Bobby Wagner is a free agent again: Will Seahawks bring him home?

2/23/2023: In stunning news, the Rams are releasing Wagner after only one season

One year after the Seattle Seahawks couldn’t afford to keep him on his previous contract, Bobby Wagner is a free agent again. In shocking news, the Rams are releasing Wagner one year after signing him to a five-year, $50 million contract, as it is apparent that they need the cap space…and Wagner isn’t so sure that L.A. can give him the title contention he’s looking for after a 5-12 campaign.

If there’s a short list of teams that Bobby Wagner has in his back pocket, surely we can’t rule out the Seahawks from being on it. Can they afford to bring him back and does Bobby believe that the 9-8 Seahawks are en route to improvement in 2023?

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Rams releasing LB Bobby Wagner. (via @TomPelissero)

The news that Jordyn Brooks tore his ACL at the end of 2022 opens the door for Seattle to be looking for a competent, confident, and top-rated inside linebacker to lead the defense at the start of the 2023 season. There’s nobody know knows Pete Carroll’s defense better than Wagner.

Though he missed the Pro Bowl for the first time since 2013, largely because the Rams were one of the worst teams in the NFL, Wagner was a second-team All-Pro (his ninth time on either first or second team) and posted a career-best six sacks to go along with 140 tackles.

There is the question of what Wagner will cost. A year ago, he signed a “$10 million APY” contract but in actuality his first-year cap hit was only $2.5 million and only $10 million was guaranteed at signing. That’s actually all that Wagner will earn: $10 million for one season with L.A..

We know for sure that Seattle will need to sign a starting linebacker, as Cody Barton is an unrestricted free agent. We have to ask ourselves: What if Barton and Wagner cost the same amount to the Seahawks? Who should they go after in that case?

Barton is much younger, Wagner is much better. Generally speaking. Wagner may not have all the same skills that he had six years ago, but there are other parts to playing football that Bobby has the Barton will never have; if both cost $4 million against the cap in 2023, should Seattle just try to reunite with Bobby Wagner instead of re-signing Cody Barton?

In my opinion…yes.

This is not the same Bobby Wagner, but the Seahawks defense was worse than it had been in almost any season with Wagner, so with a short-term commitment the two sides coming back together makes a lot of sense for Pete Carroll.

The other half is whether Wagner sees Seattle as a viable destination at age 33, looking to win a Super Bowl for the first time since 2013. The Seahawks do have upside, including two first round picks, and he’d help them out in some areas that they lacked in 2022. The question he would probably have after reportedly wanting to leave the Rams for a contender is “Who is going to play QB?”

The answer to that could be the answer to whether Bobby wants to come back to the Seahawks. But now that he’s back on the market, he actually makes more sense for Seattle in 2023 than he did at $18 million in 2022.