Is he the next Cliff Avril-like Seahawks signing?

Free agency is about to start

In 2013, Cliff Avril was coming off of his third straight season with at least 8.5 sacks for the Lions but Detroit opted to let him leave in free agency. Surprisingly, there was little attention given to Avril on the market and the Seahawks were able to sign him for a modest two-year, $15 million deal.

Michael Bennett’s contract was even more befuddling, a one-year, $5 million contract despite nine sacks for the Bucs the previous season.

Both defensive linemen helped Seattle win the Super Bowl that season, both cashed in with bigger extensions by the Seahawks in short order. Could John Schneider find another pass rusher like these two in 2026? There might be at least one name out there who fits the mold.

Let’s wrap up this week’s Super Joes segment, where I take questions from the “founding members” tier subscribers and look for the answers for you!

If you want to be in on the next Super Joes Q&A, or if you just feel like Seaside Joe is worth a lil extra, you can elevate your account here:

Defjames: In your article about Mafe you touched on the edge position. If we’re looking 2 years ahead, we need to find 1-3 edge players. How do you see this playing out in free agency and draft? Do you think D Law gives us one more year? What about Nwosu contract?

As far as free agency goes, the OvertheCap “possible cut candidates” list gives us 100 names that could (or in some cases already were) get cut. Some edge rushers on the list:

• Dorance Armstrong

• Patrick Jones

• Bryce Huff

• Arik Armstead

• Jonathan Greenard

• Rashan Gary

• Carl Granderson

We already know that Gary posted, then deleted, a goodbye post on Instagram. He’s still on the Packers for now.

As uninspiring as these names are, Lawrence was coming off of a 2024 season in which he missed 13 games and hadn’t posted more than 6.5 sacks since 2018. Does someone like Gary fit the mold of a buy-low edge rusher who feels reinvigorated in the Mike Macdonald defense?

Another name on that OTC list is Uchenna Nwosu, who is certainly going to make too much money in 2026 if he’s not released ($11.5 million in cash, which doesn’t sound like a lot relative to the $45 million “salaries” you see at edge rusher but is a lot that Seattle could spend against the salary cap next year) but still remains on the team as of Sunday.

You would think that the Seahawks settle that situation somehow before free agency.

And if you’re Nwosu, do you want to try and stick it out with Seattle for one more year, hope to win another Super Bowl, and boost your free agency value to another level in 2027?

Nwosu would be barely 30 at the start of 2027 free agency which is not that old for an edge rusher if he’s healthy and still producing. Nwosu gets far more money as a 2027 free agent than he’d get if he’s released this week, especially if he’s coming off of a season for Seattle instead of Las Vegas.

No way for us to tell what Lawrence wants to do, but his position with the team is safe if he wants to stay and that’s an “easy” $9 million with a chance to win another Super Bowl.

In terms of the 2027-2028 Seahawks edge rushers, they’d like Derick Hall to take another step forward next season and build off of the Super Bowl performance that he had. I wouldn’t totally rule out Nwosu. And I think mixing in a draft pick this year and a “budget” free agent every offseason would be reasonable expectations.

Here’s a new breakdown about the “modular system” and Macdonald’s “favorite blitz” by Match Quarters:

Bret: I’m curious if you see the way Trey Hendrickson is leaving Cincinnati as a prototypical example of why some NFL organizations seem mired in chronic failure?

Did they do right by holding on to him and just accepting the incoming compensatory pick? Or should they have accepted reality and gotten more draft value in a trade? I don’t believe Schneider would have led a player like that walk without getting something in return.

And, should we dare to hope that his market will be affordable and that he might want to go to a winning team on an organization-friendly contract?

The most important two words in your question are “accepted reality” and coming to an agreement on what Cincinnati’s “accepted reality” should have been last season.

Was it reasonable for the Bengals to believe in Week 1 that they were Super Bowl contenders? I think it was reasonable and with hindsight we now know that the AFC North was a very weak division. So weak, in fact, that the Bengals weren’t even out of the race when they were 3-8 and getting back Joe Burrow.

So in a sense I could see the timing never being quite right for Cincinnati to just trade Hendrickson for “the best offer”, which Ian Rapoport later reported was merely a fourth round pick.

Instead of a fourth round pick in 2026, the Bengals could get a third round pick in 2027, which has always been the standard rule that “the equal of this year’s round is a round higher next year”.

