The Seahawks are a team in transition. So how has Seattle’s impending free agents played this year and should they be re-signed?
There is a lot of discussion in Seattle about what Russell Wilson‘s next contract will look like. But the Seahawks do not have to worry about that this coming offseason. The team does, however, have some important players in the final years of their contracts.
A lot of these players are unrestricted free agents and can either be franchise-tagged or are good to sign elsewhere unless Seattle elects to pay them. Others are restricted free agents so the Seahawks could match any offers made from another team for a certain player if they wish.
Fewer players are exclusive-rights free agents which Seattle can choose to keep or let go. One player Seattle will definitely be keeping is an ERFA, but more of that in a bit.
In this list I have included the players of each type of free agent. But I mostly am grading the unrestricted players. Should Seattle choose to sign the guys who will they cost too much money. Or possibly that have simply not played well enough to want to keep them.
And just as a peek ahead to 2020, Seattle will need to make a decision whether to re-sign Wilson, Bobby Wagner and Jarran Reed. Thankfully Seattle has a lot of core players under contract for the next few seasons, but Wilson, Wagner and Reed will all want big money and all seem worth it. Seattle won’t be able to keep all three.
Also, I am not including Brett Hundley. He hasn’t played a down and hopefully will not. I wish him well if he does play, of course, I just hope the Seahawks are up by 50 points when he comes in.
Now for the grades for the impending free agents after 2018.
ERFAs and RFAs
Exclusive-rights free agents
The NFL defines ERFAs as “players with two or fewer seasons of service time and whose contracts have expired. If their team tenders a qualifying offer (a one-year contract usually at league-minimum salary) the player has no negotiating rights with other teams, and must either sign the tender with the team or sit out the season,” according to Wikipedia.
The Seahawks have seven such players on their roster currently. Some of them, like Trevone Boykin, will definitely not be returning. Others will possibly return and one will definitely come back.
Receiver David Moore is an ERFA. But after his production of the last few weeks, Moore not only will remain with the Seahawks but will be an important part of their passing game for the next few years. Moore has 22 catches this season and five touchdowns. I am not really giving grades to the ERFAs, but if I were Moore would get an A.
Austin Calitro is also an ERFA and has done decently in a lot of time in 2018, but he also has shown he isn’t really ready to be a starter in the NFL.
Restricted free agents
A restricted free agent is a player who has accrued three seasons in the league. The player can negotiate with other teams but their old team has the ability to match any offer.
Seattle has nine of the types of free agents. The list includes George Fant and Joey Hunt, both offensive linemen. Quinton Jefferson and Branden Jackson are two defensive linemen that are RFAs. And running back J.D. McKissic is an RFA too,
While it might be nice to have some of the RFAs return, the Seahawks would survive just as well if none of them came back.
And now for the fun stuff. Here are the grades for Seattle’s unrestricted free agents through 11 games of 2018.
The Fs
Earl Thomas
Thomas held out and was a distraction during the preseason. He decided not to show up and be a good teammate. Seattle was still going to pay him to do his job if he did show up but he didn’t so he lost a lot of money.
Worse, the Seahawks are a young team and have a lot of members of the secondary, like Tedric Thompson, who could have learned from Thomas. But Thomas chose himself over the team.
Sure, he came back and had an electric game against the Cowboys but he also missed tackles against the Broncos and Bears. He was rusty, then good and then got injured. And the lasting memory of his final moments wearing a Seahawks uniform will be of him being carted off the field flipping off the team.
Thomas will definitely not be returning to play football with Seattle and he has himself to blame for a lot of that.
Chances Thomas returns to Seahawks: Zero percent
Dion Jordan
Seattle needed a good season from Jordan. So far what they have gotten is half-a-sack. Jordan is always questionable as to whether he will play in a game or not. But he has shown up in eight of Seattle’s 11 games. Jordan just hasn’t been good this year.
The Seahawks have one very good defensive end, Frank Clark. They were hoping Jordan could disrupt from the other side of Clark it hasn’t happened. Besides that half-sack, Jordan has three quarterback hits and just one tackle for loss.
Chances Jordan returns to Seahawks: 25 percent
The Ds
K.J. Wright
Wright had his knee scoped in preseason and hasn’t been the same since. He has been a good player in Seattle and made one Pro Bowl. And he and Wagner know how to play off of each other after all their years together.
But Wright will also be 30 years old next season and for a linebacker that relies on speed, 30 can be quite old. Will Wright ever fully recover from whatever is going on with his knee? Wright has so far played in three games in 2018 and wasn’t himself in any of them. And he may not be able to play anymore the rest of the year.
Thankfully for Seattle, they will get back Mychal Kendricks in week 14 and Kendricks played well in his limited time with the Seahawks this year. In fact, with no jail time Kendricks could replace Wright on the 2019 roster.
Chances Wright returns to Seahawks: 55 percent
Maurice Alexander
Alexander is simply holding down a roster spot for someone else. It says a lot that even though Alexander has starting experience, he hasn’t gotten a whiff of starting in Seattle even with Thomas’s injury.
