Seattle Seahawks’ free agency patience pays off with pass-rush bonanza – Seattle Seahawks Blog
SEATTLE – When some Seattle Seahawks fans were resentful of their team’s inactivity at the start of the free agency, General Manager John Schneider did what he usually did, letting other teams spend a lot of money while waiting for the right deals came to him.
This patient approach has had mixed results over the years, but there’s no denying how well it has worked for the Seahawks to put together one of their deepest collections of edge rushers in recent years.
That group moved from the Seahawks’ greatest remaining need after their first week of free hand to potentially the strength of their defense after Seattle doubled in team-friendly deals with Benson Mayowa and Kerry Hyder Jr. and then tripled by playing Carlos Dunlap brought back for less than what he would have done had they not released him earlier this month.
That deal came together on Thursday, 10 days after the negotiation window began.
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Between these three, safety Jamal Adams and a handful of promising young players, coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. have to like their options off the edge – although some of the young players are not proven and they have had to let the defensive tackle Jarran Reed to enable these additions.
Even so, it could be as deep and strong a group as the 2013 group that helped Seattle win Super Bowl XLVIII.
If nothing else, it will help the Seahawks avoid repeating the first half of last season when a lack of up-front firepower contributed to an historically poor start to their defenses. Everything turned when Dunlap arrived at an October store and Adams returned from a groin injury. The Seahawks managed just nine sacks in their first six games and led the league with 37 in their last ten games.
Adams led the team with 9.5 sacks to set the NFL record in one season for a defensive back. Dunlap had five sacks in eight games with the Seahawks. Its impact on their pass rush and the way it struggled prior to arriving led some observers to believe that Seattle had no choice but to keep him for the final year of his contract – even with an unwieldy cap of $ 14.1 million.
But Dunlap agreed to restructure his contract to facilitate his trade with Seattle, understanding that the Seahawks would release him and let him test the free hand if the two sides couldn’t agree to an extension. And while an extension would have lowered its cap to something more manageable for Seattle, it was a lot easier said than done to find a deal that made sense for both sides.
With Dunlap’s release, the Seahawks bet that they could either re-sign him or find his replacement for less than they would have paid him. Part of that rationale was their belief that teams would have to switch from productive but high-priced players in the off-season when the entire league feels the pinch of a reduced salary cap, and provide the Seahawks with viable alternatives to Dunlap when they can’t -sign him. With Dunlap’s lower cap and age, they predicted his market would carry a little closer to their preferred price than $ 14.1 million.
Benson Mayowa had six sacks for the Seahawks last season and offers value as a situational pass rusher. Kiyoshi Mio / Icon Sportswire
You were right.
Dunlap’s two-year deal is valued at $ 16.6 million with a $ 8.5 million guarantee, Agent Drew Rosenhaus told ESPN’s Adam Schefter. Mayowa’s two-year contract (with two additional invalid years) is valued at $ 7.62 million with $ 4.1 million guaranteed. Hyder’s two-year contract (with another invalid year) is valued at $ 6.5 million with a $ 3.65 million guarantee.
That means the combined guaranteed money in the two-year contracts for all three players is only $ 2.15 million more than what Seattle Dunlap would have owed in 2021 if he had kept his last deal.
Take a bow, John Schneider.
Hyder had a career high of 8.5 sacks with the San Francisco 49ers last season. Mayowa had six for Seattle.
The young Edge players who will be returning to Seattle are Alton Robinson (four sacks as a rookie in 2020), LJ Collier (three), Rasheem Green (two) and Darrell Taylor. Linebacker Bobby Wagner (three) will continue to be part of their pass rush, as will Poona Ford (two) who improved that part of his game last season and just got a two-year contract as a restricted free agent.
Taylor, last year’s second round pick, is the group’s wild card. He didn’t play as a rookie in college due to a leg injury, although his return to training late in the season bodes well for his chances of getting on the field in 2021.
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Even asking how much Taylor will contribute, the entire collection of talent is reminiscent of 2013. The Seahawks team was so marginalized that Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril spent most of their first season in Seattle, bank behind Chris Clemons and Red Bryant. The Seahawks finished eighth in sacks but led the league by a wide margin en route to a regular season at 13-3 and the franchise’s only Super Bowl title.
This group also received interior fittings from Clinton McDonald, which the Seahawks will have to find when Reed is no longer in the middle. They brought Al Woods back to give them a candidate to replace Reed on early downs, but he won’t consider their pass rush.
The $ 23 million deal Seattle gave Reed last year, a big bet at the time, was a swing and a miss in hindsight.
But their additions from Mayowa, Hyder, and especially Dunlap look like a collective home run.
It’s starting to look a bit like 2013.