Seahawks stole Rayshawn Jenkins from 49ers thanks to the state of Washington

The Seattle Seahawks needed a couple of safeties this offseason after releasing veterans Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams. Moving on from those two players saved the team about $31 million, but the team still needed to find quality replacements to team with Julian Love. Rayshawn Jenkins was one of the safeties general manager John Schneider brought in.

Jenkins is a solid player who has improved in some areas each of the last few years even though he is now 30 years old. An aging player does not always see such a dip in some raw numbers, but Jenkins has. In fact, his passer rating allowed has decreased in each of the last three years, and in 2023 was a very good 62.5. Somehow, Jenkins only graded at number 70 among safeties last year, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required).

In other words, what PFF is trying to show does not correspond to what actually happened on the field. Jenkins should be a solid player for Seattle in 2024 and should be a great fit in new head coach Mike Macdonald's defense.

Rayshawn Jenkins made wise financial choice joining the Seahawks over the 49ers

Seattle's NFC West rival, the San Francisco 49ers, was also looking for a safety in free agency. San Francisco wanted Jenkins as well. The safety took a visit to the Seahawks first and then to San Francisco. While visiting the 49ers, Jenkins got an offer from Seattle and the 49ers said they would match it. Jenkins said no and chose Seattle.

He had a great reason. The bottom line is that while San Francisco might pay a player the same amount as Seattle might, the dollar amounts are not equal. Jenkins came to Seattle because of the state of Washington's tax laws.

California has a state tax and Washington does not. Instead of paying federal and state taxes with the 49ers, Jenkins just owes federal tax in Washington. As much as Jenkins makes - a maximum of $12 million over two years - he would be paying a lot of state tax for the 49ers. In essence, he saves a bit over $117,000 a year.

Jenkins explained his reasoning for signing with Seattle this week after a practice at OTAs and he was quite amusing. Jenkins said, "I wanted to go to a contender. I wanted to go to a bigger market. I felt like Seattle was the perfect place. Plenty of opportunity, a team with a head coach that’s defensive-minded...I took a visit to the 49ers. I went (to Seattle) first, then the 49ers. I had two more visits set up. Seattle called, made an offer, (the 49ers) matched it obviously but...going back to those taxes, I’m like ‘let me go out here.'"

Jenkins also discussed how Seattle's defense is going to differ from what 12s have seen in recent years. Of course, now the Seahawks have to have the talent to implement the scheme. If that happens, Seattle should be back in the postseason in 2024.

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