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.
Continue reading Will Williams be a rare trade extension win for Schneider?
Jamal Adams’ long anticipated release this week ended the worst trade/signing of John Schneider’s 14-year tenure in Seattle.
We actually had written off Adams 18 months ago, when he suffered a season-ending quadriceps injury in the 2022 season opener against Russell Wilson and the Broncos. So, for us, his release this week was just the official word on what we expected to happen ever since that Monday night game.
This is the result some feared from the day in July 2020 that Schneider sent two first-rounders and more to the Jets for the All-Pro safety. Those people hated the trade and dreaded the extension that was soon to come, suspecting it would be a waste of money. They were right.
Schneider still defends the deal as the way to go amid the pandemic in 2020. He is annoyed that people are criticizing the trade, which cost Seattle the 23rd and 86th picks in 2021 and the 10th pick in 2022.
Continue reading Schneider ‘tired’ of trade criticism, but Adams was his worst bust
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?
Continue reading Why pay Geno now? The Combine is coming“The season is not over, but just the sour taste that has been in our mouth since Day 1 hasn’t really left. It hasn’t been right since Day 1. … Something’s missing.” — K.J. Wright on Seattle Sports 710
It was great to hear K.J. Wright speak the brutal truth about these uninspired, inattentive, nonchalant Seahawks this week.
The former team star, speaking on his Seattle Sports 710 radio show, ripped the immature antics of DK Metcalf and Jamal Adams, the poor play of Darrell Taylor and Riq Woolen, the out-of-the-picture Quandre Diggs and even, subtly, his venerable friend Bobby Wagner.
With all of the bad attitudes and/or terrible play, Wright said Pete Carroll needs to “lay down the hammer.”
“I am pleading with him this week to really and truly lay down the hammer, lay down the law with these guys. Enough has been enough.”
Continue reading ‘Lay the hammer down’: Wright nailed the truth about the HawksNow that the Seahawks have proven how far they are from contending, with another double-digit loss to the 49ers, attention for most is turning to the future of this franchise. How do they get where the 49ers are?
Pete Carroll’s team is technically still in the playoff chase, but the odds are against the Hawks making it. They are 6-7 with four straight losses – something Carroll hasn’t been a part of for at least a couple of decades — and probably will go 2-2 in the final four to finish 8-9.
The Hawks are among the league’s many mediocre teams: 13 are 6-7 or 7-6. The 49ers are the clear class of the NFC, if not the NFL, and Seattle has been beaten by that Super Bowl contender by an aggregate score of 59-29 (average of about 30-15) twice over the past three weeks. So we know the gap between the Hawks and Super Bowl contention: two touchdowns.
But no one really knows what the solution for this team is. Many want Carroll gone (whether he is fired or retires). Others want coordinators ousted. Others want better players at key spots. Some people want all of the above.
One thing’s for sure: Something has to change.
Continue reading More ‘bad ball’ from the defense means it’s time to look aheadAs Pete Carroll is fond of saying – and said again Monday morning – the Seahawks “are always competing.” But, every three years or so, you can count on John Schneider going for it even bigger than usual.
On Monday, Schneider pulled off his first deadline deal since 2020, acquiring Pro Bowl defensive lineman Leonard Williams from the New York Giants in a bid to further strengthen Seattle’s ascending defense. It’s a move that puts even more pressure on Geno Smith to play mistake-free football.
Continue reading Leonard Williams trade makes good defense better, puts pressure on GenoUpon 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?
Continue reading How will Hawks make cap room for rookies and the rest?
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.
Continue reading After Wagner’s return, Hawks ‘pretty tapped out’ but still have work to doQ&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.
Continue reading 2023 is make-or-break for $70M man AdamsPete Carroll and John Schneider clearly were happy they defied most expectations and put together a playoff team in 2022. But they know they have work to do, both citing the 49ers as their paragon as they enter the second half of a two-year franchise build using high draft picks.
As Schneider told Seattle Sports Radio, the 49ers are “the biggest, fastest, most physical football team in the National Football League. And we gotta get back to that. No questions asked. … We know what we need to do to attack this thing and take the next step.”
Continue reading ‘A dream opportunity’: Roster review and offseason to-dos
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 