OL spending habits haven't changed for Seahawks
Will Seahawks keep their bookend tackles beyond 2025 and should they?
The 2024 season was the third consecutive season that the Seahawks dropped lower than the year before in offensive line cap spending, but 2025 could represent a new low. With some meetings still yet to take place, Seattle is scheduled to spend just $19 milllion on the next offensive line, about $200,000 more than last place Baltimore.
It’s not too late to add, but it could be too late to add anything significant.
Recent Seahawks OL spending:
2020 - $26.6m (26th)
2021 - $26.9m (22nd)
2022 - $23.5m (28th)
2023 - $20.5m (30th)
2024 - $21.1m (32nd)
2025 (still developing) - $19m (31st)
18 individual offensive linemen are set to have higher cap hits in 2025 than the entire Seahawks unit, including seven right tackles, three right guards, seven left tackles, and one left guard.
And looking to money being committed to the 2026 offensive line so far, the Seahawks are only scheduled to spend $7.4 million, which is the least of any team in the NFL so far but the caveat to that number is Charles Cross:
As Seaside Joe has been keeping tabs on, the Seahawks should pick up Cross’s fifth-year option and they could choose to extend him this offseason.
Even adding $17.5 million to Seattle’s 2026 number (Cross’s projected cost), the Seahawks would still only rank 26th overall in OL spending, and that’s at $17.5…if the team extends Cross, his cap hit should be much lower. The other major consideration is at right tackle, where an extension for Abe Lucas this year would be a risk due to his knee issues.
But if Lucas is past his injury problems, an early extension could save Seattle many millions of dollars on the short term. (I don’t want to give a specific number he’d sign for this year because that’s impossible to guess, but recent deals for worse tackles have topped $20 million per season.)
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If Lucas makes it out of 2025 as a Pro Bowl right tackle set to become a free agent, the Seahawks might need to use the franchise tag to keep him. However, the tag is thought to be around $28 milllion for tackles in 2026, more money than Seattle has spent on the ENTIRE offensive line in any of the last five seasons.
Can fans trust John Schneider to keep both Cross and Lucas?
Should fans even want to keep both of them?
How will the Seahawks insure the tackle position in 2025?
For me, the answers to those questions changed as I was writing this article.