Seahawks Bobby Wagner reporting to camp is a very good sign

Amid the negative Seahawks news of the last two days, the fact that Bobby Wagner is reporting is great. Maybe he will even get a contract extension.

Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner is expected to report to training camp on time when camp opens on Thursday. This is according to NFL.com’s Ian Rapoport. And this is not unexpected. Wagner has kept participating to some degree in all offseason workouts for Seattle.

Wagner is basically exuding leadership at this point. Unlike former Seattle players, like Earl Thomas and Michael Bennett, Wagner has never held out for more money. His contract isn’t up until after this season, though. He will get paid one way or the other and he knows it.

I have absolutely no inside information on this, but I firmly believe that before week one of the regular season that the Seahawks and Wagner will have a deal in place to keep him in Seattle for at least three more years. He will become the highest paid linebacker in the NFL, but the important thing will be the guaranteed money. This is what all NFL players want because otherwise contracts are simply what a guy can get potentially and not in reality.

Wagner will most likely sign a deal that pays him north of $52 million guaranteed. That’s a lot of money, true. But we are talking about the best linebacker in the NFL on the field.

Off the field and in the locker room, Wagner is proving long term to be a much better leader to young Seahawks than Thomas or Bennett or Richard Sherman could have ever been. Players absolutely have a right to want more money. But Wagner is teaching young or potential stars like Chris Carson and Tre Flowers that you don’t have to holdout to get paid.

In fact, Seattle has shown recently to pay players who show a bit more loyalty. Tyler Lockett got paid big money last offseason. So did Duane Brown. Neither hinted at holding out. Wagner deserves to get paid and he will. And my thinking is he gets paid large dollars by Seattle very soon.