An emotional and teary Tim Ruskell announced this morning that he had reached an agreement with Seahawks CECO Tod Leiweke to step down as the team’s general manager with five games left in the season.
Leiweke cited the exacting standards of owner Paul Allen as one of the primary reasons for the team making the decision at this time, along with Ruskell pushing to seek clarity on what his role would be with the team in the future. Ruskell was in the final year of a five-year contract with the team, and the Seahawks had not offered to re-sign him to a new contract.
“Quite simply we didn’t win enough games,” Leiweke said. “And I think that when you’re 4-12, there’s obviously expectations that follow that in the next season, and we simply didn’t win enough games.”
Leiweke said the Seahawks vice president of player personnel, Ruston Webster, will serve as the interim general manager, and will be considered as a candidate. And the search will begin immediately for Ruskell’s replacement.
“I’m proud of what we’ve done, and what we did,” Ruskell said. “And I wish the new phase had gone quicker, but it didn’t and that’s the way the NFL works.”
Leiweke credited Ruskell for helping to get the organization on the right track, creating a culture of accountability that allowed the Seahawks to make a Super Bowl run in his first season as the team’s general manager, and also helping to facilitate the team building one of the best headquarters in the league here in Renton.
“Certainly there were challenges,” Leiweke said. “But there were an amazing amount of things achieved.”
Along with the Super Bowl appearance, the Seahawks made the playoffs three times during Ruskell’s tenure, and finished with a 40-38 record. However, since the 2008 season the Seahawks are 8-19.
Leiweke would not address the potential of Mike Holmgren as a candidate, stating that they will go through an in-house evaluation process of the organization before interviewing potential candidates.
WOOT!!!!!!!
Can we hire Jackie Z away from the M’s?!?!?!?!
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For those who were clling for new ownership bscause Allen wasn’t involved enough, I’d love to hear you now.
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i don’t have much going… i can be gm…
[NEXT SCENE]
[SEATTLE IN FLAMES, RIOTS ENSUE, METEORS FALLING FROM THE SKY]
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I am willing to bet there will be an extended chorus of HOLMGREN – HOLMGREN- HOLMGREN at the game on Sunday.
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“Quite simply we didn’t win enough games,”
That’s the most honest and profound thing I’ve heard form a Seahawks press conference in a very long time!
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Ditto.
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I have never been into cutting people lose, but this man had it long time coming.
He should have been let go at least two years ago ( that would have saved two years of anguish and misery to all of us Seahawks fans).
Mr. Ruskell, I wish I could wish you good luck—-but, I can’t. Your arrogance and stupidity has caused me to much anger and pain. I am not God; I don’t forgive or, forget.
Mr.Allen, I hope You’ll carefully consider whom You will chose to replace this departing quack.
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BobbyK; get your application in quick!
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Proud of a 4-12 team last year (two wins at the expense of St. Loius) and a 4-7 team this year (with the two St’ Louis games already done with)? Reminds me of the “Lowered Expectations” skits from MadTV.
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Does anyone have an opinion on Ruston Webster as a potential candidate? If we pass on Holmgren, I would want to “buy” the best in the business, someone who has proven himself already and has a track record to show that he knows exactly what he’s doing. There has to be a superstar GM out there.. Let’s make him the highest paid GM in the NFL and sit back and wait for the draft.
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Good move by Todd Leweike. If it is time to move on, then its best to cut bait now and get ready to fish.
I don’t think Ruskell is being fired for doing a bad job. I think mostly he did a fair job, some good some bad, but the big story about this team over the past two year is that the 2008-2009 Seahawks were ruined by an unprecedented series of injuries to the O line and QB. A bunch of backup O linemen led by Seneca or a hobbled Hasselbeck could not execute a decent offense. A new coaching staff trying to teach a new system had too few healthy O linemen to work with up until November. This ruined Ruskell’s past two years as GM, it ruined Mike Holmgren’s final year as coach, and it has ruined Jim Mora’s first year as coach so far.
I don’t think Holmgren was a terrible coach just because the team was 4-12 last year, and I don’ think Ruskell was a terrible GM just because the team is 4-7 this year. But, if its time to move on I am excited to see what comes next.
I’m very glad to see Todd Leweike handle this move with class and respect and do it early enough to have a new GM and scouting staff in place and working soon. I hope the Seahawks make only a few changes in GM and personnel, keep as much continuity as they can, and have the new staff in place very soon and ready for day 1 of the offseason.
