Seahawks need to extend Shaquill Griffin before the season opener

The Seahawks and Shaquill Griffin are reportedly talking about an extension. It is absolutely imperative that this gets done before the season opener.

The Seahawks secondary looks absolutely fierce this year. With a base consisting of Jamal Adams, Shaquill Griffin, Quandre Diggs, Quinton Dunbar, Tre Flowers and Marquise Blair, the unit is set up for success.

The only problem, many of those players will need new contracts after this season. The Seahawks need to focus on extending at least one of their big names before the season opener. Failing to do so is setting up next off-season for many big departures.

The cornerback market is exploding. We saw Tre’Davious White sign a monster 4 year, $69 million dollar deal. This gave him an average salary of $17.25 million year, almost $1 million above the next highest-paid defensive back.

Unfortunately, it didn’t stop there. Jalen Ramsey just a few days later signed a 5 year, $105 million contract. This surpassed White’s record-setting contract by an absurd 22%. Of course, I am not saying Griffin is on the same playing field as Ramsey or even White.

The thing is, with every new big-money contract that is signed, this will continually push the market value of the next tiered players up. Similar to how the defensive end market exploded in recent years. The White and Ramsey contracts likely pushed Griffins’ asking price up an extra $1-$2 million per year.

If the team were to wait until next off-season, the market values are going to continue to grow. There will be a lot of quality to elite players eligible for extensions. I am talking about players like Marshawn Lattimore, Marlon Humphrey, Jaire Alexander, J.C. Jackson and Kevin King.

If Seattle extends Griffin right now, I think his market value is somewhere around $13-$14 million. This is a little high from what some other analysts think. However, I am trying to lock him up now. I firmly believe if Seattle waits until next year and Griffin has another standout year, perhaps even with an interception or two, he could be pushing $17-$18 million per year.

Its an investment now, to receive the dividends in the future. Waiting to extend will very likely be a costly mistake. This is what I think a new contract would look like.

Suggested contract

Terms: 3 years, $41 million

Avg Salary: $13.67 million

Gtd: $22.5 million

Cap hits by year:

• 2020: $4.32 million
• 2021: $11 million
• 2022: $13.5 million
• 2023: $14.5 million

One keynote on my suggested contract: I am carrying over the $2.32 million cap hit Griffin already has the books for this year. In other words, this is a 3 extension on a pre-existing 1-year deal, making this a 4-year bond. I increased year one’s cap hit by $2 million because we can afford it and it would help lessen the burden next year. This should help Seattle afford some of those other marquee free agents.

The team has a long history of not extending players during the season. Seattle simply believes that once the season starts, the focus needs to remain on the game, not the money. For that reason, we have until Sunday at kickoff for this extension to get done.

Think of this like a redo of the Frank Clark situation. Reports were Clark could have likely been extended a year before his trade for around $15-$16 million. Instead, they waited until the next off-season. The market continued to grow and his asking price jumped along with it. Seattle couldn’t afford a $20 million contract along with two other stars needing to be extended in Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner. Seattle needs to do it right this time around.