Tracking Seahawks free agency, rumors and cap space

The Seahawks are staying true to their roots and focusing on retaining their own players and bringing in some buy low candidates. The article goes over what players have re-signed, who has left and where we stand in cap space.

o The Seahawks have placed an original round tender on David Moore. This is worth $2.133 million.

o The Seahawks have placed a second-round tender on Jacob Hollister (meaning if any team were to sign Hollister, they would have to give Seattle a second-round pick). This is worth $3.259 million, the team clearly values him.

o George Fant is leaving the Seahawks to join the Jets on a 3 year, $30 million contract. He will presumably be the new left tackle for the Jets. I am sorry to see him go.

o The Seahawks have re-signed Jarran Reed for a 2 year, $23 million contract. This is a good contract for both player and team. It allows the team to stay slightly below the defensive line average contract this off-season of $13 million per year. It also gets Jarran Reed the opportunity to prove 2018 was not a fluke and hit the open market at 29.

o The Seahawks have tendered Joey Hunt and Brandon Jackson. This comes with a cap hit of $4.26 million

o The Seahawks have reportedly re-signed Luke Willson to a one year contract, the specifics of the deal are not yet known.

o The Seahawks are tendering Malik Turner, Ryan Neal, Bryan Mone and Jordan Roos. This brings them all back on minimum deals. The total cap hit for the 4 players is $3 million.

o Quinton Jefferson is leaving the Seahawks to join the Bills on a 2-year contract, the specifics are not yet known. Jefferson was an underrated player and incredibly versatile. He was Seattle’s 6th highest-rated defensive player last season.

o The Seahawks have signed B.J. Finney, a talented low-key interior offensive lineman. Finney is just 28 years old, he has a total of 13 career starts, so there is plenty of tread left on the tires. He has a lot of experience at both left guard and center. Over his 4 year career with the Steelers, he has been phenomenal against the pass. He has allowed only 2 career sacks over more than 1,000 snaps. Steeler fans are irate that the team allowed him to leave, which is a good sign for Seattle.

His PFF pass-blocking grades are:
2019: 72.0
2018: 90.4
2017: 89.6
2016: 80.8

Rumors

o The Seahawks have an interest in signing Demarious Randall. The assumption would be to compete with Ugo Amadi as the slot corner. He remains unsigned at this time.

o The Seahawks have shown some interest in running back Isaiah Crowell. This makes sense with Chris Carson fighting to be ready by week 1 and Rashaad Penny likely to start the year on the PUP. I would still rather just draft a late-round running back.

o The Seahawks have inquired with both the Jacksonville Jaguars and Baltimore Ravens about what a trade could look like for either Yannick Ngakoue or Matthew Judon. It looks to me like they are both backup plans if Clowney departs rather than to pair with him. More on this in a second.

o Dante Fowler has reportedly been asking for something around $15-17 million per year. Unless this comes down, Seattle will be unlikely to bring Fowler in. The two teams in hot pursuit are the Rams and Falcons.

o The market has been very quiet for Germain Ifedi thus far. Don’t kill the messenger, but it’s completely possible with his limited market, that Seattle brings him back one-year prove-it deal. Meanwhile, drafting a right tackle as insurance (its shaping up to be a strong tackle draft).

o Jadeveon Clowney has reportedly been asking for $21 million a year or more. With day 3 now upon us, it appears teams may not been keen to throw big money at an oft-injured player, who has yet to register a double-digit sack season, regardless of how immensely talented he is. My guess right now would be Seattle has an offer of 3 years, $18 million per year on the table. This will get him back to the market at age 30, and protect the team in case of injury. We will see what happens in the next few days. Appears Seattle is all in on keeping Clowney.

Where the Seahawks stands with salary cap

Let’s establish what our true salary cap space was to begin the free agency period. We do this by reducing the total cap space by the cost of injury reserve safety net, rookies contract cap hit total for the 2020 draft class, and practice squad players (estimated salaries with the new CBA).

Beginning of free agency:    $47 million
Practice squad:                       $2.2 million
NFL Draft- Rookies:               $7.7 million
Injury Reserve:                         $2.5 million
True cap space (start of FA):$34.6 million

Now, lets see where we stand currently after day 3 of free agency and the tendering of all our restricted free agents (Hollister, Moore, Hunt, Jackson, Turner, Roos, Mone, and Neal):

True cap space (start):     $34.6 million
Jarran Reed cap hit:          $9.5 million
All tendered RFA:              $12.6 million
B.J. Finney cap hit:            $3.5 million
True cap space (current):$9 million

As it is right now, we have $9 million we can spend in free agency. If Clowney signs for something around the $18 million per year for 3 or more years, Seattle should be able to finagle it enough to make the cap space work. Something like:

3 year, $54 million contract

2020: $7.5 million cap hit
2021: $22.5 million cap hit
2022: $24 million cap hit

Seattle thus far has not cut any players. If Seattle has an opportunity to snag Clowney AND add another upper-tier defensive lineman (Fowler, Judon, Ngakoue, Griffen) for a reasonable cost, expect someone to be cut to make room. A few of the salary cap casualty candidates and the amount we would save if they were cut are:

Player                          Savings
Justin Britt                    $8.5 mil
KJ Wright                      $7.5 mil
Bradley McDougald   $4.1 mil
Ed Dickson                    $3.0 mil
DJ Fluker                        $2.9 mil
Tedric Thompson        $2.14 mil
Ethan Pocic                   $1 mil