The face that Holmgren is out there talking about returning to the NFL may have something to do with this and he might be back soon, after an appropriate pause out of respect for Ruskell. In any case, I think Paul Allen has the right man in Todd Leweike to lead the team through this transition, and based on how he handled things today I have faith in him to make the right decisions.
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I would not be a fan of Webster taking over. He is from Tampa as well where he worked with Ruskell. Hiss background is almost extensively in scouting and it would seem he and Ruskell share many of the same player ideals. I believe if you are making a move away from Ruskell you are then too make a move away from his assistants that have such close and similar backgrounds.
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“I don’t think Ruskell is being fired for doing a bad job.” Is it fair to say you believe he is being replaced because of injuries, then? That is a pretty narrow view of his tenure here, if I may.
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I would like to say thank you to Mr. Ruskell for the good things he did. Unfortunately it is quite obvious that they just weren’t enough and this is a decision that had to be made.
If it were my call on the next GM (other than GM by committee to be headed by this group as we are all obviously passionate and have valued insights) I would be looking to see if Ron Wolf is available.
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Ruskell wasn’t responsible for the rash of injuries to the O-line, but he was responsible for the failure to add quality depth to that O-line so the team could better deal with injuries. He never seemed to view the O-line as a priority, which is a huge failure since the O-line became the team’s top priority when Tobeck retired and Hutchinson put pen to paper in Minnesota.
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“I would like to say thank you to Mr. Ruskell for the good things he did. Unfortunately it is quite obvious that they just weren’t enough and this is a decision that had to be made”
That’s about my feelings too. And though normally, I don’t like mid-season firings – given that we’re 4-7 and out of any post-season running, I’m fine with it. Gives them a leg up on recruiting guys who don’t like to talk about a job when there’s someone still in the position.
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Ya know, we’re not out of it mathematically. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if…
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“Ya know, we’re not out of it mathematically. Wouldn’t it be hilarious if… ”
It’s true, one win at a time . . ….
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Yeah…and besides, after the 2008-09 seasons, Ruston’s first name shares too many of the same letters as Ruskell’s last name. I think we need someone a little closer to the top of the alphabet, if you know what I mean.
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Time for optimism.. let’s finish 9-7!
If TR is leaving because he failed to put a quality team together then all the players might be motivated to prove that false.
The rallying cry for the rest of ’09…?
“Win one for the TIMMAY!”
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pdway,
Ya know, we’re about to get flamed for that comment, right?
But hey, maybe everything has changed now. Ruston takes over, we go to the superbowl, he gets all the credit, we slap the franchise tag on Unger, Forsett gets a broken foot, we draft some underachieves, we pay big bucks for some old-timers, we don’t win enough games, Ruston leaves town cryhing, and it’s deja vu all over again! Now, there’s the nightmare before Christmas.
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“oops, transition tag on Unger to save a few bucks”
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Well it’s about time, in fact it’s way past time. If he would have resigned when Holmgren was coach he might stiil be our head coach. It was one of the biggest mistakes Allen ever made taking the GM job away from Holmgren.
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I think Tim built a solid team of role players with no stars. Don’t think that works…
His style was to avoid the bust – Kelly Jennings, Lawrence Jackson types. They’ll be somewhere between adequate and solid, but they aren’t all pros.
I’d like to have Ruskell handle our drafts from Rounds 3-7! He’s pretty freaking good at that.
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Alright, Leiweke, you’re making me feel better about the season tickets.
Now, please, please, please don’t rush into signing Holmgrem without surveying the available candidates that are up and coming.
Maybe Holmy’s the guy, and I wouldn’t necessarily have any problem with that, but please see what’s out there.
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We aren’t mathmatically out of it. But I don’t think we can improve quick enuff to beat out the other teams ahead of us.
We have GreenDay 7-4, with a very tough schedule. They could lose 3 or 4 remaining games. Baltimore, at Chicago, at Pittsburgh, Seattle, at Arizona.
NYG 6-5, playing bad..
ATL 6-5, just lost turner & ryan
49ers 5-6, This sunday.
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Stevos,
I know I usually lash out in antagonistic tongue against you, so I’ll avoid that this time around. Honestly, do you really feel that injuries are the only thing separating this group of athletes from an elite NFL level?
