How Seahawks can fix the defensive line in 4 free agent signings

Step one: re-sign Jadeveon Clowney

The first signing is the simplest, re-sign Jadeveon Clowney. If you look purely at his stats you would say something along the lines of “only 3 sacks!” However, his play goes so much farther than that. He has been one of the top 10 run defenders on the edge each of the past 3 seasons. He has never lived up to the high pass-rushing production from his college days. But one thing is for certain, he is very disruptive. The 3 sacks also don’t tell the true story, he was the second most double-teamed defensive lineman in the NFL last season behind only Aaron Donald. With some additional help, he should be able to break out for a consistent 8-12 sacks a year.

Yes, I know there have been reports that he wants to reset the market from the media. He also told the Seahawks GM John Schneider that he wants to keep playing for the team and that he will prioritize playing for a contender over all else. I think he will end up signing back with Seattle. The contract will likely end up in the ballpark of a 4-year $90 million contract, which is $22.5 per year.

The contract should be written to minimize the first-years cap hit, somewhere in the ballpark of $12 million. This would allow the Seahawks with enough room to bring in another big-name player to be his partner in crime.

After this first signing, Seattle will have roughly $40 million in cap space (important to note, this is without any roster cuts as I want to show how this can be done as things are currently, not as they could be).