Seahawks free agency: 6 targets from The Athletic's Top-150 free agents
Seahawks free agency: 6 targets from The Athletic's Top-150 free agents
I go through Randy Mueller's top-150 free agents and choose 6 who could fit the Seahawks: Seaside Joe 1821
Randy Mueller spent 17 seasons in the Seahawks front office from 1983 to 1999, was a general manager for the Saints and Dolphins, and most recently helped build the roster for the XFL’s Seattle Sea Dragons. He now works at The Athletic and among the many trillions of people in the NFL media today is one of the smartest. How do I know this? Because Randy recently started following Seaside Joe on Twitter. It boggles my mind that he’s one of the few who have realized how valuable of a resource that Seaside Joe is to the greater good of football fans.
(You can also follow Seaside Joe here although I will still post 99% of my thoughts exclusively on Substack so there won’t be much content there, and oh what the heck Randy is here.)
Mueller (I can call him “Randy” because he follows me, but you have to call him “Mueller”)…
No, I said Mueller.
Randy Mueller posted his top-150 free agents for 2024 on The Athletic and I decided it would be a good exercise to go through the list 25 names at a time and pick one player in each of those sub-sections of 25 as being the best potential fit for the Seahawks when free agency begins in mid-March.
Instead of top-to-bottom, I’ll go bottom-to-top starting with the best free agent in the 126-150 and then going to 101-125, 76-100, and so on. Make sense?
The only rule I can think of is that I won’t pick any Seahawks free agents. If you want my thoughts on Seattle’s free agents you can read Offense here and Defense here. I’ll post the first two targets for free and the last four for Regular Joes premium paid subscribers. Paid subscribers get access to the bonus content, the archives, and the comments section. Basically, it’s the best deal on the entire substack network because I post every single day, 365 days a year, and you get about 10-20 times as much Seahawks content here than you’ll get on…well, The Athletic Seattle. (This may be the moment where I lose Randy.)
Best Seahawks Fit: Free Agents 126-150
#141 - DT Greg Gaines, Bucs
Having extensively followed the Los Angeles Rams, I can say with confidence that Gaines has an opportunity to be a sleeper in this free agent class. We also have to keep in mind that I’m starting here with players who almost didn’t make the top-150 list, so if we’re keeping expectations that Gaines could be a valuable rotational piece on the defensive line then I don’t think any Seahawks fan would be disappointed with the returns.
It would also be a return to Seattle for Gaines, a four-year starter at the University of Washington where he was teammates with several current or former Seahawks including Ben Burr-Kirven, Sidney Jones, and Will Dissly.
Going into the 2019 draft, Gaines was pitched as an overachiever, someone who didn’t have the ideal frame or athleticism for a 312 lb defensive tackle (athleticism “score” ranked 14th at the combine for his position) but left it all on the practice field and on game day.
"He's built like a bouncer but he gives you an honest day's work every time he steps out on the field." - NFC West coast scout
Projected as a late-round/UDFA pick, Gaines surprisingly went in the fourth round to the Rams, giving him the perfect opportunity to play with Aaron Donald. Waiting two years for his turn to get the ‘Aaron Donald Effect’, Gaines became a starter in 2021 (helping L.A. win the Super Bowl) and posted 9.5 sacks and 19 QB hits over the next two seasons. He was even credited with 21 pressures in 2021 by Pro-Football-Reference which seems…Generous? Greg-orous?
However, one of the only downsides of playing next to AD is that teams are skeptical of your talent and ability to perform without arguably the greatest defensive tackle of all-time soaking up two or three blocks at a time. Gaines only received a one-year, $3.5 million contract from the Bucs in 2023 free agency, reuniting him with former UW defensive star Vita Vea. Proving teams kind of right, Gaines saw his playing time drop from 72% in 2022 to 42% in 2023, only getting two starts because of an injury to Vea.
For what it’s worth, Gaines had a great game in his start against the Falcons and then he added a sack of Jalen Hurts in Tampa Bay’s upset wild card win over the Eagles. There was also the time he actually stonewalled Jason Kelce on the tush push, being the only person I know of to do that:
Still, his presence wasn’t apparently that impactful as Bucs Gameday rates him as sort of just a “take him or leave him” free agent:
After starting the previous two seasons with the Rams, Gaines joined the Bucs last season in a primarily backup role. He started two games in place of the injured Vita Vea and finished with 24 tackles and a sack. Gaines was seen at the facility working out after the season ended and could be brought back as depth for the 2024 season.
