5 Seattle Seahawks players who struck gold during 2024 offseason
By Lee Vowell
The Seattle Seahawks approached free agency differently in 2024 than in 2023. Last offseason, Seattle was surprisingly aggressive early in free agency as they signed Dre'Mont Jones, Evan Brown, and others. Brown did not work out, though. The jury is still out on Jones.
Seattle did create a lot of cap room in the week before the free agency period by releasing Quandre Diggs, Jamal Adams, and Will Dissly. However, John Schneider did not choose to chase free agents from other teams immediately. Instead, he focused on bringing back a couple of players from 2023.
Will that approach pay off better this year than last? 12s hope, of course. But either way, the following five players should be happy that Schneider gave them a bump in pay.
Leonard Williams - Seattle Seahawks defensive lineman
Seattle could not have let Williams walk away this offseason for a number of reasons. First, when the team traded for Williams midway through the 2023 season, they gave up a second-round pick in 2024. Giving up that draft capital for a player who only played for half of a season would have been brutal. Seattle is rebuilding a bit and needs an infusion of young talent, so to see a second-round selection go for basically nothing would not have been good.
Another reason to retain Williams was that he, unlike almost all of the rest of the defense, was good in the second half of 2023. After joining Seattle, he had 32 total quarterback pressures and 21 run stuffs. That was in 10 games. The QB pressures alone ranked fourth on the Seahawks for the entire season. His run stuffs ranked seventh, but again, Williams played little more than half a season for Seattle.
Williams will turn 30 years old before the 2024 season, but he got a bump in pay for staying with Seattle. General manager John Schneider gave him a three-year deal worth up to $64.5 million. In 2025, his cap number will be a career-high of $29.15 million. In other words, Williams likely can pay for dinners for others for some time.