Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett has been seeking a new contract for some time now and the events of this offseason have only underscored exactly how underpaid he is. In recent months, Olivier Vernon, Fletcher Cox, Muhammad Wilkerson, and Von Miller have all signed monster contracts while Bennett is entering the third season of a four-year, $28.5MM deal. 
“I just want to be fairly compensated with the top guys in the league,” the 30-year-old told Jordan Schultz of The Huffington Post. “I’m definitely one of the top five defensive ends.”
According to Over The Cap, Bennett ranks 10th in average annual salary amongst 4-3 defensive ends. In terms of annual salary for all defensive linemen, Bennett is No. 27 in the NFL, according to Schultz. Any way you slice it, the numbers don’t quite add up as Bennett was ranked the fifth-best edge defender in the NFL last season by Pro Football Focus (sub. req’d).
Bennett threatened to hold out last summer, but that didn’t compel Seattle to redo any part of his contract. However, Bennett has switched agents and is now represented by Doug Hendrickson of Relativity Sports. Hendrickson also represented former Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch and he was successful in getting that deal reworked.
If Bennett were to hold out from camp this year, he would face fines of $40K per missed day.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
You sign a CONTRACT! Essentially giving your word for 4 yrs and 28 million and your still sniveling absolutely ridiculous !!So sad and shameful how greedy these guys are!! There playing a game for peats sake!!
Contracts get renegotiated all the time. Unless the NFL wants to concede and make contracts more fully guaranteed, players will hold out for more money once they are far outperforming their contracts. It’s the way of the NFL. Owners/teams cut overpaid players all the time where they decline. If you stopped that from happening and players had more security, then the players would stop holding out. As it is right now a guy like Michael Bennett knows his career shelf life is short and he’ll never have higher earning power than he does right now so he needs to try to capitalize. He will also get his contract extended at the same time, so it’s not like there’s no incentive for Seattle to do it too.
When he was a free agent a couple years ago he chose to take way less money than he could have gotten had he actually went out and met with teams. The Bears were ready to pay him.
If he was paid a commission on every thing he whined about, then I’m sure he’d be satisfied.
They want more money when out performing their contract. I’m totally for that. But at the same time when they fail to meet certain goals they should lose money.