4 players the Seahawks must absolutely bring back for 2023
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks have quite a bit of cap space and excellent draft capital for this coming offseason. But keeping some free agents is a must as well. Seattle should be even better in 2023 with the current group of excellent rookies being a year older and getting help from what should be a good crop of rookies next year.
Some of Seattle’s currently abundant cap space will be taken up by some of the team’s own free agents, of course. Maybe there will be some extra room made by a surprise release or two, but Seattle doesn’t really have many players making a lot of money that shouldn’t be back.
Seattle will probably eat into its cap space quickly – most teams do – but instead of reaching out for another team’s available player, Seattle should look inward on several guys. Especially as this is a young team, building some long-term chemistry is important. What follows are four players the Seahawks need to find a way to bring back next year.
Seahawks must bring back running back Godwin Igwebuike
This guy is something else. He bounced around the league (four teams between 2018 and before the start of the 2019 season) a bit, then played football in the XFL with the Seattle Dragons in 2020, and found his way to the Detroit Lions in 2021. He played in some way in all 17 games with Detroit last year. But Detroit didn’t keep him and Igwebuike came to the Seahawks in 2022. Sort of.
He was signed to the practice squad in Seattle in late September 2022 and then released and then brought back to the practice squad in November after Travis Homer got hurt. During Igwebuike’s career, he started as a safety and then became a running back. But once Igwebuike joined Seattle’s active roster he found his calling and the Seahawks found Igwebuike’s special ability.
Seattle has searched for years to find someone who can be a dangerous kick returner. Out of college, Tyler Lockett excelled at punt returns and was solid in kick returns. In recent seasons, though, Seattle has gone with safer bets like Travis Homer or DeeJay Dallas to return kickoffs.
Igwebuike, however, is surprisingly a threat to take one to the house on any kickoff and has averaged 28 yards on 11 kickoff returns for Seattle. He has a long of 50 yards, another of 48 yards, and another of 39. He needs to be re-signed simply to add a dimension Seattle hasn’t had in quite some time.