4 underpaid Seattle Seahawks heading into 2023 offseason
By Lee Vowell
NFL free agency begins in full next week. March 15th is the first day that free agents can sign contracts with new teams. The Seahawks usually don’t make too much of a splash on day one or two of free agency, but there is always hope that this year will be different.
I am not saying that Seattle should overspend for a player or two – that would not be the way general manager John Schneider does business – but it would be fun from a fan’s point of view, of course. Seattle does need to add quality at defensive tackle and linebacker and that might mean making an unexpected signing in free agency. The team isn’t too far off from being a real contender in the NFC, but they still have to fix a few positions of need.
All that said, Seattle does already have quite a bit of talent on the roster. Much of that talent is young players still on their rookie contracts. One year soon these players with likely get huge raises, but until then here are four Seahawks that are currently underpaid.
Player No. 4: Seahawks guard Damien Lewis
What? An interior Seahawks offensive lineman is underpaid and even maybe underappreciated? Well, yes. Damien Lewis is a bit of both. Lewis’s issue is he gets linked in a bit with center Austin Blythe and right guard Gabe Jackson. Neither of those players was very good in 2022 and often got overwhelmed by defenders. But Lewis didn’t.
Sure, Lewis didn’t have a great Wild Card game against the 49ers with so many false start penalties (which was weird for any player), but he can’t be judged by one game alone. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Lewis was the 11th-highest-graded guard in the NFL last season. The next best Seahawk was Phil Haynes at number 56. Lewis allowed 3 sacks in 634 pass-block snaps. 2 of those sacks came in one game – Week 6 versus the Cardinals.
Lewis is still on his rookie contract and is due to make $3,273,298 in 2023. He is a free agent after the 2023 season. Lewis is set to make the 35th-highest salary among NFL guards prior to free agency starting, so his cap hit will be likely lower in comparison to other guards once free agency is done. The 20 highest-paid guards all make $7,530,000 or more in 2023, so Lewis is going to expect a raise in 2024 and he deserves one.