Seahawks punter tells GM, 'I'm going to make you look really dumb'
Guess who is the longest-tenured member of the Seattle Seahawks.
If you guessed Russell Wilson, you’d be wrong. He’s only been on the team since 2012.
Richard Sherman is another player most people would have guessed, but he’s not even on the team anymore.
No, the longest-tenured member of the Seahawks is …. Jon Ryan. As in, the team’s punter.
Ryan’s career with Seattle began way back in 2008, when the team was coached by Mike Holmgren.
While Ryan may be the longest-tenured Seahawk, that distinction may not hold true by the time the season begins, because it sure looks like Ryan’s days in the Great Northwest are coming to a close.
The Seahawks actually moved up in the fifth round of this year’s NFL draft to select Texas punter Michael Dickson. To trade up in the draft to select a punter suggests the Seahawks believe Dickson is ready to take Ryan’s job.
But it won’t come without a fight from the incumbent.
Ryan basically told his boss — general manager John Schneider — to get ready for some humble pie.
“If you let me, I’m going to compete my ass off, harder than you’ve ever seen,” Ryan told The Athletic. “I love you. I have so much respect for you. But one way or the other, I’m going to make you look really dumb.”
Schneider apologized to Ryan for selecting someone to go after his job.
The 12-year vet (Ryan punted two years for Green Bay) wasn’t having any of that.
“He had that attitude almost like, ‘Sorry, but I had to do it…’” Ryan said. “And I was like, ‘Don’t apologize! Do not apologize.’ This is the business. If all the players got to pick who was on the team every year, we’d still have the Super Bowl team from five years ago.”
The relationship between punter and GM is certainly a different one.
When Ryan was cut by the Packers, it was Schneider — then a Green Bay executive — who broke the news.
As The Athletic relayed, the two men lift weights together every Friday during the offseason.
Even their contract negotiations two years ago were unique.
“We talked about his kids, my wife, his wife,” Ryan said. “I can remember it coming up once for like three seconds and him being like, ‘We want you here for a long time. Just so you know.’ Then it was back to ‘South Park’ jokes.”
This should be an interesting battle in training camp, with the old veteran trying to hold off the young buck.
How it ends? Only time will tell.
“I don’t know what’s going to happen,” Ryan said. “I want to be here.”
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