The last time the Seahawks did a market-setting deal with one of their superstars was in 2019, when Russell Wilson became the top-paid quarterback with a contract averaging $35 million and paying a record $65 million signing bonus.

Well, it’s that time again. The Hawks picked up fifth-year options for Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon on Friday – precursors to deals that should make them the highest-paid players at their positions.

The salary cap has jumped 60% since Wilson did his big deal, and the top receivers are now paid more than what he got while corners are over $30 million a year.

JSN – coming off a historic season (119 catches for 1,793 yards and 10 touchdowns) that merited the Offensive Player of the Year award — is expected to trump Ja’Marr Chase’s league-best $40.25 million average. Witherspoon figures to average a cornerback-best $32 million a year.

But there is a lot more to these kinds of deals, from the guarantees to the length to the structure.

The Seahawks just did a contract in January with Charles Cross, adding four years onto his fifth-year option. These deals – if done this year — will look a little different because JSN and Spoon are in the final year of their rookie agreements. Assuming they also get four-year extensions, they would be signed through 2031.

The team will look at them as five-year deals (because that is what they will be), but agents will cast them as four-year extensions for the purposes of weighing them against other players in the market.

Among the considerations here are (1) the salary cap, (2) positional increases in guaranteed money and overall value, (3) the Seahawks’ approach to big deals (e.g., Wilson’s) and (4) how it will work with the fifth-year option.

$200 million for JSN?

Smith-Njigba’s contract will be the bigger and likely more complex of the two, so we will look at the receiver market and his deal first.

Chase and Justin Jefferson – both extended over the past two years — are the two highest-paid receivers in the league. Chase got a 15% raise in APY over Jefferson, but Jefferson still is the league leader in guaranteed money (full and total).

Chase has 46% of his deal fully guaranteed – an average of $18.5 million per year. Jefferson’s full guarantees are a whopping 63% — $22.2 million per year. Their total guarantees are both around $27.5 million per year – that’s 68% of Chase’s total deal and 79% of Jefferson’s.

So what can JSN expect (and not expect)?

For one, the Seahawks do not fully guarantee any money past the first year. They typically have rolling full guarantees each year on the fifth day after the Super Bowl. Year 2 is usually guaranteed for injury at signing.

So JSN knows he is not going to get Jefferson’s 63% in full guarantees. When Wilson signed his new deal in 2019, his full guarantees were around 38%, his total guarantees 76%. JSN might get a little more on the full guarantees – closer to Chase’s 46%.

Cross got 35% fully guaranteed as he became the No. 4-paid left tackle by APY. The Hawks wrapped Cross’ $17.56 million option into the four-year extension to create what is effectively a five-year deal worth $122 million. They fully guaranteed $43 million of it via signing bonus and option bonus.

So the Seahawks seem likely to do the same thing with JSN and Spoon. JSN’s fifth-year option for 2027 is projected to be around $23.85 million (according to Over the Cap).

In 2019, Wilson’s deal included records for signing bonus ($65 million), overall guarantees ($107 million) and annual average ($35 million).

If the Hawks do that with JSN, he would get a signing bonus around $40 million (topping CeeDee Lamb’s receiver-record $38 million), overall guarantees surpassing $110 million and an average per year of around $44 million (a 9% bump over Chase).

That is how the four-year extension would look. The five-year deal would be worth around $200 million, once the option were wrapped in.

Joey Laine has changed how the Seahawks structure contracts, using option bonuses and void years liberally for better creativity. Cross’ deal included a $25 million signing bonus, plus a $15 million option bonus he was paid on March 20. He has another option bonus ($8 million) due in 2028 and void years in 2031 and 2032.

So Laine is likely to use this structure with JSN and Spoon as well.

JSN’s contract could look like this:

**record $40 million signing bonus in 2026

**fully guaranteed $30 million option bonus in 2027 (the first year of the extension)

**fully guaranteed salary of $20 million in 2027

**partially guaranteed salary of $20 million in 2028 (fully guaranteed five days after the Super Bowl that year)

**partially guaranteed option bonus of $10 million in 2028

That would be a record $120 million in total guarantees (a 9% boost over Jefferson and Chase) and a record $90 million in full guarantees – which would be around 44% of the total five-year deal (close to Chase’s 46%).

The Seahawks defer part of the signing bonus in big deals like this, so half of it likely would be paid out next year. But it still would count vs. the cap and be prorated starting this year.

Some think JSN and the Hawks might do just a three-year extension (so a four-year deal in total) because that is what they did with DK Metcalf in 2022. But we think they like JSN a lot more than they liked Metcalf – and thus will prefer to make it a five-year contract.

However Laine does it, JSN is going to be very rich.

Spoon is gonna be fed, too

Witherspoon’s target is to beat Trent McDuffie’s recent new four-year deal with the Rams: $31 million, $100 million in total guarantees, $50 million fully guaranteed.

McDuffie averages $1 million more than Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley Jr.  So figure Spoon will average $32 million on his four-year extension. The Seahawks might wrap in his $21.6 million option and see it as a five-year deal worth close to $150 million.

As for total guarantees, McDuffie has 81% and Gardner 71% — so Spoon should land somewhere in that range.

So here is what it might look like:

**$30 million signing bonus in 2026

**fully guaranteed $20 million option bonus in 2027

**fully guaranteed salary of $10 million in 2027

**partially guaranteed salary of $20 million in 2028 (fully guaranteed five days after the Super Bowl that year)

**partially guaranteed option bonus of $16 million in 2028

That would add up to a five-year deal worth about $150 million, with $96 million guaranteed and $60 million fully guaranteed (matching McDuffie’s 40% in full guarantees).

In the end, the Seahawks often make these deals work a little more in their favor – so maybe the guarantees are not quite as high. And maybe they just do three-year extensions on top of the option. But these numbers are the stratosphere we are looking at for JSN and Spoon.

As far as the salary cap ramifications in 2026, it would just be the prorated portion of the signing bonuses. In the projections above, that would take up a total of about $14 million from this year’s cap.

Beat the team sale?

One other element to this, based on the relatively quick pickup of the options: John Schneider and Jody Allen seem like they are fast-tracking these big extensions before the franchise is sold this year.

They surely want to lock in these guys before a new owner comes in and possibly balks at paying them.