Abe Lucas entering first year of new contract

The Last Gasp Vote, plus: How the Seahawks buy low and win high on player negotiations

When the Seahawks extended Derick Hall, they took a similar approach to his contract numbers as they did last September when Abe Lucas signed a three-year deal just before Week 1. “We know you’re good and you know you’re good, but we need to make a compromise that protects both of us in case you don’t get better.”

It works exactly the same as the stock market. If Hall had been more productive, his stock would be higher and he wouldn’t have signed a “team-friendly” deal. That’s not an opinion, that’s the basis of all negotiations. Hall signed for what he’s worth right now and John Schneider talked his agent down as low as he could go.

In the Negotiation Warriors podcast, veteran NFL agent Peter Schaffer explained how these negotiations tend to go when the general manager is winning:

“I’ve got my book ready to go, I’ve got my statistics, this big proposal and I’ve broken down everything that I can break down. Let’s say it’s a running back and I know he averaged 4.6 yards per carry and he’s got 29 TDs, his third down success ratio is 46%, one fumble. Every statistic possible. And every time I would say something, (the GM) would say, ‘Well what was his YPC in December? 3.8 yards. And night games? 3.6 yards. What about the 2 fumbles he had against Dallas?’ Every time I would make a salient point based on empirical data, he would hit me back like a ping pong.”

With that explanation, it’s not hard to imagine Schneider mentioning Hall’s lack of production through three seasons, or Lucas’s injury history, to get those agents to lower their asking price after a few hours of ping pong.

So if Hall breaks out next season, then the Seahawks will have him on a discount.

Just like how Seattle gambled on Lucas last September and he didn’t end up playing in 80% of the snaps or 90% of the snaps. Abe Lucas, a player who missed 21 games from 2023-2024, played in 99.9% of the snaps, including playoffs.

Abe Lucas led the Seahawks in snaps

If betting on Hall’s production works out as well as betting on Lucas’s health did, the pass rusher might break the sack record.

Last Gasp: Abe Lucas vs Devon Witherspoon

The final vote before the Fateful Eight pits Lucas against “the best of the rest”. This is not a slight against either player, it’s just a sign of how stacked the Seahawks roster is in the top-10.

Why Witherspoon?

As expected, Witherspoon’s “last gasp” vote against Jason Myers, Jadarian Price, and Rashid Shaheed is going heavily in his favor: He almost has as many votes as the other three players combined.

Witherspoon probably would be further ahead if he wasn’t staring down his own negotiation face-off with Schneider right now. Some Seahawks fans are cautious regarding his future because Schneider, who prefers to buy low, is hesitant to grab Witherspoon stock at its peak.

In any case, Witherspoon is the most surprising player not in the Fateful Eight already.

Why Lucas?

Well, I’m not going to match Witherspoon against Nick Emmanwori again. We already saw that matchup and Emmanwori won by a lot. I might consider pitting Witherspoon against Ernest Jones, but Jones sent a message when he beat DeMarcus Lawrence 78% to 22%.

That leaves Charles Cross and Lucas. Seattle signed Cross at $26 million per season and Lucas at $15 million per season. As I said before, that’s a steal on Lucas, but the league continues to value left tackles more than right tackles and the Seahawks made that deal even after Cross missed three games.

I’d be open to an argument for Lucas over Cross, but I think this next vote will say it all. If you think Lucas is “more important” next season than Cross, put it in the comments:

Abe Lucas vs Devon Witherspoon

You’re not going to see a comparison of a right tackle against a cornerback anywhere else other than Seaside Joe. Use this opportunity as a chance to embrace competition, think outside the box, and develop a greater understanding of values that are totally abstract.

Abe Lucas

We will hold firm on criticisms of PFF’s grading system and lack of transparency, but we only have so many tools to work with when it comes to evaluating offensive linemen. For what it’s worth, here’s what PFF wrote about Lucas’s 2025 season:

He earned a 75.6 overall PFF grade in the 2025 season, 24th among 89 qualified offensive tackles.

His PFF pass-blocking grade of 69.7 ranked 44th among 89 qualified offensive tackles. His run-blocking grade of 76.8 ranked 18th at the position.

He allowed 32 total pressures in pass protection. That total included 4 sacks and 2 hits allowed to opposing pass rushers. He was flagged for 4 penalties over the course of the season.

To put it another way, I think that Lucas is one of the best right tackles in the NFL—and add in the fact that Lucas had not played a lot of football in the previous two years—but he is not necessarily one of those undeniable, top-five right tackles like Penei Sewell or Lane Johnson.

