Schneider's Spending Strike Out

Time for Seahawks to FLEE agency?

In his first offseason as the sole GM, John Schneider signed 11 outside free agents who cost between $1-$5.1 million in 2024 cap space.

Field Gulls writer John P. Gilbert highlighted most of those contracts in a tweet that caught my attention due to the sinking feeling in my stomach that it caused:

Nobody wants Seahawks coverage to become regular “DOOM AND GLOOM” — especially not a daily newsletter — but it has to be on the record that Seattle’s struggles aren’t confined to what happens on the field; the Seahawks have also been taking Ls in free agency and the draft compared to their NFC West counterparts.

Here is the bad news:

• Of those 11 new Seahawks added in free agency, NOBODY has locked down their place on the team beyond this season

• The Seahawks could have OVERPAID at least a couple of offensive linemen (including Damien Lewis) and it would have still been a better use of money than most of these additions

2024 cap hits (per OvertheCap):

Jerome Baker = $5.1m

(Damien Lewis cap hit with CAR = $4.9m)

Tyrel Dodson = $4.3m

Rayshawn Jenkins = $4.1m

George Fant = $3.4m

Connor Williams = $3.3m

Pharaoh Brown = $3.2m

(Jordyn Brooks cap hit with MIA = $2.9m)

(Will Dissly cap hit with LAC = $2.6m)

Johnathan Hankins = $2m

K’Von Wallace = $1.5m

Laken Tomlinson = $1.2m

Laviska Shenault = $1.1m

Nick Harris = $1m

These 11 players are costing the Seahawks a combined total of $30.2 million in 2024 cap space, which is 11.9% of Seattle’s total $252.3m cap.

It doesn’t seem like a big deal because every team has to have reserves and role players who cost $1-$3 million, that’s the cost of doing NFL business. But 20/20 hindsight (fair or not) is a brutal blow to Schneider’s first year in free agency.

More bad news about spending $30m on 11 players:

• Not one of them has been a HIT

• The most expensive (Baker) is already GONE

• The Seahawks added 3 new centers, 5 new linebackers, and 6 new potential guards, just for those positions to be WEAKNESSES

One year ago, the Seahawks focused on Dre’Mont Jones instead of Zach Allen and the result was getting a mediocre player and losing out on a great player.

This year, the Seahawks scoffed at keeping Jordyn Brooks or Bobby Wagner, instead putting their chips on Baker and Dodson. No analysis needs to be done on the players that Seattle lost to know that the answer isn’t Baker and that Schneider eventually had to trade a fourth round pick to replace him.

• Linebacker Additions: Baker and Dodson ($9.4 million cap space), 4th round pick Tyrice Knight, 4th round pick Ernest Jones

• Linebacker Situation: Still not great!

Going another step further, the Seahawks re-signed Leonard Williams and Noah Fant, with the latter being a “sunk cost” at $7.5 million in 2024 for a tight end who isn’t great at blocking and isn’t amazing as a receiver.

Robert Hunt, the most expensive guard in 2024 free agency, has a cap hit of $6.45 million — $1 million less than Fant!

That number does balloon to $21.6 million in 2025, and the Panthers will do what all teams do in that situation: They’ll restructure Hunt’s contract to bring the cap hit down to $10.2 million. Fant’s 2025 cap hit? $13.5 million!

Even if Lewis and Hunt were overpays (as I wrote in Thursday’s bonus newsletter: 3 steps to rebuild the o-line), the Seahawks overpaid players too. They just overpaid less expensive (worse) players and the result is that Seattle still had to add guys like Connor Williams, Ernest Jones, Roy Robertson-Harris, Jason Peters, and Josh Ross after we thought the Seahawks were done adding players. Schneider also had to keep adding edge players, like Trevis Gipson, despite giving Uchenna Nwosu $32 million guaranteed last year.

What about 2025?

We know that the Seahawks will have to shed a ton of players who are under contract next year and these are the remaining dead cap hits if they do:

• QB Geno Smith, $13.5m dead cap

• WR Tyler Lockett, $13.9m dead cap

• WR DK Metcalf, $21m dead cap if traded

• OLB Dre’Mont Jones, $14m dead cap

• OLB Uchenna Nwosu, $13m dead cap

• TE Noah Fant, $4.5m dead cap

• S Rayshawn Jenkins, $2.5m dead cap

• OT George Fant, $1.9m dead cap

When the Seahawks cut some of these players to create $50-$100 million+ in cap space, can Schneider be trusted to spend it?

But the issue is still less about “Dead Cap” (The Seahawks have $45.4 million in dead cap this year, including $21m for Jamal Adams, $10m for Quandre Diggs, and now $5m for Baker) and more about a dead defense and a lifeless offensive line.

It’s not so much about the money, it’s about the players that John Schneider thought could help the Seahawks who already need to be replaced before the end of their first season in Seattle, and perhaps none who will see year two.

I’ll post “THE GOOD NEWS” in the comments.

Seaside Joe 2048