Looking into Seahawks rookie deal extension candidates and what they might get

The Seattle Seahawks must keep Stone Forsythe, for now

I'm sure a lot of 12s read that header and groaned aloud. Let's look at the reality here, folks. The Hawks drafted a pair of fine tackles in 2022 in Charles Cross and Abe Lucas. Cross played every game as a rookie and missed only two snaps all year. Lucas was almost as reliable. He missed one game and managed just 33 snaps in another. He played every down in the remaining 15 games, though.

Unfortunately, we saw a very different picture last year at tackle. Cross went down with an injury in Week 1 and didn't return until Week 6 versus the Bengals. At least he didn't miss a snap after that. Lucas wasn't nearly as lucky. He was also injured in the opening game, but couldn't make it back until Week 13 against the Cowboys. His ongoing knee issue only allowed him to play every snap in two games last year.

All that leads us to Mr. Stone Forsythe. Mainly due to those injuries, he saw his snap counts grow from just 14 as a rookie to 122 in 2022, then 501 last year. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), he allowed a total of 32 pressures out of 291 opportunities. That's not great, certainly, but only a bit worse than Lucas himself was graded. PFF did give Forsythe the best run-blocking grade of all the Seattle offensive linemen. So yes, the Seahawks need to keep him because he's a cheap body for the inevitable injuries at tackle.

As for giving Forsythe a contract extension beyond 2024, I'd pass. PFF ranked him as the 60th-best tackle last year, just ahead of Donovan Smith of the Chiefs and a few slots behind George Fant of the Texans. Hey, we know that guy! Anyway, they project Fant will get offers of one year for $4 million and Jones would see one year for $2.5 million.

With the cap situation facing the Seahawks, they'd be much better off letting Forsythe test the market after this year. Yes, right now Seattle is projected at $42 million in cap space for 2025. But Jarran Reed and Julian Love will both be free agents then, to say nothing of the money that will be committed to new deals this season. So have a great year, Stone!