I don’t understand that mentality, this team has been healthy the last three weeks and looked exactly like what they are: A poorly put together group of 22 players. The defense is built of old players with contracts when it should be a young unit hungry to get paid (see: David Hawthorne).
The offense is dysfunctional at best, but, unlike a year ago, they are more than healthy, they have “starting caliber” players (Branch) coming off the bench and screaming for other teams to please, please, please get me the heck out of Seattle.
The offensive line that Tim Ruskell built was healthy and completely intact when it visited the Metrodome two weeks ago, and came away with a rushing total that was beyond embarrassing, way past humiliating, and bordering on unworthy of NFL status. And that was with the mighty “JFarce” taking handoffs.
Beyond the players’ ineptitude, Mr. Ruskell hand-picked a coaching staff complete with a first-time defensive coordinator, a Raider-terminated offensive coordinator, and a head coach that ran his mouth out of Atlanta soaring on 7-9 wings.
Stevos, my dear, dear friend.
“Injuries” are not the reason why Mr. Ruskell was shown the door.
By the way, in 2005, 14 of 22 GM Holmgren-acquired Seahawks started in Super Bowl XL.
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ESPN reporting that the Seahawks have hired New York search firm Spencer Stuart to conduct a search for the new President/GM. It is up to them to bring the candidates to the team for interviews. Doesn’t sound like they are looking at the “Big Show” for this position. Why spend all the time and money if Holmgren is sitting right there waiting. Sounds like minimal interest in going backwards–
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“Why spend all the time and money if Holmgren is sitting right there waiting. ”
The league requires at least one minority candidate is interviewed.
Teams do this all the time, they have to do a search, it’s almost a professional courtesy.
If they want Holmgren, they’ll get Holmgren.
Pomp and circumstance is 90 percent of public American culture, it’s all a dance for the cameras and microphones, you know that.
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The Ruskell quote I don’t get is “When you’re rebuilding a pro franchise, the last thing to come is the wins.” Sounds like an excuse to me, and since when were we rebuilding?
The bottom line to me is that after we hired Holmgren, he transformed the attitute of this franchise from being mediocre to a team that wins and expects to win. Holmgren is a Seahawk now, he belongs here.
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You know, one name I haven’t heard as a possibility for the Seahawks GM job is Ted Thompson. He has ties to the organization and yeah sure he’s in Green Bay right now, but who says he wouldn’t consider coming back here to be the GM. I’m not saying that necassarily want him here as GM, all I’m saying is that I’m surprised his name hasn’t even been mentioned.
As far as Ruskell goes, I support the move, I was never a big Ruskell fan. He did some good and it’s not so much that he did a lot of bad, it’s that the bad that he did do was REEEALY BAD. When he screwed up it wasn’t small screwups, it was colossal screwups and the “In Ruskell We Trust” attitude and blind loyalty from some fans really got under my skin, wonder how all you Ruskell loyalist feel now? Though I’m willing to bet most of you won’t even own up to it now…
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BobbyAyala -
A friend of mine and I were discussing some of the young players that I have been excited about (see David Hawthorne). However, as my friend was saying, David Hawthorne is looking good, but still has room for progress. The reason he gets 15 tackles a game? The opposing team is targeting him. He’s still making plays, but when you watch the film (I don’t want to go back and watch that Minnesota game, but from what the friend was saying from talking to a friend of his [who turns out is one of the coordinators] [sorry for the long run on]), there were also a lot of plays he missed. Some passes directly over his head that should Lofa of been playing, we would of intercepted. Some blitz calls that Farve called an obvious audible on (at least, according to the sideline), but Hawthorne, as the MLB never called back the blitz, and so went on. Just remember, when ones stats look incredible, there might be other reasons for that, not that you have the worlds best player. And I’m not thinking Hawthorne is bad at all, I just think he is targeted heavily and that there’s still room for growth.
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Now we need to dump Mora when the season is over.
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someone must have been reading my posts
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Poll question. If holmy comes back as GM
1)Does he keep the current coaching staff in position, yes or no?
2)If the GM is someone other than holmy—do they retain the same coaching staff—Y or N?
basically, is it a given that those guys( most of them) are out?
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Regarding playoffs, it’s pretty clear we can’t get in via wild card, or at least that’s an improbable long shot. Our best chance is for the Cardinals to implode and go on a losing streak. We would have to have a corresponding win streak. Mathematically difficult, not impossible, but pretty damn hard.
