Devon Witherspoon signs rookie contract with Seahawks
Pete Carroll had to be the one to complete the entire 2023 draft class, not just Seattle's: Seaside Joe 1609
The Seattle Seahawks have not only completed signing their own rookie class, but wanted to do the honors of completing every 2023 NFL rookie class: Devon Witherspoon, the last holdout of the draft, has signed his rookie contract.
Let it be know, this story was a non-story.
The Seahawks sign Witherspoon to basically the exact contract terms that they and the rookie cornerback were obligated to agree upon the entire time. The only difference is something to do with the language and on what dates Witherspoon will receive the entirety of his $20,170,000 signing bonus. That hasn’t been reported, but it is safe to assume he got most of it on Friday.
Whatever, that’s truly none of our concern and not once in history has it mattered to media or fans at what point a player’s signing bonus was paid out.
Witherspoon missed all of two days of training camp and the Seahawks haven’t even put their pads on yet. That will happen at the beginning of next week and the fifth overall pick will be there, something I never feared being in doubt, although I did wonder how Seattle would clear the cap space to sign him. The Seahawks took care of that this week when they extended Uchenna Nwosu and restructured Quandre Diggs, but the team still has extra room left under the 2023 cap, enough to go after a veteran.
However, after signing Ben Burr-Kirven on Thursday, Seattle doesn’t have an open roster spot anymore. That will certainly change, Pete Carroll is already mid-churn with the roster.
Now the Seahawks have their entire rookie class in training camp, including first-week star receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, who you can read more about in our Super Joes super deep dive on his high school and college career.
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Won't write a second article for this, but Seahawks sign RB Wayne Taulapapa, a UDFA out of Virginia and Washington. Therefore he was teammates with Olu Olu. He had 887 rushing yards and 11 TD with UW last season, his lone year there after four years at Virginia. They waived a CB, Montrae Braswell.
You called it, Ken. The hand wringing online was something else. And fans are really upset at Witherspoon from the comments I've seen. Have to wonder if this won't impact his jersey sales, but hopefully it's all forgotten in a few weeks.