Appearing on ESPN’s SportsCenter today, Seahawks general manager John Schneider spoke to John Clayton, and the primary topic of discussion was Marshawn Lynch‘s holdout. Schneider addressed Lynch’s situation, as well as explaining why the team has yet to relent and rework the running back’s deal, and Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times provides the quotes from the Seattle GM. Here are a few highlights:
On whether he’s becoming concerned about Lynch’s absence:
“You know, no. Everybody loves Beast Mode. We love him and respect the guy. I think what he’s done in this community, for this franchise, is outstanding. It’s one of those deals where you can never get inside somebody’s head. We’re just going with our plan, and I know it’s cliché-ish, but next man up. We’ve had a plan in place here for a number of years, and we can’t veer from that plan for one person because it’s the ultimate team sport.”
On what the Seahawks’ plan constitutes:
“Tough decisions. You make models two and three years out, and you have to stick to that and know that there’s going to be tough decisions along the way. We had to let guys like Red Bryant go, Chris Clemons, we weren’t able to sign Breno [Giacomini], Golden Tate. You have to be able to make those decisions along the way knowing you’ll be able to re-sign Michael Bennett and maybe there’s a free agent that comes in and fits in your bracket. It’s just one of those deals where you have to keep going about your business, and you can’t veer off of that.”
On the contracts the Seahawks were able to sign this offseason, including extensions for Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas:
“Going into the offseason we knew we were going to have guys, and we still have a number of guys that we’d like to get done headed toward next year that are going to be free agents. Now, you can’t keep all your guys. We know that. That’s the landscape that we live in in the National Football League. But we feel blessed that we’re able to get Earl done, get Sherm done, re-sign Michael, Doug Baldwin. The guys that we’re going to next, they know. We just have to be true to our word and keep trying to work those deals.”