Four players Seahawks should target in free agency

The Seahawks have several free agents of their own they need to sign. But who are some players on the open market they should go after?

For once, the Seahawks have some money to spend in free agency. Of course, a lot of the cap space Seattle has should go towards re-signing Frank Clark and possibly K.J. Wright. But Seattle has the ninth-most cap space in the NFL for 2019 at $59,885,232 and some of this should go towards bringing in proven talent.

And putting Clark aside for the moment, the Seahawks do not have any players they absolutely should re-sign. Except Frank Clark. Did I mention Seattle needs to re-sign defensive end Clark? I think so. And now I digress.

Even Wright is not a must-sign. He is a good player who Seattle would like to keep on the roster. But if his being let go to sign elsewhere means bringing in a player at a greater position of need then so be it. Wright is a great person and I wish him well. The NFL, however, is a business.

Seattle’s greatest positions of need are along the defensive line, kicker and offensive line. The reason I bring up the offensive line is that Seattle has both starting guards as free agents. D.J. Fluker should be brought back, if the money is right. The same could be said about J.R. Sweezy but health is a big concern for him.

So which players from other teams might be able to help Seattle get back to the playoffs next year? Here are four players that could end up with the Seahawks.

Jason Myers

The bad thing is that Seattle could have just kept Myers and let Sebastian Janikowski walk this past offseason. The two kickers were in a preseason battle for who would kick for the Seahawks this season. No one could really blame Pete Carroll and John Schneider for keeping Janikowski and letting Myers walk, though. Myers was inconsistent from 2015-2017 with the Jacksonville Jaguars while Janikowski has mostly been very good over a long career.

But in 2018, Myers was better than Janikowski. Myers made 33 of 36 field goal attempts and six of seven beyond 50 yards. Janikowski was 22 of 27 on field goals and just three of five beyond 50 yards. Plus, by the end of the season Janikowski just appeared to break down physically.

Janikowski is 427 years old, of course. (OK, he will only be 41 by the beginning of next season.) But Myers will be a spry 28 years old in the 2019 season. Seattle needs to be done with one-year-and-out kickers like Janikowski and Blair Walsh.

The Seahawks need to sign Myers to a three-year deal and cement who the kicker will be in Seattle for several seasons. Do I expect Myers to replicate his 2018 season? Maybe or maybe not. But he should at least be consistently good.

Seattle has other worries besides having to think about whether their kicker will walk out on the field and make a kick. For two seasons, this has been a concern in Seattle. Myers would fix that.

Landon Collins

I understand that Seattle will most likely have no chance to sign strong safety Collins. And I understand that the Seahawks would not want to give up on Tedric Thompson and Delano Hill. But if Seattle truly wants to become a Super Bowl contender again, they need to spend some money on Collins.

Just imagine, 12s, a safety duo of Collins and Bradley McDougald. While the pairing isn’t exactly Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor, it isn’t far off either. Collins might be just as good as Chancellor and McDougald is smart enough to overcome the fact that he doesn’t have Thomas’ speed.

Collins also plays his position a lot like Chancellor. He makes a ton of tackles and hits hard. Collins is also very good against the run.

Thompson and Hill might become good players or they might not. Taking a chance that they will develop into good players might cost Seattle a couple of seasons. Seattle can win big and win big now and one way to do that is to spend a little money on players like Collins.

Again, I don’t really have high hopes that Collins will one day play in action green. But until he signs elsewhere, I can still have some kind of hope. Entice the 25 year-old Collins with a multi-year deal and see if he comes to Seattle.

Mark Glowinski

Hello, Seahawks fans. You remember our old friend Mark, don’t you? Glowinski wasn’t great with the Seahawks from 2015 to 2017 but this is yet another thing I am going to blame on former offensive line coach Tom Cable.

Cable made some bad decisions with his line group in Seattle. First, he used the wrong scheme for his players. Secondly, he didn’t seem to be able to teach players proper technique. When Seattle let Cable go he went to Oakland and ruined the Raiders too.

Germain Ifedi wasn’t the only player who got much better with a different coach. So did Glowinski. The bad part for the Seahawks was that Ifedi got better while still in Seattle under Mike Solari and Glowinski got better with a different team, the Colts.

As I stated earlier, Seattle could lose both its offensive guards, Fluker and Sweezy. What better fix than to bring back Glowinski? He was rated by Pro Football Focus as the 17th-best guard in the NFL this year.  In comparison, Fluker was 70th-best and Sweezy was 73rd-best.

So Glowinski might not simply be a replacement for either Fluker or Sweezy, he could be an upgrade. Assuming Seattle keeps Fluker, a line of Duane Brown, Glowinski, Justin Britt, Fluker and Ifedi sounds pretty good.

Ezekiel Ansah

Seattle desperately needs more pass rushers. Assuming they do the no-brainer and correct thing by re-signing Frank Clark, they still need help. Expecting Jarran Reed and Clark to be the only consistent sources of getting to opposing quarterbacks is not a smart business plan.

Big money will be spent by NFL teams on edge rushers and Ansah will get paid. But he also will be 30 years old when the 2019 season starts and is coming off a season when he only appeared in seven games.

And that is the issue with Ansah: He does not stay consistently healthy. He has missed 14 games over the last three seasons. Could it be that because of this injury history the amount he will get paid could be lowered? If so, Seattle should pounce.

Ansah would not be expected to be the best defensive end on the Seahawks. This would actually free him up to have a bigger season, should he stay healthy. Imagine a defensive line with Ansah, Clark and Reed.

Sure, Seattle had more sacks than expected in 2018, but nearly 25 of those came from Reed and Clark. Opposing teams knew if they were to contain those two players, their quarterbacks would have time to throw. If Seattle signed Ansah, they would put themselves in a position to get deeper in the playoffs. Possibly all the way to the Super Bowl.