Seahawks free agency starts to take shape in less than a week

Super Joes Q&A is back and so am I

We’ve been in regular contact for the last two weeks but I actually haven’t been here. Now I’m back to answer more of your Super Joes questions about free agency, draft, and where I’ve been.

If you want to get in on the next Super Joes Q&A, you can join by clicking here:

Rozone: When do all these re-signings or releases have to be finished? I am not enjoying all the headlines predicting the teams that K9 will go to next.

Although signings are never truly finished, the Kenneth Walker free agency storyline should be settled in a week. Free agency opens on March 11 but we may know where he’s going to sign as early as Monday.

Seattle’s most notable free agents (Walker, Rashid Shaheed, Tariq Woolen, Coby Bryant, Josh Jobe, Boye Mafe) should sign early in free agency, including if they return to the Seahawks. Guys like Jake Bobo and Dareke Young could re-sign early or late in the process, or leave.

No releases seem imminent but any move there, or a retirement by DeMarcus Lawrence, could be at any time.

As the Rams proved by acquiring Trent McDuffie on Wednesday (not official until next week), trades can also pop up whenever.

MarkE: Most important question: how was your vacation?

I have to say that I haven’t taken many trips in my life so it was a little uncomfortable to break from routine and step out of my comfort zone. But the first sign that you probably need to do something is that it is uncomfortable.

Second, Hong Kong was amazing. Saw pandas and big buddhas and took my longest break from writing in 15 years.

sleepy panda

big buddha who has a gift shop under his butt

McDonald’s (!) has full buckets of fried chicken

giant ray

you gotta get french toast at a cha chaan teng

There’s a saying in Cantonese, “lou maau siu sou”, which means an old cat burns its whiskers. Let’s hope that this old cat feels refreshed enough to not get burnt out.

And if I return with one prediction from Hong Kong:

Bakehouse.

This is a honey glazed bread cube filled with peanut butter:

I don’t know how business expansion works but I think Bakehouse should come to the U.S..

MarkE: Cornerback is an obvious area of need and uncertainty, with two Seahawks appearing in the top 7 free agents listed by TheAthletic.

There are plenty of others in that list that would cost something in the $10m-$12m per year range, all aged around 27. Are there any FAs you think have a particularly good fit for Seattle we might want to root for them to sign?

I would refer back to this list and highlighting Cordale Flott. Even more likely could be re-signing Josh Jobe after he tests the market and tells Seattle what his best offer is and see if they match. Mostly I think the corner positions tend to get overrated; I think the Rams probably overpaid for Trent McDuffie on Wednesday by trading a first round pick+more and preparing to extend him for a reported $30 million per year.

If “overrated” is the wrong word then I’d say that if you’re as strong up front and on the coaching staff as the Seahawks are, then premium CB talent seems less important than the typical average need there. Given Seattle’s high probability to extend Devon Witherspoon, the team needs to pull back even more at the other corner spots, which is why I lean on that list of free agents who will inspire little confidence (so far) but cost next to nothing.

Ray: Tell us more about your vacation.

The K9 situation is becoming more interesting, i.e., the Seahawks apparently won’t be using the Franchise Tag. Please update us on your thoughts.

I’ve never been anywhere as densely populated as Hong Kong, so one of the biggest culture shocks was the sheer number of people out and about all day and all night, but also the fact that to feed that many people you’re never more than 20 feet away from a restaurant or a store. Despite the expectations I’d have for a densely populated city like that, Hong Kong is extremely safe and clean and organized.

Many of you are far more worldly than I am though and knew this already. What’s been your favorite vacation spot?

As for Kenneth Walker III, he was probably closer to an extension at the beginning of December than he was at the end of the Super Bowl. Ironically, the more he played and the better he performed, the less likely it became that Seattle could afford him at their team set salary limits.

When all is said and done, if Walker gets a four-year, $60 million offer from the Texans (or something), John Schneider probably gets that call “Hey do you want to match this?”

Doubtful that the Seahawks do want to match his best offer and this is not the outcome that Seattle envisioned when he was drafted, to walk away when he’s never been better, but to give a player a raise is risky. To give a player with an injury history a raise? Even riskier. A running back? Even riskier. Coming off of an extended playoff workload? Even riskier.

Walker over a different running back makes the Seahawks better at running back. But Walker at $15 million per season would make the Seahawks worse somewhere else on the team, or at least that could be what Schneider believes.

I would like Walker to stay. But is there a chance that two years from now we’re looking back on Walker’s 2026-2027 seasons and saying “That’s a shame” about his career for some reason? Unfortunately yeah, that’s all too common.

Ryan: Is there any downside to the following moves with players we anticipate being on the Seahawks beyond just 2026 to free up more cap space leading up to free agency? Even if unused in 2026, it can just roll over to the 2027 cap, correct?

Restructure Sam Darnold: $22.65M

Extend Leonard Williams: $11M

Restructure Ernest Jones: $3.6M

Restructure Abe Lucas: $3.5M

Extend Jason Myers: $3.2M

I wrote about extending Williams and Myers on Monday, those are plausible moves because they’re in a contract year. The Seahawks are not up against the salary cap and they don’t like to spend a lot of money in free agency, so I don’t necessarily see the need to create more space with restructures, especially at the (relatively) minuscule level of $3.5 million. It wouldn’t be necessary to create the space with a restructure (which reduces cap space in 2027) to then just roll over the space if you don’t use it to try and recoup the space you just lost by doing the restructure.

If for any reason Seattle felt like they needed space, as you noted certainly Darnold creates the biggest chunk and he’s very likely to still be on the team in 2027, at which point an extension could happen.

The best way to avoid a contractual impasse in the future is to not alter the original contract at all. In fact, those cap-saving moves usually only become necessary because of overreaching contractual decisions of your past.

Bob: Hope your Hong Kong trip rocked! Had to 86 the Mexico half of MY trip. Seems their Army and Cartels were having a shoot out and I forgot to pack my body armor.

So, it’s never too soon to make draft predictions so one can look like an April fool after JS makes his picks. Beyond any specific player prospects, I’m trying to wrap MY noggin around JS’s noggin on strategy when holding just four picks. Do numerous ‘potential’ needs (OL, CB, RB, WR, DL, LB, etc,) mean gaining more picks in later rounds or do ya trade UP to snag a quality plug and play rookie?

We can theorize for fun or to help form our own opinions about what they should do once the draft actually happens and then when the Seahawks do something that nobody predicted (which is what will happen) we can feel some type of way based on those thought experiments. But wrappin’ noggins on noggins?

That seems as impossible as a honey-glazed peanut butter cube.

But the Seahawks don’t have any draft capital. They have the buying power to move up from 32 to…I don’t know, maybe 22? And that’s if they give up everything. If a team thinks they’d love to go from 17 to 32 and add a 2nd and a 3rd then is it actually better for Seattle to get 17 instead of just making their original picks?

Let’s see how the depth chart looks after free agency has settled down. In general, it’s a little bit safer to bet on “no trades” than “any trades”. It’s just a higher probability.

Seaside Joe 2557