Enough stalling, Seahawks need to get Doug Baldwin signed

Doug Baldwin is entering the final year of his contract. It is time for the Seahawks to get him locked up for the next few seasons.

We’re waiting. It has been almost five months since the Seattle Seahawks 2015 season ended prematurely. We’ve seen some players leave, some stay, and other players join the team. There still hasn’t been a contract extension for wide receiver Doug Baldwin.

Pete Carroll and John Schneider have said they want it done. Doug Baldwin has said he wants it done. It still isn’t done. We’re waiting.

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Baldwin is entering the finally year of a 3 year, $13 million contract. That came after four seasons of playing on an undrafted free agent deal. It should be fairly obvious that Baldwin has outperformed his contract in all six of his NFL seasons.

Baldwin deserves to get paid, and we’re still waiting for it to happen.

Last year, Baldwin set the franchise record for touchdown receptions with 14. He was the first Seahawk to eclipse the 1000 yard receiving mark since Bobby Engram in 2008. All this while being an emotional team leader who helped right the ship after a slow start.

Keep in mind that Baldwin put up those stats in a low-volume offense that prefers to run the ball and slow down the tempo as much as possible. There are a limited number of chances, and Baldwin has made the absolute most of them.

Making things worse is that the Seahawks ponied up and gave Jermaine Kearse a new contract already this offseason. If keeping the inferior Kearse means they can no longer afford to extend Baldwin, than the front office made a major blunder.

That is a false dichotomy though. The Seahawks can definitely afford both. Their cap troubles are largely overstated after they managed to go cheap on the offensive line and at defensive tackle this offseason. Any money that people assumed would go to those positions was left mostly unused.

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And so we’re waiting. Waiting for Baldwin to get the extension he deserves; waiting for news that negotiations have at least begun; waiting for something to finally happen.

Hopefully we won’t be waiting for too much longer.