Alexander has been having injury issues this season, too. The safety has appeared in just five games and recorded five tackles. For a former starter in the NFL, that is not much production.
The good thing for Seattle about Alexander is he is only costing them $790,000 so he doesn’t take a lot away from cap space.
Chances Alexander returns to Seahawks: 20 percent
The Cs
Mychal Kendricks
I would like to give Kendricks a much higher grade and would have (most likely) had he played more games this year. But the NFL in all its wisdom decided to suspend the linebacker eight games for being found guilty of insider trading.
Kendricks did commit the crime. I know this because he admitted to it and paid back the money he gained from the transaction. The crime also seemed like something he was tricked into rather than created. But leave it to the NFL to suspend someone longer for a non-violent crime than a violent one.
In three games in 2018, though, Kendricks had two sacks and 15 tackles. That is good stuff. Kendricks will be sentenced in January for his crime but there is a possibility he serves no jail time. Should he not, Seattle should seriously think about retaining his services.
Chances Kendricks returns to Seahawks: 50 percent (if no jail time)
Shamar Stephen
Stephen was brought in to do one thing: Help Seattle stop opposing teams from running the ball. Unfortunately, Seattle has not done a great job of that in recent weeks. In their last three games, the Seahawks rank 23rd in the league in yards allowed rushing.
According to Pro Football Focus, Stephen is lowest graded inside defender Seattle has.
Chances Stephen returns to Seahawks: 25 percent
Justin Coleman
I had higher hopes for Coleman this season after his very good 2017 season. Seattle re-signed Coleman to a one-year deal but really wanted a longer contract. They just didn’t want to pay him what Coleman wanted.
The question now is should Coleman have taken what Seattle offered? And the issue is that Coleman started the year well but hasn’t had a pass defended in three games. Have opposing quarterbacks figured out how to attack him?
Chances Coleman returns to Seahawks: 50 percent
The Bs
Mike Davis
Davis has been everything Seattle needed him to be. He gets brought in a bunch to try to close out games and did just that against the Packers in week 11. Plus, he had a 101-yard, two touchdown game against the Cardinals in week four when Chris Carson had to miss the game.
Davis isn’t the flashiest of runners but fits great in the Seahawks’ system. And he does average 4.5 yards-per-carry in 2018 and that is very good.
I am giving away my last bit about Davis here, but Davis probably shouldn’t return to Seattle in 2019. Not because he isn’t good enough but simply because another team should be able to pay him more for how good he is.
Chances Davis returns to Seahawks: 25 percent
Sebastian Janikowski
Remember 2017, 12s? That is when Seattle had Blair Walsh and every attempted kick was seemingly a nightmare. And while Janikowski doesn’t have the leg he did early in his career, he is still good enough to make kicks beyond 50 yards. The kicker is three for five on those types of kicks this year.
He also made the game-winner against the Panthers in week 12. Last year I might have had to close my eyes as I simply couldn’t watch what Walsh might do. Against Carolina, I had absolute faith Seabass was going to make the field goal with no issues.
Chances Janikowski returns to Seahawks: 60 percent
J.R. Sweezy
Sweezy is a good reason you can kind of discount Pro Football Focus’s grades for blocking. PFF is a great site but has always struggled with offensive lines. According to PFF, Sweezy is graded as the 74th best guard in the NFL in 2018.
But we all know how much better the Seahawks are this season with Sweezy playing guard instead of Ethan Pocic. There are several reasons Seattle leads the NFL in rushing. Sweezy is one of them.
Chances Sweezy returns (again) to the Seahawks: 75 percent
The As
D.J. Fuker
Fluker hasn’t been perfect, of course. But he has brought a mentality that Seattle has lacked for years. Fluker wants to maul you and he likes talking about how he mauled you after the game. The “taking Suh to water” comment after the first Seattle-Rams game this year? Beautiful.
Fluker is in his first season with Seattle and it shouldn’t be his last. What kind of money will he expect this offseason? Of that I am not sure. He is a guard and not a tackle and hasn’t been a consistently great performer in his career. Whatever he wants, Seattle should take a little off and sign him.
Cohesion and talent is what makes offensive lines good. The Seahawks need to bring back all the players on this year’s line for next year. And Fluker is a big (literally) piece of that.
Chances Seahawks bring Fluker back: Please, please, please let it be 100 percent
Frank Clark
What? You didn’t think Clark was very good against the Panthers? He wasn’t. In fact, no pass rusher for Seattle was. But Clark was needed to have a big season for the Seahawks. He was the only true pass rusher the team had after Seattle lost Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett in the offseason.
Opposing teams knew they could focus on Clark this year. Yet he still has 10 sacks in 2018. Is Clark a perfect player? No. But he is a great pass rusher. And even though teams have schemed against him, he has produced. Seattle absolutely and definitely should re-sign Clark this coming offseason.
Chances Seahawks bring Clark back: Should be 100 percent