Pro Football Focus predicts Seahawks will sign great edge rusher
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks have a relative lot of cap space to play with this offseason. Pro Football Focus predicts they will spend some of that money to sign a great (and young) pass rusher. But PFF also expects Seattle to lose one of their better free agents as well.
First the bad news, or at least what PFF is predicting as bad news. While the Seahawks aren’t loaded at cornerback to begin with, PFF sees D.J. Reed, easily Seattle’s best cornerback over the last couple of seasons, signing with the Philadelphia Eagles for $24 million over three years. That’s a huge raise for Reed who made just $920,000 in 2021 but he is due for a pay hike.
PFF has Reed as the 48th-best free agent available this offseason. I think Seattle needs to spend whatever it can to re-sign Reed because 1) he is really good and 2) the drop-off in quality at CB in Seattle if Reed leaves is precipitous.
Now on to the better news. The Seahawks could definitely use some help at edge rusher (or maybe they are already decent there and former defensive coordinator Ken Norton, Jr. just completely misused the ones he had this past season) and PFF thinks Seattle signs Emmanuel Ogbah, who would be formerly of the Miami Dolphins.
If Pro Football Focus is correct, Seahawks new defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt will be very happy.
In two years with the Dolphins, Ogbah had a combined 18 sacks (9 in each season) and 45 quarterback hits. He also had a combined 15 tackles for loss. In 2021, Ogbah had 12 passes defended because, like Carlos Dunlap, Ogbah has a sense for batting thrown passes down at the line of scrimmage.
Ogbah will be 28 years old to start the 2022 season so should have plenty of football left to play and be productive. PFF predicts Ogbah will sign in Seattle for three years and $46.5 million of which $30 million will be guaranteed.
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PFF also thinks the Seahawks re-sign Duane Brown. This is mostly due to Seattle not having anyone on the roster to take his spot (very true) but Seattle will also give Brown $14.5 million guaranteed over two years (iffy). It wouldn’t be surprising if Seattle lets Brown leave and just hopes a cheaper replacement will replace him.