The Seahawks made an interesting move today, restructuring Leonard Williams’ contract to free up $14m. They’re still $16.7m in the red in terms of effective cap space but there are simple ways to get into the black in the coming weeks.
If you haven’t seen it, I’d highly recommend checking out Curtis Allen’s thoughts on what this all means on X. I wanted to add some additional thoughts, having been influenced by Curtis’.
Initially I thought this move meant one of two things — either the Seahawks were preparing for an exciting free agency, with money to burn to improve areas such as the offensive line, or they were setting the table for potentially living with Geno Smith’s $44.5m cap hit.
On reflection, I don’t think it’s either of these things. Curtis lays out the situation perfectly.
Whenever we looked at Seattle’s cap situation, it was always with a relaxed mindset because they had several levers to pull. One of those was a DK Metcalf extension.
Brandon Aiyuk’s cap-hit this year, the first as part of his new deal in San Francisco, is only $10.7m. That’s despite signing a $30m a year extension. I’d suggest Metcalf might get a similar contract. Therefore it’s entirely possible to reduce his cap-hit from $31m into the $15m range — if not more.
However, that would mean getting a deal done in the coming weeks to benefit from the saving during free agency. That seems unlikely. Metcalf’s current contract was signed at the end of July in 2022. They could be working to a similar timescale. Therefore, the Seahawks still need to create some cap space for the here and now.
The restructuring of Williams’ deal more or less makes up for the fact a Metcalf extension won’t happen by the time free agency begins. They’re just moving money around. The Williams restructure creates $14m and they can spend all of it in March. Then in the summer, when they extend Metcalf, they’ll get that money back — creating cap-space to use from August onwards on things like a practise squad, injured reserve and anything else they want to do (last year, this included signing Connor Williams).
As noted, currently the Seahawks are $16.7m over the cap in terms of effective cap space (how much you have to spend). Cutting Tyler Lockett ($17m), George Fant ($3.8m) and Roy Robertson-Harris ($6.6m) will put them in the black and give them $10.7m in spending money going into free agency.
The next big lever would be Geno Smith’s contract. I agree with Curtis that the Seahawks, as part of a compromise agreement, will likely want a financial arrangement similar to 2024. His cap-hit was $26.4m and he had a bunch of escalators in the deal to earn more money.
This is my guess — the Seahawks will be prepared to pay that amount again as a 2025 cap-hit, with the escalators earned last season added on. So basically, a cap-hit of about $32m for 2025 (down from $44.5m). They’ll be able to present the deal to the media that portrays it positively from a player perspective — a two or three-year extension with more guaranteed money, including more guarantees this year, worth about $40m a season. The Seahawks would want the flexibility to get out of the contract in 2026 if they wish.
This would create another $12.5m to spend. In total, with these handful of moves, they’d have $23.2m in effective cap space available to use in free agency.
Would Smith be willing to compromise on a deal like this? That’s the big unknown. The way connected people are talking, such as Brady Henderson, I’d guess it’s not clear at the moment. Smith’s representatives have no incentive to cave to any compromise at this point. The Seahawks have probably already told Smith’s people what they want to do, which could be a scenario like the one presented above, and Smith will likely be asking for a bigger commitment. Time and intel, potentially gathered at the combine, will dictate whether a compromise is reached.
The thing we have to remember is Smith had a lukewarm free agent market two years ago after the best season of his career. Now he’s two years older and statistically at least he hasn’t returned to his 2022 numbers. Is there really a team out there willing to pay him a fortune and make a firm commitment to a 35-year-old for multiple seasons?
I thought the Las Vegas Raiders might be willing to do that purely because of Pete Carroll. The appointment of Chip Kelly as offensive coordinator, rather than the rumoured Darrell Bevell, suggests it’s Tom Brady and Johy Spytek — not Carroll — pulling the strings in Vegas. I’m not convinced they’ll want to trade for and pay Smith, even if Carroll wants to.
If there are no obvious alternative suitors out there, there’s little point Smith going to battle with the Seahawks. It makes a compromise more likely. That is my prediction as to what happens here.
There is one other possible scenario which would be aggressive. Smith could tell the Seahawks he isn’t willing to compromise and that they should just release him, making him a free agent. That would be quite the gamble because the offer Seattle makes might be better than one he’ll get anywhere else. It’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
If they compromise and are left with about $23m to spend in free agency, that would set up the next set of decisions.
Here are some other potential cuts:
Uchenna Nwosu — $8.1m saving ($13m dead money)
Dre’Mont Jones — $11.6m saving ($14m dead money)
Noah Fant — $8.9m saving ($4.5m dead money)
A lot of people expect the Seahawks to part with at least Dre’Mont Jones and possibly all three players.
