Many Seattle Seahawks fans thought that the team got a steal immediately following Seattle choosing cornerback Riq Woolen in the fifth round of the 2022 NFL draft. He had a run a 4.26 40-yard dash at the NFL combine that year, and he was tall like Richard Sherman.
Woolen had all the markings of what 12s had become customed to seeing from their high-level cornerbacks. The question was how quickly he would adapt to the NFL.
As it turned out, really fast. Woolen tied for the league lead in interceptions as a rookie with six, and he whiffed on only 7.4 percent of his tackle attempts. The thinking was that he might be able to develop into a Sherman, close by being a force against the run while being a shutdown corner.
Seahawks' Riq Woolen is likely looking very forward to next offseason
Then things changed. Woolen got injured in minicamp and appeared to play as if he was afraid of getting further hurt when the real games began. He didn't stick his nose in the scrum to try to make a tackle, and obviously actively avoided the scrum at times.
Teams also adapted to what he was doing in coverage and knew that the cornerback could get lost on crossing patterns at times. This led to explosive plays that made teammates look bad when it was Woolen who was supposed to have the coverage.
Still, his overall numbers are very good in his three seasons. He has never had a quarterback rating allowed higher than a very solid 79.8, has allowed only 54.1 percent of the passes thrown his way to be completed, and has nearly as many interceptions (11) as touchdowns given up (12).
His missed tackle rate came down last year, too. It was 14.5 percent in 2023 and 11.5 in 2024.
But he also did something to break team rules ahead of Week 16 versus the Minnesota Vikings, and he was benched for a series. The team was not about to give away what Woolen had done, but any time a player breaks the rules is not a great sign.
Still, due to Woolen's size and speed, and proven ability to cover well, he is going to get paid a large amount of money next offseason. His rookie contract ends after 2025, and the Seahawks do not have a fifth-year option on the cornerback since he was not a first-round pick. There is a decent chance Woolen signs elsewhere as a team could outbid the Seahawks.
The 17 cornerbacks with the highest annual salaries are all paid at least $18 million a year. Ten corners have total contracts of at least $81 million. Woolen is arguably as good as many in those groups, and unless something terrible happens in 2025, he is going to join those with huge contracts.
The Seahawks do have a good chunk of open cap space in the 2026 offseason (per Over the Cap, Seattle has the eighth-most cap room with $58,579,912), but the team might also need to pay edge rusher Boye Mafe and running back Kenneth Walker III. Paying Woolen a deal as much as $18 million a season is going to greatly eat into the Seahawks' cap room.
If he is very good in 2025, and there is no reason to think he won't be, he is going to ask for the above kind of money. Seattle simply might not want to pay that much, but some team will.