5 worst free agent signings under Seattle Seahawks GM John Schneider

No. 1 - Cornerback Cary Williams (2015)

This was the most greedy signing for Seattle under John Schneider. The team had just gone to back-to-back Super Bowls and the secondary was set except for the cornerback opposite Richard Sherman. Schneider and Carroll must have seen Williams and thought he could be the last piece in the puzzle to make the Seahawks secondary unquestionably the greatest in history.

The fact that the Seahawks missed so many red flags with Williams, however, is extremely disappointing. He was turning 31 years old, had never made a Pro Bowl, had played for three teams seven seasons, and was not exactly a turnover machine. Seattle looked at all of that and must have thought, "Oh, not only can we fix Williams but we can make him into Richard Sherman 2.0!"

Even though he was 31, Schneider gave Williams a three-year deal (which would have made him an even more ancient 34 years old at the end of the deal) for $18 million with $7 million guaranteed. This does not sound like much in 2024, but in 2015 that was good money. The bad fact is that Williams's first game with Seattle was his best (and still was not good) and he recovered a fumble and ran the ball back for a touchdown.

He then got torched in coverage over the next nine games until Seattle finally benched him in favor of Byron Maxwell. Instead of leaving Williams on the roster, though, he had been so bad that Seattle simply released him. Still, Williams had to be happy with the $7 million guaranteed he never earned.

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