A bit of news that might be overlooked in the midst of the looming conference championships, but not here (I blame Karlos Dansby for this, somehow), Green Bay director of football operations John Schneider has been hired by the Seattle Seahawks as their new general manager.
Schneider, who held his post in Green Bay since 2002, came up under Ron Wolf in the early 90's and has worked with GM Ted Thompson to build one of the youngest and most talented rosters in the league. He has his plate full in Seattle, between the roster's relative dearth of talent at certain positions, Matt Hasselbeck's injury history, the ill-fated return of Pete Carroll to the NFL, and oh, yeah, this.
Schneider is well-regarded in football circles, and it's a shame to see him leave the Packers. But at 38, he's probably itching to run an operation of his own, and he's now getting a shot. Having helped build the current Packer roster, not to mention dealing with all of the off-the-field issues that Green Bay has had for the last four or five years (mainly attributable to one man), Schneider certainly has the pedigree necessary to be a successful GM.
And we all hope he will be. Just not too successful. I'd love to play Seattle in the playoffs year in and year out, but only based on recent history. Here's to wishing the best of luck to John Schneider as he starts the next phase of his NFL career.