Curtis discussed the possibility of a restructure for Uchenna Nwosu, creating two void years and freeing up $9.5m. That seems plausible. He also suggested they might re-work his deal to lower his cap-hit — giving him the chance to earn back the money via incentives. That likely would be his best bet financially — given a player with two years of injury issues is unlikely to be a hot commodity on the market. They’ll have to make a decision on Nwosu by next Friday due to the structure of his contract.
On Fant, I think they will keep him until at least after the draft. There’s no difference in the money saved before and after June 1st. Therefore they can see how the draft goes and make a decision down the line. Fant has been a disappointment in his career so far, particularly in Seattle, yet it might be difficult to replace him sufficiently.
With Jones, there’s absolutely no doubt he’s been a big waste of money. His cap-hit of $25.6m is untenable. They’ll cut him to save $11.5m.
These moves could create another $21m — meaning $44m total spending money.
Some of this would be used to keep Ernest Jones and possibly Jarran Reed. If Jones agreed a deal similar to Patrick Queen’s, he might have a cap-hit of around $6.5m in 2025. Reed has an APY of $4.5m on his most recent deal and a two-year extension on similar terms could see a cap-hit of around $3m.
This would leave the Seahawks with about $35m to use in free agency. That would be more than enough to be active on day one for a coveted offensive lineman.
I do believe the Seahawks are willing to spend. Recent history tells us they are. It’s not just that they splurged on Dre’Mont Jones two years ago on day one of free agency. Last year they also made a big splash to keep Leonard Williams. I fully expect them to land an offensive lineman in the first rush of free agency this year.
Trey Smith might be too expensive, with too much competition for his services. It wouldn’t be a surprise if he ends up earning receiver-level money frankly, completely re-setting the market for interior linemen. Drew Dalman and Mekhi Becton might be more realistic targets.
It’s also possible that all three of those players are re-signed by their teams before they even reach the market. In that instance, they might need to pivot to short-term options — Ryan Kelly or Brandon Scherff for example. Or they could look at the second-tier of players at a good age — Josh Myers, Ben Bredeson, Will Fries, James Daniels, Aaron Banks or Jedrick Wills for example.
It’s also possible they look at the trade market. If the Chiefs do re-sign Trey Smith to a mega-deal they might be inclined to consider offers for Joe Thuney.
The point is, they will have money to do something. They’ll also have the ability to go and sign another veteran at a cost-effective price. Lucas Patrick gave the Saints a very solid 2024 season at guard. He’s 32 in July, his zone-blocking grade (68.7) was far better than his gap-scheme grade (51.9) and he’s familiar with Klint Kubiak’s offense. It won’t be a surprise if he’s brought in for depth and experience — or perhaps as a draft hedge for the left guard position.
I do think it’s worth saving some money for other areas of the team. You never know when a market will come to you. Jamien Sherwood, Osa Odighizuwa, Jevon Holland, Tre’von Moehrig, Milton Williams, Talanoa Hufanga, Asante Samuel Jr, Juwan Johnson, Dayo Odeyingbo, Andre Cisco, DJ Jones, Tommy Tremble — there are a lot of players at a good age set to reach free agency. If the Seahawks can solve their O-line need with a key signing early on, knowing they can add a second cheaper veteran (eg Lucas), they can then go hunting for opportunities.
They can also replace other players cheaply. Marquez Valdes-Scantling had an unexpected re-emergence under Kubiak in New Orleans. He wouldn’t cost too much to fill the void left by Tyler Lockett. Teair Tart might be a cost-effective replacement for Robertson-Harris after a solid year playing for Jim Harbaugh in LA, with Levi Onwuzurike a possible alternative. Joe Tryon-Shoyinka could be a bit of a project or draft hedge replacement for Jones. There are appealing options at a few positions.
Edit — I just wanted to add an extra thought, having just seen this video where Jay Glazer is asked whether the Seahawks will listen to trade offers for DK Metcalf. Glazer, who is very well connected when it comes to Seattle, said he thinks they’ll listen. So today’s move, to create cap-space with Williams, could also theoretically be to free up additional money in anticipation of a possible trade.
Dealing Metcalf would cost the Seahawks $21m in dead money with only a $10.9m cap saving. Therefore, any trade offer would need to be very attractive to entertain it. However, if someone was willing to make a big push for Metcalf, the savings made by the Williams restructure, on top of the savings made by parting with the receiver, would equate to $24m combined.
It’s something else to consider. The Seahawks want to run the ball and might theoretically want to shift resources from receiver to the trenches. They’re going to have to pay Jaxson Smith-Njigba within the next two years. John Schneider has done a good job over the years identifying receivers in the draft. I think they’d probably prefer to extend and keep Metcalf but if they receive a very attractive trade offer, perhaps of a similar value to the one that saw Frank Clark depart for Kansas City, they might be prepared to consider it.
