Seahawks: KJ Wright says he wants to come home to Seattle

Former Seahawks linebacker KJ Wright was a guest on Trey Wingo’s podcast this week and said he would like to come home to Seattle. Should Seattle think of bringing him back?

I should be clear here that I am a huge fan of Wright both as a player and a human being. If the Seahawks were to bring Wright back there should be no doubt his veteran presence would help all the young guys in the locker room.

Wright would teach them not only the right way to do things on the field but how to be a good teammate and how to learn how to handle things off the field as well. And while all that is true, does that mean Seattle needs to spend millions of dollars paying Wright to do that? I wouldn’t think so.

Former Seahawks linebacker KJ Wright would like to come back to Seattle to play

Wright said on Wingo’s podcast that when he went from Seattle to Las Vegas, his family didn’t go with him. They stayed in Seattle. A Raiders fan might hear that and think Wright was never bought into what Las Vegas wanted to do defensively.

Wright went from a long-term starter in Seattle to starting just 8 games for the Raiders last year. Because he got fewer snaps – he played by far a career-low of 37 percent of defensive snaps in 2021; his previous low was 86 percent in a non-injury season – Wright had his worst statistical season in the NFL.

Wright will be 33 years old in Week 1 of the 2022 season, however, and it is clear the Seahawks are trying to get younger overall. They released Bobby Wagner, Carlos Dunlap and Benson Mayowa and didn’t try to re-sign Kerry Hyder, Jr.

Seattle had the 25th-oldest roster in the NFL in 2021, per Over the Cap. After releasing the 30-year-olds the team is going to be a lot younger in 2022. That’s OK because Seattle needed to try to re-energize the team a bit and add more speed.

Signing Wright would be great for the morale of 12s; He is a beloved former player. Wright could also teach nearly everyone in the NFL how to play screen passes better. But the Seahawks are clearly going for a youth movement and bringing Wright back simply makes little sense.