Buy the Dip: Uchenna Nwosu
Why 2024 is basically another "contract year" for Seahawks' Uchenna Nwosu: Seaside Joe 1959
The ideal outcome to signing Uchenna Nwosu in 2022 was for the Seattle Seahawks to have obtained their next “Cliff Avril” at edge rusher. Following a five-year run with the Lions after he had been a third round pick out of Purdue, Avril was left seeking an opportunity to prove himself again after rejecting a three-year, $30 million extension from Detroit when he was on the franchise tag the previous season.
The Seahawks were fortunate to find out that Avril was not highly sought after in 2013 free agency despite coming off of a 9.5-sack season, otherwise Seattle would not have likely been able to sign him. Without as many suitors as he anticipated, Avril only got a two-year, $13 million deal with the Seahawks, which gave Seattle much better options than if he would only agree to a one-year contract:
If Avril underwhelmed, the Seahawks could walk away in 2014 without collatoral damage.
If Avril exceeded expectations, the Seahawks wouldn’t lose him or need to use the franchise tag.
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As you know, Avril did exceed expectations and produced eight sacks with six forced fumbles in 15 games (three times as many fumbles as the previous year even though he played 131 fewer snaps in Seattle), forming a partnership with Michael Bennett, another free agent defensive lineman out to prove himself in 2013. Before the end of his second season with the Seahawks, Avril signed a four-year, $28.5 million extension, all but guaranteeing that his best playing days would be spent in Seattle.
Had the Seahawks given only one-year deals to both Avril and Bennett (Bennett signed a one-year, $4.8 million contract in 2013), they would have risked losing one of them in 2014 free agency. Instead, Bennett signed a four-year, $28.5 million extension in March and Avril got the same terms in December.
The “two-year prove it” contract has been a staple of the Seahawks roster building philosophy for as long as John Schneider has been the general manager, in part because Seattle has rarely been willing to consider free agents who don’t need to prove anything. The Seahawks stay away from outside free agents who want four-year deals at the beginning and instead try to obtain players they see as being undervalued around the league, then decide if they want to reward them or not after a season with the team.
They’re “buying the dip”.
It could be argued that this has continued even after Pete Carroll, as the Seahawks are banking on good seasons from Laken Tomlinson, Jerome Baker, Johnathan Hankins, Tyrel Dodson, K’Von Wallace, Nick Harris, Pharoah Brown, and Laviska Shenault, all of whom are on the “Michael Bennett” one year prove-it deals.
Rayshawn Jenkins and George Fant on the other hand signed for two years, just like Avril in 2013. If Jenkins has a career year because he’s playing safety for Mike Macdonald, Seattle doesn’t need to start worrying about his future with the team next March. They will have another entire year to make a decision on Jenkins, giving the Seahawks a lot more flexibility and options when it comes time to decide which free agents they want to keep beyond 2024.
This is also the reason that I didn’t have to write any stories about whether or not the Seahawks should re-sign Julian Love following his first career Pro Bowl season. Since Love and Jarran Reed signed two-year contracts last offseason, Seattle didn’t need to negotiate with either of them this past March, when both of them could have reasonably gotten more money on the open market: Love will make a $5 million base salary, which isn’t cheap but is cheaper than re-signing him as a free agent would have been. Reed will make $4 million despite coming off of one of his best career seasons and Reed is not in the top-30 for 2024 cap hit among defensive tackles.
Meanwhile, going outside of their comfort zone to sign Dre’Mont Jones on a three-year deal has proven costly for the wrong reasons and his 2024 feels more like a last-ditch effort to recoup value instead of the comfort and lack of tension between the Seahawks and Love. (Lack, as far as I know.)
So what does “buying the dip” have to do with Nwosu, a player who is signed through 2026?