Category Archives: Contracts

Contracts, The roster

If Geno plays well, could he stick around for a ‘few years’?

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Everyone keeps wanting to kick Geno Smith to the curb, replacing him with a draft pick or Sam Howell — or anybody really.

But it sure seems like he is growing on new Seahawks coach Mike Macdonald. Not enough to get a new contract yet, as Smith reportedly would like, but it sounds as though the door could be open to a new deal after the season – if Smith plays worth it.

During camp, Macdonald hinted that Smith could indeed be in Seattle beyond 2025.

“I think that relationship is blossoming,’’ Macdonald told SI’s Albert Breer. “We’re not there yet; it’s still six months in or whatever. But we’re looking forward to seeing where it evolves over the next few years.’’

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Contracts, Free agency

Hawks used over $35M in cap space and don’t look any better

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By the end of the first day of the new league year, the Seahawks had used over $35 million in salary cap space to address four of their six positional needs – and they still didn’t look like they had improved their roster.

After free agents flew off the shelves in the first two days, we thought John Schneider might be preparing to make a trade to improve his roster. Instead, he stuck to his typical MO and overpaid role players who gradually ate up almost all of Seattle’s cap space.

There certainly were good moves. The Hawks accomplished their top priority: keeping Leonard Williams. They also kept their starting tight end, Noah Fant; found a safety, Rayshawn Jenkins, to start opposite Julian Love; and added insurance at right tackle by bringing back George Fant.

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Contracts, Franchise history, Free agency

Will Williams be a rare trade extension win for Schneider?

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John Schneider has not been very lucky with a lot of his big trade acquisitions, but he is betting – as he had to – that Leonard Williams will become the second successful extension out of the five he has made since 2010.

The Seahawks sent a 2024 second-round pick and 2025 fifth-rounder to the New York Giants for Williams last October, and they managed to re-sign him on Monday to a three-year deal worth $64.5 million.

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Contracts, Free agency, NFL Combine

Why pay Geno now? The Combine is coming

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Just a few days after Geno Smith’s 2024 salary became guaranteed, the Seahawks made a mildly surprising move to give him even more guaranteed money, converting his March roster bonus into a pay-now bonus to add $4.8 million in cap space.

Why did they decide to pay the $9.6 million now, three weeks before the league year begins and 25 days before it was technically due?

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Contracts, The roster

History says Geno will lead the Hawks to the playoffs in 2024, then be replaced

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If history is any predictor, Geno Smith will lead the Seahawks to the playoffs in Mike Macdonald’s first season – and then be replaced shortly thereafter.

John Schneider has been involved in a new Seattle coach’s transition period with a lame-duck quarterback twice before and been instrumental in finding the franchise quarterback both times.  

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Contracts, NFL draft

How will Hawks make cap room for rookies and the rest?

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Upon completion of a draft that added 10 players to Seattle’s cap-strapped roster, John Schneider was asked whether he needed to make any contract-related moves to sign the rookies.

Schneider’s answer: “We’re OK right now.”

“Right now” is the operative phrase, as the Seahawks definitely will need to create about $4 million in space to sign the rookies before training camp. By the time the season starts, they also will need about $6 million for practice squad and injury moves. And they probably are budgeting about $2.5 million for Al Woods or another veteran D-lineman – which they need very much.

All told, the Hawks need about $12.5 million in added cap space.

So where do they get it?

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Contracts, Free agency

After Wagner’s return, Hawks ‘pretty tapped out’ but still have work to do

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After the Seahawks cut Al Woods last week, John Schneider told Seattle Sports 710 “… we needed to create some space to try to get something done.”

And then they got that “something done,” bringing back Bobby Wagner on a deal reportedly worth up to $7 million.

It put the cap on perhaps the most aggressive free agency period we have seen by Schneider and Co., who signed six projected starters – five of them on defense – and paid an aggregate annual average of $8.5 million, the most they have ever spent on outside free agents in an offseason. Most of that is thanks to paying $17 million per year to new star defensive lineman Dre Jones, but all except Evan Brown got more than $3.5 million per year.

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Contracts, Free agency

Hawks full of (good) surprises in first week of free agency

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John Schneider and Pete Carroll were not kidding when they declared they were going to get better on the defensive line this offseason.

They surprised everyone by breaking out of their frugal free agency routine when they gave Dre Jones the biggest deal they have ever given an outside free agent: $17 million per year over three years. It was a stunningly aggressive start to what has been a surprising free agency period in several ways.

Jarran Reed unexpectedly returned. The Hawks got a good veteran center for much cheaper than expected. Linebackers went fast, but the Hawks added Devin Bush — and Bobby Wagner remained unsigned through this publish, giving Quandre Diggs and many fans hope that he might yet return. The Hawks also added a good starting safety at a bargain, creating all kinds of questions and possibilities at that position.

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Contracts, The roster

2023 is make-or-break for $70M man Adams

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Q&A series: We take a look at some big questions about the Seahawks’ salary cap situation and roster. 

Today’s question: Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs are the highest-paid safety tandem in the NFL and have the largest cap hits on the team in 2023. How is that hurting the team? And how long will that continue?

Recent salary guarantees for Seattle’s top-paid players served as the latest occasion for some fans to grouse about the team’s overinvestment in its safeties.

The Seahawks having the highest-paid safety duo in the NFL is nothing new. Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor once held that distinction, too.

But Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs are no Chancellor and Thomas, and plenty of fans are understandably irked over Seattle’s waste of resources at the position – they have the highest cap hits on the team in 2023 at $18.1 million each, ahead of star receivers Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf.

Some who don’t understand capology – or the way the Seahawks operate — want the rehabbing Adams to be cut. That won’t happen, especially after part of his salary was guaranteed on Feb. 17. But you can bet 2024 will be a different conversation, if he does not play up to his $70 million contract in 2023.

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Contracts, NFL draft

Smith a better value than top-five QB in 2023

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Q&A series: We take a look at some big questions about the Seahawks’ salary cap situation and roster.  

Today’s question: Instead of paying big money to Geno Smith, should the Seahawks draft a QB or go with Drew Lock and use cap space on other positions?

There remains a subset of fans and media who think the formula for winning the Super Bowl is a quarterback on a rookie contract and a team built around that player.

The main data point for their argument is the fact that no team has won a Super Bowl with a QB who has taken up more than 13.1% of the team’s salary cap. Russell Wilson, a former third-round pick with a cap hit of $681,000 when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl, is the bellwether for that theory.

The fact is that, in the salary cap era (1994 to now), 75% of the time the Super Bowl-winning QB has been in the top three in team cap percentage, according to a 2022 study by Bookies.com. Three QBs on rookie deals have won it in the past 11 years, but most of the winners fell in the range of 10.6% to 12.3% of team cap.

In other words, there is no rhyme or reason to the trend.

If the Chiefs beat the Eagles in Super Bowl LVII, Patrick Mahomes will become the first QB over 13.1% (Steve Young in 1994) to win it. Mahomes took up 17.2% of the Chiefs’ cap this season.

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