WASHINGTON, DC - MAY 21: Seattle Seahawks Head Coach Pete Carroll (L) and General Manager John Schneider participate in a ceremony honoring the players, coaches and executives of the Super Bowl XLVIII champions in the East Room of the White House May 21, 2014 in Washington, DC. Obama honored the Seahawks and their 43-8 win over the Denver Broncos last February. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

The Seahawks are clearly making serious changes this off-season. It’s just as clear that a lot of fans aren’t one bit happy about this. Chill.

Call it rebuilding if you like. Call it retooling if you’re a bit more generous. And if you’re feeling really grumpy, you might call it total annihilation. No matter what you call it, the Seahawks are making major changes going into 2018.

Naturally the reaction in social media has been all over the map. Many people have been supportive of the tough decisions facing the Seahawks. And on the other hand, some have been, oh, less than supportive.

This tweet is one of my favorites of those critical statements.

Fire John,he’s a clown, and your rich owner doesn’t know anything bout football. dismantling a great team cause they missed the playoffs once in 5 yrs.sad to c and I’m a lifelong Steeler fan. Feeling for u 12’s — Roloff1 (@RoloffH) March 10, 2018

First, I appreciate this person’s sentiment. Clearly a fan of football in general, as the “dismantling” of the Seahawks bothers them even though they are a fan of the Steelers. We appreciate your concern. But I have to take exception with the particulars of these comments. Not just these, of course, but it’s a classic representation of what I’ve seen.

You do know you’re criticizing the guys who built the team, right?

John Schneider and Pete Carroll are the “clowns’ that assembled this great team. As the writer made clear, they aren’t a fan of the Seahawks. I’ll give this person a pass because of that. Maybe they really didn’t know that those two drafted Paul Richardson. Or signed the brilliant Doug Baldwin as an undrafted free agent. Or found Richard Sherman in the fifth round. Let’s just leave it at this: if John Schneider is a clown, he’s also the part-time ringmaster, along with Pete Carroll.

The rich owner may not know anything about football. He does, but for the sake of argument, let’s just agree he doesn’t. At least he knows this much: he knows to hire people that do know a lot about football. You know, the people that built the team that made the playoffs five straight years. The ones that signed the talent that made it to two Super Bowls and won one. Those clowns.

The Seahawks aren’t moving players because they lost

Finally, the Seahawks are not dismantling the team because they missed the playoffs for the first time in five years. That’s why they dismantled the coaching staff, and no, I’m not kidding. As for the team, it’s all about money. Money the Seahawks didn’t have, precisely because it takes a lot of money to keep all that great talent. Releasing Richard Sherman and other moves have more than doubled the salary cap space for Seattle. This is exactly the kind of move needed to keep players like Earl Thomas. As great as Richard Sherman is, he’s easier to replace than Thomas.

The NFL is a young man’s game, as Michael Bennett alluded to in January. It takes money to get new players, to get younger. Money you create buy moving older established players. These weren’t easy moves. And they might not have all been the right ones. But they had almost no ability to improve the team without making some serious decisions. Now, they have the chance to – well, I’ll go with retool.