys to defy the normal aging curve in the NFL, these are two solid candidates.

In Seattle, Lawrence is going to be part of what is an increasingly deep front seven that includes multiple pass rushers. The question isn’t whether Lawrence will be what he was, but whether he’s an upgrade from Dre’Mont Jones. I think that’s a fairly safe bet.

Kupp’s exact fit is a little trickier, not just because he and Jaxon Smith-Njigba lined up the majority of the time as slot receivers last year, but because the Seahawks offensive template is going to change significantly.

I fully expect Seattle to run the wide-zone scheme that was first assembled by Michael Shanahan and later refined and expanded by Kyle Shanahan and Sean McVay.

Kupp isn’t a replacement for D.K. Metcalf so much as he’s an entirely different player the Seahawks believe will work well in an entirely different system.