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.
Player No. 3: Seahawks edge rusher Darrell Taylor
Taylor is a one-note player at this stage of his career. He has only played two full seasons in the NFL after being injured his entire rookie year. But what we know about Taylor so far is that he isn’t good against the run or against the pass but that he is capable of rushing the passer. The proverbial light seemed to go on for Taylor midway through 2022 and he finished with 7 sacks in the final six games, per PFF. He also had 6 hurries in the last two games.
In the first two seasons of his career, Taylor has a combined 16 sacks which is solid. He also has 26 quarterback hits and 15 tackles for loss. While he isn’t good against the run, his pass-rush numbers are good enough to get him paid once he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2025. He is an unrestricted free agent in 2024 so the Seahawks can match whatever he is offered by another team, should Seattle want.
Taylor is due to make $2,152,343 next season. If he has excellent seasons in 2023 and 2024, his contract demands could be huge. The NFL puts a premium on pass rushers and can live with a player that doesn’t play the run as well when they are great at QB pressures. Taylor is currently the 37th-highest-paid edge rusher in 2023 but that will likely change for him in 2025.
Player No. 2: Seahawks right tackle Abe Lucas
I am cheating a bit with these next two choices but only mildly. The point of this article isn’t supposed to be how much the Seahawks are purposefully underpaying players but more how the players are relatively underpaid paid on their success as it relates to their fellow players. Eventually, all the players on this list will likely be paid more but how much more remains to be seen.
That said, Abraham Lucas should have been drafted higher than he was in the 2022 NFL draft. Prior to the draft, Lucas was projected to go anywhere from the first round to the fourth and the Seahawks were lucky enough to have Lucas fall to them in the third round. Mostly, the issue was that Lucas is a pure right tackle and most teams place a higher priority on left tackles because that is the blindside of right-handed quarterbacks.
Lucas was excellent in his rookie year for Seattle. He out-graded fellow rookie (and 9th overall pick) Charles Cross. Cross, the left tackle, wasn’t bad either but Lucas was simply more consistent and seemed a bit more NFL-ready.
Lucas won’t have a cap number higher than $1,715,534 through 2026. After that, assuming Lucas continues to improve with more NFL experience while staying healthy, Lucas is going to get paid a ton of money. Lucas’s cap hit of $1,225,381 is the 23rd-highest entering 2023. The nine highest-paid right tackles all have cap hits of $9,384,306 or higher and the argument could be made that Lucas is already a top-nine right tackle in the NFL.
Player No. 1: Seahawks cornerback Tariq Woolen
Someone is going to get a massive pay raise in 2026 and that player is Tariq Woolen. His rookie season was not a fluke. Yes, he had 6 interceptions and proved he could catch like the wide receiver he used to be. But his coverage was also extremely sticky and he had the speed and coverage skills to cover nearly everyone.
Woolen allowed a quarterback rating when targeted of just 48.7. He also allowed an extremely low 6.3 yards per target. Woolen didn’t just intercept passes. The thing is, while he wasn’t as raw with technique as many expected him to be, he was still a rookie and should be even better in the future. Woolen will also improve if the defense overall is better which it should be with the addition of high-quality draft picks.
The highest cap hit Woolen will carry until 2026 is $1,183,054 in 2025. He made his first Pro Bowl this past season (I say “first” because at this point if Woolen stays healthy he should be a Pro Bowl contender every season). He does need to improve his run defense, though. He doesn’t mind contact because he can hit hard when he tackles, but he isn’t Richard Sherman in terms of help[ing stop the run. At least, not yet.
The top 21 highest-paid cornerbacks all have a cap hit of over $10 million next season. By the time Woolen’s rookie contract ends the number of corners that make $10 million or more will likely be quite a bit more than 21. And Woolen will like earn more than $10 million a season beginning in 2026.