What They're Saying: Tim Ruskell Out as Seahawks GM

Ruskell: GM for the Seahawks' only Super Bowl season

Seahawks president Tod Leiweke: "Quite simply, we didn't win enough games."

Dave Boling, Tacoma News-Tribune: "The scouting report on Ruskell is that he had some big hits on some draft guys, especially Lofa Tatupu, Leroy Hill, Brandon Mebane, Josh Wilson and others. But his first-round picks have been mostly disappointments, as have some of the aging free agents or trades brought on board in the past few seasons. Yes, injuries have been a factor in the recent decline. But it's fairly clear the Seahawks don't have enough talent on the roster to be competitive. That’s on Ruskell."

Jim Mora: "My heart goes out to Tim and his family. Tim's a good man, and a good football man. And I'm disappointed that we couldn't perform better and give him the help that he needed."

Chris Sullivan, Seahawks Addicts: "[Ruskell] had been so hellbent on 'cleaning out the locker room' and filling it with 'leaders' and "character guys' that we now have a charity softball team playing in the NFL."

Tim Ruskell: "We did turn this culture around, and we got people to believe in themselves. We realized the value of everybody. So that was a great thing. I think that had a profound effect on how the team performed, because of the atmosphere."

Nate Burleson: "We're all family. So when you have a family member leaving it's tough to deal with."

John Morgan, Field Gulls: "Losing Ruskell does not bother me much. If it was my decision to make, I would consider doing the same thing....In business, one must be ruthless. Whether Ruskell could build an offense or not, it was never known to be his strength. Hiring an offensive specialist, just as Ruskell was hired as a defensive specialist, is a practical, considered maneuver."

Steve Kelley, Seattle Times: "We can list all of Ruskell's draft mistakes and free-agent blunders, but the philosophy that mattered most, the belief that sealed his no-deal, was his idea that announcing Holmgren's heir apparent, the season before Holmgren was gone, would lead to a seamless transition....[The Seahawks] changed the offensive and defensive schemes. They changed their approaches to practice. They changed the culture of the team. And it didn't work."

Deion Branch: "I think all this stuff falls back on the players. He's done everything he possibly can to put this team together and to line things up the right way as far as people put all the blame on him, I think that's wrong." (Catches one yard pass, falls out of bounds, jumps up and shouts into camera.)

Johnny Peel, Dave Krieg's Strike Beard: "Even though [Ruskell's] departure was inevitable and probably necessary, we shouldn't forget that he was part of the brain trust that got us to XL, won three division titles from 05-07 and notched four of the seven postseason wins in franchise history."

Art Thiel, Seattle P-I: "If you saw the wet eyes and heard the quavering voice as Leiweke cut loose a personal friend and respected colleague in the middle of a work week in the middle of an already disappointing season, it wasn't a stretch to imagine he was as irked as he was sad."

Ruskell: "I will leave here with great memories of this place, and the people. It's been the people for me. I'm proud of what we've done and what we did, and I wish the new phase had gone quicker but it didn't. That’s the way that the NFL works."