Bobby Wagner signs with Rams and it’s complicated for Seahawks

Linebacker Bobby Wagner is reportedly signing with the Los Angeles Rams. This stinks for a Seattle Seahawks fan. Or wait, does it? Or rather, should it?

The Rams are going to be good in 2022. Seattle isn’t expected to be as good. In fact, the Seahawks are in rebuilding mode (whether they want to admit to that or not) and need cap savings and draft picks and to get younger. Bobby Wagner is still a good player but he isn’t getting younger. This is where the Rams deal seems ridiculous.

According to Adam Schefter, Bobby Wagner and the Rams agreed to a 5-year deal (seriously, I am not joking – Bobby Wagner will be 37 years old at the end of the deal) for $50 million but up to $65 million.

Bobby Wagner signs with the Rams and smacks the 12s

This is where it gets complicated. Bobby Wagner signed with an NFC West team and that seems like a Will Smith type of slap, right? If the Seahawks were Chris Rock and Bobby Wagner was Will Smith and Rock told Smith he was releasing him and Smith came up and slapped Rock, he’d have every right.

But for Smith to then sign a contract with Jerry Seinfeld would be rude, right? Wagner has to know what he is doing. But he clearly doesn’t care about how signing with the Rams affects 12s. There is no way he would care based on the signing.

Or maybe Wagner just didn’t have many other offers and the Rams are in win-now mode still and could care less about the future? This seems more likely because giving such a massive contract to an aging linebacker who is going to help in 2022 and maybe 2023 but maybe not beyond seems dumb.

It looks like maybe the Seahawks are actually making the smart move. No way should Wagner be on the kind of deal that the Rams gave him. Yes, Seattle isn’t going to be good in 2022 and 2023 but when the dust clears from all the bloated contracts and lack of draft capital that the rest of the NFC West has in 2024, the Seahawks could be set up for a run of success.