Seahawks should extend Justin Coleman to make life easier

The Seahawks have several needs this offseason. Not re-signing Justin Coleman would only create another one.

There are cornerbacks in the NFL who get a lot of hype and a lot of money. All of them play outside against an opposing team’s wideout. Nickel corners don’t get much love but they should. And the Seahawks have had one of the best nickelbacks in the NFL over the last two years in Justin Coleman. Seattle needs to find the money to re-sign him.

Last offseason, Coleman’s agent, Neil Robinson, gambled correctly that Coleman would duplicate his production in 2017 and signed with Seattle for just one season. In 2018, Coleman was really good again.

The thing with Coleman isn’t that you don’t hear his name a lot; You shouldn’t. He is a nickel corner in the NFL doing a lot of dirty work like covering tight ends and slot receivers. If a nickel gets his name called a bunch, it is usually that he is getting beat by offensive players. Coleman is a fairly unknown name by NFL fans and that is good.

According to Pro Football Focus, Coleman was the highest graded cornerback on the Seahawks in 2018. And this was a season when he wasn’t as good as in 2017. This means Coleman was really good in both years and Seattle should make Coleman a part of the team long-term.

Justin Coleman is not going to be an outside corner. He doesn’t have the size in Seattle’s system for doing so. But he doesn’t need to be. For the Seahawks to be successful in 2019 and beyond, Coleman needs to be a part of the team.

Basically, why start over at a position that is successful when Seattle simply needs to re-sign a player they have had on the team for the last two seasons? The Seahawks have several needs this offseason to get better in 2019. Why create another one by not getting Coleman back long-term in Seattle?