Seahawks' Charles Cross decision could change everything
Extend or trade? With rising costs for adequacy, the Seahawks must decide what to do with their bookend tackles
How the Seattle Seahawks handle their rights to left tackle Charles Cross is as big of a decision regarding their future as anything the franchise has to do in the next 12 months.
Remember that for well over a year, I wrote about the likelihood that the Seahawks would trade DK Metcalf in the 2025 offseason because of his contract situation and that’s exactly what happened. And because Seattle traded Metcalf to the Steelers for a second round pick, the move significantly altered the future of the Seahawks, hopefully for the better:
The Seahawks have way more future cap space
The Seahawks basically have Nick Emmanwori (or maybe Elijah Arroyo) because of the trade
Well, the next major player domino on the team after Metcalf is Cross (congratulate me for not doing a “Cross Roads” pun headline today) and this is the part that many of us would not have expected:
“The Charles Cross Decision” is WAY more important and impactful than trading or extending DK Metcalf.
John Schneider will have to weigh whether he would rather have additional FIRST round picks and a hole at left tackle or his normal amount of first round picks, less cap space, and Charles Cross. The answers are not easy and a good process could still give Seattle bad results.
What will Cross cost if the team pays him now vs. waiting until 2026 or 2027, what is Cross’s value on the trade market, and what should the Seahawks do when it is time to make a decision on his future? But first:
Why am I bringing this up now? Because fans should always be looking three steps ahead!
The Green Bay Packers extended right tackle Zach Tom on Monday, a fourth round pick in the same class as Cross and Abraham Lucas, and they paid him a record-breaking $30.2 million signing bonus on a four-year, $88 million deal.
Part of the reason that the Packers are extending Tom before any first round offensive linemen in the same class got new deals is that those teams have exercised their fifth-year options already. Tom was going to be a free agent in 2026, so Green Bay is getting that negotiation done early so they don’t have to worry about it in March, whereas Cross, Tyler Smith, and Ikem Ekwonu had their options picked up and won’t be free agents until 2027 at the earliest.
Even so, regardless of when Cross becomes a free agent or if he’s elite or merely good, these record-setting contract updates will continue to pile up between now and whenever Cross signs an extension. And despite Cross not yet living up to the expectations of a top-10 tackle for most of us, it may actually not matter that much:
As long as Charles Cross is regarded as “above average” when he reaches the end of his current deal, teams will be LINING UP to overpay him and bank on the fact that he’s still a massive upgrade compared to what they have previously at left tackle.
That’s why news like Tom’s $22 million AAV + $30 million bonus should matter to Seahawks fans right now because if we’re looking three steps ahead, as we did with Metcalf and Russell Wilson prior to 2022 and many other examples from the past that I could mention, we won’t break when we hear “breaking” news. We’ll be ready for it and we’ll be telling our fellow fans to pump the brakes on buying that jersey until an official deal is announced.
Plus, not only do the Seahawks have to think about what to do with Cross over the next 12 months…they also have an impending free agent on the right side who might be even better than Cross:
If you ranked all 32 teams in the NFL based on how important future tackle prices are going to be, the Seattle Seahawks might be right at the top!
Next, I will layout what Cross will cost on an extension and when he will probably sign (with Seattle or a different team), then I’ll explain why the Seahawks have to seriously consider a trade and what his value would be on a market that includes teams that are desperate enough to overpay for “above-average” tackles. In fact, Cross at 25 might be better than Laremy Tunsil at 25.
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