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?
John Schneider has stopped playing the comp game.
As the deadline for compensatory signings passed this week, the Seahawks once again ended up with a zero in the comp column. The 2022 draft will be the fourth time in five years that the Seahawks won’t have any comp picks – quite a reversal for a team that used to play that game as much as anyone.
As we wrote last year, Schneider wasn’t getting much out of those picks anyway. But why has his strategy changed?
The quick answer: Seattle has lost few quality UFAs and largely has decided signing veterans to replace departing players is better than angling for a fourth-round pick the next year.
Let’s delve deeper into it though.
Continue reading Comp picks no longer a priority for Seattle
Pete Carroll has never been afraid to reunite with former players — usually after their big-money days are done and they have reached the points in their careers where they are role players.
Marshawn Lynch and Robert Turbin were the most recent examples, returning to help Carroll’s battered backfield late last season. This week, everyone has been talking about the possibility of Michael Bennett coming back.
While anything is possible, that seems unlikely. But what about some other former Seahawks?
Continue reading Bennett is not the only reunion to consider
The good news: The Seahawks don’t have to play in Denver and Chicago during the winter. The bad news: They have to open with consecutive road games.
The opener in Denver and the Monday night game in Chicago in Week 2 mark the third time since 2011 the Hawks have started with two straight road games. They opened 0-2 in both 2011 and 2015.
Seattle’s 2018 schedule is weighted toward road games early and home games late: The Seahawks play five of the first seven on the road and four of the final five at home (three in prime time).
They have five prime-time games — four in Seattle, where the Hawks are 17-2 in night games (including playoffs) under Pete Carroll. They are 26-5-1 in prime time overall under Carroll.
John Schneider has been a gambling man plenty of times in the past, and here’s a gamble he really needs to make today: Use the franchise tag on Sheldon Richardson.
Schneider has a base 75 percent chance of winning a tag gamble. The only negative would come if Richardson insisted on signing and playing on the $13.9 million tender. That seems very unlikely, which leaves three winning scenarios for Schneider: (1) Strike a long-term deal, (2) trade him for a Day 2 pick (and something else), (3) rescind the tag, let Richardson leave in free agency and end up with a high comp pick in 2019.
At the Combine last Friday, Schneider said he needed to “figure out how to compensate” for Seattle’s gaping hole on Day 2 of the draft. Trading 32-year-old Michael Bennett won’t do it. But tagging Richardson likely would — whether he stays or goes.
“Everybody’s talking to everybody” — Pete Carroll
That about sums up the state of affairs at the Combine, although Carroll was talking specifically about Earl Thomas there.
Carroll revealed very little about Seattle’s direction with contracts, trades and free agents, but he offered a few little nuggets.
Among the tidbits: He has talked to Thomas; John Schneider is talking to other teams about possible deals; the franchise tag is still an option for Sheldon Richardson; the team has talked to DeShawn Shead about playing safety again; Carroll has not talked to Michael Bennett; and Carroll would love to keep Jimmy Graham (and every free agent).
It’s looking more and more like the Richardsons will indeed join Jimmy Graham in departing Seattle next month and Legion of Boomers Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas will not be going anywhere.
Here’s the latest on those guys and more free agency scuttlebutt:
A report from NFL Network confirmed what we have said all offseason: It doesn’t look like either Sherman or Thomas will be traded. Sherman has no value while rehabbing his torn Achilles and the Seahawks would prefer a long-term deal with Thomas, unless they get a great offer.
The NFL year begins in a month, and the rumors and speculation are heating up across the league as free agency and the trading period approach.
In addition to the usual free agency chatter, there is a lot of speculation about what the Seahawks are going to do with veterans Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Michael Bennett — all signed for 2018.
Barring value trade offers, we expect all three to be back — Thomas with a new deal and Sherman and Bennett likely playing their final seasons in Seattle.
Here’s the latest scuttlebutt on Seattle’s top pending free agents and some players who have been mentioned in connection with the Seahawks:
With playoff hopes slim for the Seahawks, and a Super Bowl hardly a consideration even if they do make the postseason, many people already are looking ahead to 2018.
Some overreactive fools are suggesting the Seahawks blow up the entire team, fire Pete Carroll, trade Russell Wilson and get rid of every defender over 30. That’s complete silliness, obviously.
Carroll and Wilson have presided over the greatest era of Seahawks football — a six-year run that has included 64 wins, five playoff appearances, two Super Bowls and one NFL title. Yeah, it has been a relative disappointment ever since Carroll’s botched XLIX decision — the potential dynasty fizzled out with that huge gaffe.
But these guys have plenty left.
Three-quarters of the way through the season, the Seahawks are finally starting to look like the Super Bowl contender we all expected.
Well, not exactly like we all expected.
Having lost three star defenders and their preferred starting running back, while dealing with a variety of other injuries and issues (penalties, offensive line shuffling, etc.), they have had a lot to overcome and have changed in unexpected ways. That explains why it took them 12 games to look like one of the NFC’s top teams.
Continue reading Key guys playing big roles in contract years; who might be back?
CHAWK TALK: Everything being said about the Seahawks 