Seahawks: What creating cap space now might mean for the near-future

There was some potentially big news this morning involving the Seattle Seahawks and one of their prized acquisitions from the Russell Wilson trade. Today, NFL Insider Ian Rapoport reported that Seattle had restructured the contract of their newly acquired defensive tackle Shelby Harris.

The restructured contract is one of the rare “kicking the can down the road” deals from John Schneider where the Seahawks have created a little over three million in cap space. Harris’s contract was set at $7.5 million this year, with a cap hit just under $8 million.

With the new deal, his cap for 2022 has been lowered to $4.7 million. This deal essentially pushes more money onto next year’s cap, as Harris’s 2023 deal, the last year of his contract, will be a $9 million dollar cap hit. That will be a potentially large number, but if Seattle gets similar production and leadership that Harris provided in Denver last season, the deal will be worth it.

Seahawks seem to be creating cap space for a reason

The bigger question here is why did Seattle do this? With this contract restructure, The Seahawks project to have around $17 million in available cap space. D.K. Metcalf is currently a no-show at mandatory camp, but any extension would impact future cap numbers and would have very minimal bearing on this season’s cap.

That doesn’t mean an extension for Metcalf isn’t coming soon. I believe it will happen, but this type of move today is different from a potential extension.

You can’t help but think this move has to be a precursor to a larger trade or signing. I highly doubt the Seahawks are going to spend that money on Super Bowl or bust free agents like Rob Gronkowski and Odell Beckham Jr. This Harris restructure screams a trade for an impact player. The two biggest names on the market are quarterbacks Baker Mayfield and Jimmy Garoppolo.