Financially responsible offseason: Adding new Seahawks
A 2025 Seahawks depth chart that saves money, improves the roster, and keeps Geno Smith on his current contract
It does not appear that the Seahawks will make a decision on Uchenna Nwosu this week because the team was able to push back the date for the edge rusher’s $6 million guarantee that had been scheduled for Friday, according to ESPN.
Which still tells us what the team thinks about Nwosu’s contract.
We can almost guarantee that one of two things will happen:
Nwosu will take a pay cut
Nwosu will be released
Maybe there’s a chance that Nwosu is on the trade block and Seattle is getting nibbles that both sides would like to see turn into a bite, but the least probable outcome is that he returns to the Seahawks and makes the $15 million he’s set to be paid in 2025. This is the only logical reason that Nwosu would agree to push back the date for his $6 million contract trigger: He has no leverage.
If he was expecting the Seahawks to pay him, there would be no reason to agree to a later deadline and changing a contract agreement must have both sides approval, right? If you see an alternative explanation, let me know in the comments:
For the time being, the glimmer of hope for those wanting to see Nwosu return in 2025 is that Seattle did not release him on Thursday. Barring a trade, this indicates a desire to have the linebacker return at a reduced salary, which is essentially what I’ve been expecting since the beginning. It’s just more common to see a player get released and test the market rather than fold his cards and believe that the team is paying him fairly.
If Nwosu turns his $14.8 million base salary into a $5 million base salary with another $5 million in incentives (probably based on playing time given his injury history), then that would fall in line with my expectations to bring him back. Now, what can the Seahawks do with however much cap space they create by making moves like this?
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In part I of this series, the Seahawks traded and released enough players to get up to $55 million in cap space while still keeping Geno Smith on his current contract.
Today, let’s see what $55 million buys you these days in part 2 of this offseason plan and at the end I’ll show you a projected 2025 Seahawks depth chart based on these changes at WR, OL, LB, CB, EDGE, and so on. You tell me if it’s better or not!