I don’t think it is at all fair to say, “Look at what Mike Macdonald did for Justin Madubuike (a good player turned into a great one), he can do that with any defensive tackle!” but you could probably argue that Seattle’s best bet is to add a few unheralded big men and see what happens. I’ve made my point for why Leonard Williams might be too rich for the Seahawks’ present needs at the position so if the team doesn’t retain him then someone like Gaines makes plenty of sense to me. He moves well enough for a big man for me to think he can handle the versatile duties that Macdonald is asking for.
And even though there’s no real present connection between the Seahawks staff and the staff that was on the Huskies when Gaines played for UW, it is typical for NFL teams to just know locals better than the average college prospect; and for those players to tell their agents, “Is it possible for me to go somewhere I’m already familiar with?”
Plus, this is a player so far under the radar that Seattle might be able to get him for pennies on the dollar if the Bucs don’t push for his return. So far the Seahawks most expensive DT free agent signing of the era (Dre’Mont Jones) hasn’t been as good as some of their best, including the Tony McDaniel and Clinton McDonald type steals during Seattle’s best defensive era ever. A cheap one or two-year connection with Greg Gaines is something I would push for and not be surprised by.
Best Seahawks Fit: Free Agents 101-125
#108 - S Geno Stone, Ravens
There were at least a half-dozen interesting names in this section and out of respect for Randy’s paywall, I won’t give them all away. I’ll just say that between options like a pretty decent iOL from the Dolphins and an edge from the Patriots who could arguably be Macdonald’s next version of Kyle Van Noy, it was easy for me to use experience-in-Macdonald’s-defense as the tiebreaker to choose Stone over everyone else. I’m just happy that Randy was kind enough to keep Geno Stone out of the top-100 so I could get him at such a discount.
That being said, Stone has already made it clear that he won’t sign anywhere—including Baltimore—that doesn’t view him as a starter and a priority signing. What’s interesting about his story is that if Stone had been a free agent last year, he would have gotten even less attention than a safety like Taylor Rapp, the former Huskies player who had a disappointing career with the Rams and only got a one-year deal with the Bills for less than $2 million.
I mean, maybe Stone was more respected around the league than I know but he had only just become a starter at the end of his third season. Now he’s coming off of a season in which he had seven interceptions (including one off of Geno Smith), second-most in the NFL. And it wasn’t just Stone getting three or four interceptions off of the worst quarterback in the league, he picked off seven different QBs in seven different games.
I just appreciate that more than a player who maybe got lucky in two divisional games against an awful quarterback.
A seventh round pick out of Iowa in 2020, Stone was actually drafted to be teammates with Earl Thomas, a relationship that only lasted a few months before the Ravens released ET following a very controversial camp that season. Stone had no bad words to say about Thomas, only that he was extremely demanding of the rookie, expecting him to show up for a workout literally minutes after he texted him to ask if he wanted to meet up:
The number one reason I suggest Geno Stone as a target though is simply that Macdonald would have someone in Seattle’s locker room and defensive team meetings who can help bridge the gap for all of the teammates who are brand new to this scheme, system, and way of learning. Probably the most underrated aspect of coaching and the differences between teams is how things are taught and we don’t know for sure how wide that gap will be between Pete Carroll and Mike Macdonald: Adding one or two defensive players from the Ravens would go a long way towards bridging it.
The only question is, “How much is that worth to the Seahawks?”
One of the best learning lessons I’ve had in my years of writing is the time I overrated Anthony Harris as a free agent. The former Vikings safety led the NFL with six interceptions in 2019, a surprising result given that Harris was mostly just a backup for his first four seasons in the league. It was enough for Minnesota to give Harris the franchise tag in 2020, but he fell back to ear that season, signed with the Eagles in 2021, and was essentially out of the league by the end of 2022.
Of course, it is not fair of me to say that just because Anthony Harris exists that now Geno Stone is going to have the same career downfall. The comparison completely stops at the fact that they are two safeties who had surprisingly-great interception seasons several years into their careers…It just means that Stone’s evaluation has to be based on more than stats. I know that Randy Mueller didn’t make this list based solely on stats, that he watched the film, so it is interesting that Geno Stone didn’t make his top-100.
Perhaps if the league isn’t as high on Stone as the interceptions indicate then he will not cost top-15 safety prices. I’m very confident the Seahawks will release Jamal Adams and I’ve said many times that I just don’t see how Quandre Diggs can be the second-highest paid S in the NFL after Adams is released. The $11 million saved by releasing Diggs is enough to sign not one, not two, but at least a few defensive players in his place. If Stone gets a three-year, $21 million deal (a generous offer), then Seattle essentially has to pay him $4 million in 2024, which leaves another $7 million in cap space after releasing Diggs. The Seahawks are getting younger, cheaper, and bringing in a player who already knows the Macdonald experience backwards and forwards.
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