Lucas is not elite. Matchups against Nick Bosa, and soon to come, Myles Garrett, are gonna be “you win some, you lose some” with Lucas. He can hold his own against the majority of pass rushers, but we’ve seen him get pushed back sometimes too. Here he is getting to the second level against Tennessee, but never really finding an assignment until it’s too late:

The Seahawks don’t want to play any games without Lucas and their offense was a lot more successful with him in 2025 than they were without him in 2023 and 2024.

Seattle’s backup right tackle job will be a competition between a lot of players:

• Josh Jones

• Bobby Hart

• Amari Kight

• Mason Richman

• Logan Brown

Three of those players are young and could prove to be starters in the future. As of today, it still looks like a big drop-off from Lucas to any of them.

The Seahawks have Lucas signed through 2028. If he continues to play every snap, he could be in Seattle well beyond that.

Devon Witherspoon

You know when you’re shopping and you see a t-shirt or a hat, I don’t know, whatever your preferred item of representative clothing is, and think, “Wow, that is SO me!”?

Does any player embody the Seahawks better than Devon Witherspoon?

Maybe not. However, you also don’t buy every piece of clothing that is “so you” because sometimes the things that fit us best, don’t also fit our budgets.

In our anticipation of finding out the fate of Witherspoon’s contract and future with the Seahawks, context clues point to a decision that is clearly harder for Schneider than simply paying a great player whatever he wants.

—Without hesitation, the Seahawks extended Jaxon Smith-Njigba for $42 million per season, implying that Seattle believes he will actually exceed that value.

—Whereas a presumed $30-$32 million annual salary for Witherspoon hasn’t crossed the goal line nearly as fast.

This actually isn’t that surprising given their positions. Most star receivers sign at least one extension with the team that drafted them (JSN, Chase, Jefferson, St. Brown, London, Lamb, Wilson, and even Brandon Aiyuk). The last notable exception might be A.J. Brown and his 2022 trade to the Eagles.

On the cornerback side, a little more movement: Trent McDuffie, Sauce Gardner, and Jalen Ramsey. Even great cornerbacks can be viewed by their original teams as “not that great” when it comes time for a raise.

Witherspoon’s “loss” to Nick Emmanwori in the second round of this tournament, and therefore not being an automatic inclusion in the Fateful Eight, boils down to the same hesitation that Schneider has in the front office:

Is Witherspoon irreplaceable?

Can the Seahawks win Super Bowls without him?

Of course, we know that the Seahawks can win a Super Bowl without any one player because the team is much better than any of its individual parts. However, not every player is asking for $32 million per year.

That’s the difference.

And I think the reason for Schneider’s hesitation boils down to the one thing that we all associate the cornerback position with the most: Covering wide receivers. If receiver coverage was all that mattered, Witherspoon would not be a top-10 cornerback in the league, nor would he have been a top-five pick in the draft.

In fact, at times, Witherspoon is specifically targeted in coverage by opposing quarterbacks.

Matthew Stafford did it all the time last year, throwing 19 passes in Witherspoon’s direction over three games, and completing 10 for 232 yards.

Kyler Murray saw a mismatch between Witherspoon and Marvin Harrison, Jr., and both of Murray’s touchdown passes in that game were credited against Witherspoon.

If we were comparing Witherspoon to Richard Sherman in his prime, the most feared cornerback in the NFL, it wouldn’t even warrant a conversation. Sherman forced quarterbacks into mistakes whether they were throwing at him or not. Witherspoon’s greatest value will not be in coverage, where he is good but definitely not “Derek Stingley good”.

It’s versatility. It’s tenacity. It’s fearlessness. It’s how coaches trust him to put in the work and hold others accountable for putting in the work.

All things, by the way, that would not help an agent very much in negotiations, as I mentioned in the beginning, because they aren’t stats.

Will this lead to Witherspoon being traded before he’s extended? I’m not saying that’s the case. But whereas Abe Lucas was very, very, extremely easy to extend because he’s a very good right tackle at $15 million per, Devon Witherspoon is a far more complicated negotiation because he’s also very good and he likely wants twice as much.

Which then leads to conversations about Witherspoon that Schneider and Macdonald don’t have to have about Lucas:

“Can we get this done again without him?”

The Last Gasp Vote

Abe Lucas is already in the Fateful Eight. Devon Witherspoon is the winner of The Last Gasp bracket. Only one can advance.

Should Devon Witherspoon replace Abe Lucas in the Fateful Eight final bracket?

I’m excited to finally get into the last part of this tournament. Subscribe, share, comment, and don’t miss the next vote!