Basically it sounds like a team was willing to trade nothing for Trey Hendrickson by essentially renting him for the same compensatory pick they could probably get for him as a free agent loss.

There are myriad ways to criticize the Cincinnati Bengals, but maybe the lack of a Hendrickson trade isn’t at the top of the list this time.

You might even ask, “Why didn’t they just extend him?” The Bengals have one of the worst defenses in the NFL and they need to replace their best defensive player?

As to Hendrickson’s free agency, your guess is as good as mine. On Saturday, the Eagles extended Jordan Davis for $26 million per year! I know he’s good. I didn’t know he was that good.

The contract numbers get wilder every offseason and I suspect that Hendrickson will do what almost everybody does which is follow the best financial offer. We can rightly say that the Seahawks have a much better chance to win the Super Bowl than the Bucs, but then if Tampa Bay comes in $10 million higher all of a sudden Hendrickson’s probably justifying to himself all the reasons that “actually the Bucs will win a Super Bowl if I’m there.”

It happens every time.

Seattle went with DeMarcus Lawrence as an edge rusher last offseason. Look for them to do the same in free agency this offseason.

La’au: I’d be interested to hear about free agents. Who looks to be available and who most likely will be a cap casualty. I’m most interested in who you think would be a scheme fit like Lawrence last year

Rusty: Who is the most Seahawk-y potential free agent acquisition?

That’s a question worthy of a much longer response than this one and unfortunately free agency is just around the corner.

Just remember these three words:

Value.

Value.

Value.

I look at that OTC list of cap casualties and a name that sticks out is Marlon Humphrey. (I was today years old when I realized that his first and last name are both the first names of legendary actors.)

Ravens fans would tell you that they’re pretty low on Humphrey right now but how good was he the last time that he played for Macdonald? In terms of needing to replace Tariq Woolen with a stopgap option while Seattle looks for another draft steal at cornerback, Humphrey (if he’s released) could be a viable option there and a value.

As free agents go, would the Seahawks look at someone like Rachaad White, a running back praised for blocking and receiving?

Or what about Al-Quadin Muhammad?

There’s something very “Michael Bennett/Cliff Avril”-y about Muhammad because like when Seattle signed those two players in 2013, he’s coming off a quiet breakout season (Muhammad had 11 sacks for the Lions in 2025) and might come cheaper than most free agents would after a season like that. Bennett and Avril were cheaper as free agents than they should have been and both cashed in after a year with the Seahawks.

Muhammad is 31, so not a long-term answer but that also brings down his price and makes him a value.

zezinhom400: Literally the only place on the offense Seattle is unsure of is RB. So....(Schneider’s) decision is to let Walker go, and also risk that Charbs isn’t going to be at his best? Makes no sense. I gotta believe both sides are just trying to work out “how much”.

I’m not ignoring what you wrote and the logic behind that, I’m just asking: with an offense that’s now truly run-first and virtually set at every position, you’d seriously consider risking someone other than Walker??

I write a lot so I’m actually not sure what I wrote that you’re referring to, and I write about Kenneth Walker a lot specifically. I’ve supported keeping Walker pretty much through the entire process, including my willingness to give him the franchise tag. If you’re referring to reporting the reports that the Seahawks will let Walker test free agency, that’s out of my hands.

At most, I’ve explained a potential justifications for why the team didn’t tag him and why it would make sense for Walker’s agent to get to free agency to confirm what his market is before agreeing to a number with Seattle.

So I don’t know when you say “you’d replace Walker” if you’re talking about me or a fictional John Schneider. None of us except for Schneider even know what negotiations with Walker’s agent have been like, so we are lacking adequate information to make an informed opinion about why he should or shouldn’t return at the numbers he is or isn’t asking for. Perhaps we will know in less than 24 hours!

Defjames: Do you think Seahawks will draft a RB with second pick? And who do you think it would be? A lot of the draft evaluations focus on measurables but we know the Seahawks place a ton of value on character.

I went through 10 running back draft options in this article and would refer back to that for some names, really because I haven’t done any additional research on that prospects since then.

In general, I think the Seahawks will draft the best players available when they pick and not even Schneider could tell you what those names are until they’re just about on the clock. I don’t think Seattle will force a selection at running back if it turns out to be a need, which at this point we can’t be sure that it will be.

By the end of this week we should have a really good idea.

Seaside Joe 2560