Seahawks 2020 offseason plan: How it should go
Who should stay? Who should go?
Well before we can decide which free agents we are going to re-sign, we need to make a series of cuts to try and maximize our spending money. There are a handful of candidates including some obvious names and some not so obvious. There were a few tough calls, but in the end, I decided to make the following cuts:
- Ed Dickson– $3 million savings
- Tedric Thompson- $2.114 million savings
- Nick Bellore– $1 million savings
- Justin Britt- $8.5 million savings
These cuts add about $14.6 million in additional space, giving us $59.216 million in cap space to work with. K.J. Wright was a candidate that I went back and forth on and had I decided to do it, I could have added another $7.5 million to our war chest.
Ideally, you can restructure Wright and Britt to keep a quality center and a solid WLB on your team, both of whom are well respected in the locker room. But lacking the knowledge of whether either camp is interested in such an idea, I decided to leave it alone.
Now, let’s get to the 32 free agents we have to make a decision on as to whether or not they will be a part of the 2020 roster. And we may as well get the big fish out of the way. No, I did not re-sign Jadeveon Clowney. It’s not because I didn’t want too either. I was extremely comfortable going up to $18 million AAV, but Clowney is going to want more. I could be talked into going up to $20 million AAV, but it sounds as though Clowney will get $22-$23 million, and I just can’t go there.
But with only 3 defensive linemen under contract, I didn’t want to try and do everything in free agency and the draft, so I am going to be signing Quinton Jefferson to a 3-year contract worth $15.6 million total. This includes a $2 million signing bonus and a total of $10 million guaranteed.
The proration of $2 million over 3-years in $666,000, plus a first-year salary of $4 million gives us a first-year cap hit of $4.6 million. For a versatile defensive lineman who still has upside left in his game, I am happy to shell out some cash.
Next up, we need to keep a couple of restricted free agents, Joey Hunt and Jacob Hollister. I’ll be giving both an original round tender, making each player a $2.144 million cap hit on a 1-year contract. With Britt gone, I need some depth at center and with the injuries to Olsen and Will Dissly recently, giving Hollister $2 million is a nice insurance policy.
Next, I am going to sign Kalen Reed to a 1-year deal, worth $885,000 and just $125K guaranteed. Now be honest, how many of you forgot that Kalen Reed was a thing? The Seahawks really liked Reed, but he hasn’t been able to stay healthy. But keeping him around to challenge Ugo Amadi as the nickel corner at this price is too good to pass up.
And that is it. I’ve chosen to let Jadeveon Clowney, Jarran Reed, Germaine Ifedi, George Fant, and Mike Iupati test the market. I’m interested in all of them but at my price, not theirs. If the market they are expecting doesn’t develop, I may sign them back. But we don’t have the luxury of waiting to see how the market plays out, so I’ll just say goodbye to them.
Now, let’s get to replacing the 25+ free agents we just lost.