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I don’t disagree GetALife, but, that said, he’s still the most productive defensive player on the field, and that’s saying a lot about the defense Ruskell built.
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If Holmy truly had a good relationship with Mora when he worked as DBs coach, then I think Holmy keeps him around for a year (to evaluate him himself).
If Holmy did not have a good relationship with Mora, as was portrayed, then I’m pretty sure we’ll find out by Holmy not bringing him back (and then we’ll be left to wonder the behind-the-scenes stuff).
All of this is under the assumption Holmy comes back. If not, all bets are off.
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Holmgren is coming back.
It’s a stone cold lock.
The only question now is the title(s).
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BobbyAyala,
I wouldn’t call it a ‘stone cold lock’. Allen fired Holmgren as the GM once. Doesn’t mean he wouldn’t consider him again, but I’d put the betting odds at no more than 60/40 that Homgren will even be considered.
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Why do you hire a non-football firm to find candidates for you? Don’t you know enough about football to know who good candidates are?
I realize it could be a show and they only want to put on a PR show (must comply with minority hiring rule)… that’s what administrators do…
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Now get rid of cry baby Mora!!
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Some days of the school year I work more than others (the joys of ALMOST being a full time teacher… part-time in other parts). It sucks when I’m busy doing the “full-time-plus-OT” part of the year when there is serious Seahawk news though. Feels like I missed out on a lot of good stuff today. Hey, I’m getting close to my “part-time” semester though. Better watch out, there will be more of bobbyk in those normal working business hours in a little over a month!!! We can analyze the Seahawks even more (and write about how we need to trade up for Suh). Anyone else ready for 2010 to begin? I can’t wait for FA. I can’t wait for the draft!
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The funny thing about comments on this blog is that no matter what you say, somebody will twist your words around just so they can argue with something.
I never said the “only” thing wrong with the Ruskell years were the injuries. I said I thought injuries ruined his last two years here, just like they ruined Mike Holmgren’s last year here, and are ruined Jim Mora’s first year so far. I stand by that comment. Not sure what’s so inflammatory about it, its just a fact.
I said I thought Ruskell did a “fair” job as GM. I believe that is true. He pulled some great moves. He also blew some calls. I’d call that ‘fair’, aka not good enough.
Tim Ruskell wasn’t fired for doing a bad job. He was kept until the end of his contract and not renewed. There is a difference. Paul Allen has very high standards and Ruskell did not meet them.
Kudos to Ruskell, however, for pushing for the decision now. He did a good thing for the team to make them decide now and move on rather than waiting until the end of the season. Sad to say that Leweike might have waited until January to throw us into this mess rather than just moving on with getting new staff in place. Thanks, TR, Good move by a decent guy.
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“BobbyK; get your application in quick!”
Bobby, I would vote for you so we can get some O Line talent in the draft and FA
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hawks31 – thank you for your support (now I sound like a damn politician).
Stevos – that’s the biggest thing I hate too (people twisting your words to things you really didn’t say/mean).
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“Mr. Ruskell, I wish I could wish you good luck—-but, I can’t. Your arrogance and stupidity has caused me to much anger and pain. I am not God; I don’t forgive or, forget.
Mr.Allen, I hope You’ll carefully consider whom You will chose to replace this departing quack. ”
AMEN to that.
Thanks for NOTHING you glorified scout. I hope Arizona hires you so you can ruin their team too
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Wonder if and how Mora may distance himself from TR.
TR did some good things, like landing Lofa & Hill, getting Curry, FTing Hill then pulling it to clear room for Lucas, getting J.Jureviscious, et al in ’05, etc. Losing Hutch, overpaying SA, drafting Spencer, getting Wahle (& expecting him to come back all through TC), expecting Walt to play, etc. were problems on the offensive side of the ball, the worst having to do with the OL.
Even though PIT’s OL is kinda bad, Big Ben makes up for it (watch what happens when Ben gets injured and Dixon plays in his place).
Saints OL is one of the best, both at run-blocking and in pass-pro. It gives Brees all day to throw and Saint’s receivers eventually get open, even Shockey. Give Hawks a similar top-5 OL and Hasselbeck plays another 4 years and Hawks get to the SB again.
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Getting curry was stupid the hawks didnt need yet another linebacker
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