John Schneider all but admitted that Bruce Irvin will not be back with the Seahawks.
At the Combine on Wednesday, Schneider compared Irvin to Byron Maxwell, who received $10 million a year from Philadelphia last year. Irvin, valued as a linebacker and pass rusher, is expected to get a similar deal from some team.
“I’m sure you get tired of me talking about it,” Schneider said, per The Seattle Times, “but it really, truly is a big puzzle that we have to work through. I have met with Bruce individually and he knows how we feel about him as an organization and he knows that we are either going to be able to make it work or give him a big hug and congratulate him.
“That’s just the way this league is right now. There’s no question it’s built on parity; and, the more players you acquire, the more players you are going to lose at a certain point. We would love to have all of our guys back. Unfortunately we are not going to be able to have all of them back based on what the landscape looks like in the draft and free agency.’’
That latter might be a hint that Schneider will be looking closely at a pretty good class of linebackers/speed rushers — guys such as Darron Lee, Kyler Fackrell, Deion Jones and Leonard Floyd.
Schneider also talked about Marshawn Lynch, Thomas Rawls and Jimmy Graham — among other things.
The absolute most that Seattle could pay BI without creating a problem with KJ Wright is $5MM/yr. Even the market for BI is down he’s going to get a better offer than that. My guess is the JS has verified all of this to BI and his agent, told them that the door is open, and wished him well.
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