Extra Points: AAF, Seahawks, Marshall

The Seahawks carried a decent amount of cap space into free agency but, other than the K.J. Wright re-signing, have been fairly quiet. Compensatory picks are partially at the root of this patience. While this free agency period will produce 2020 comp picks, John Schneider also has his eye on more 2019 draft choices. The Seahawks hold just four 2019 picks, the fewest any team currently has. That is a number their GM would like to increase.

This year, we’re trying to be a little bit more selective with the cap casualty guys that don’t count toward your compensatory picks,” Schneider said during an appearance 710 ESPN Seattle (via Seahawks.com). “Right now we’re looking at 11 picks in 2020, but we have four right now and I just spent the weekend looking at our board like, ‘That’s not cool.’”

The Seahawks have not used their originally slotted first-round pick since selecting James Carpenter in the 2011 first round. Recently, they traded back in 2018, 2017 and 2016 and in 2015 sent their first-rounder to the Saints in the Jimmy Graham deal.

It’s safe to say, but it’s a darn good draft, so I could see a very good player being there for us at 21,” Schneider said on the prospect of his team accumulating more 2019 draft capital. “Then the other part of it is everybody’s like, ‘Well, (the Seahawks) always like to go back,’ but you have to find a partner, you have to negotiate within a specific amount of time, so it’s not like an easy thing just to move back. We’d love to pick more than four times, though.”

Here is the latest from around the football universe:

  • Another ominous sign for the AAF: the league sent out an email to its employees, announcing only a small staff will be retained going forward with the goal of securing additional funding. The email (via NFL.com’s Aditi Kinkhabwala, on Twitter) includes the phrase, “Should these efforts prove successful, we look forward to working with many of you in season two.” So, it almost certainly appears the AAF’s operations suspension will mean its 2019 season — which had two regular-season weeks remaining — will end.
  • Shifting back to the Seahawks, they will bring in three more veterans for visits. Davon House, Nate Orchard and Courtney Upshaw have Seahawks summits scheduled, Curtis Crabtree of Pro Football Talk tweets. Following Orchard’s Hard Knocks close-up, he played in four games for the Chiefs and Bills in 2018. House saw an injury end his ’18 season after three games. After the Jets released Upshaw last July, he did not catch on anywhere else. However, the former Ravens and Falcons front-seven starter is still just 29.
  • Prior to the Raiders signing Brandon Marshall, the Ravens expressed interest. However, they did not want to sign the free agent linebacker until after the May 7 date when UFAs no longer factor into the compensatory formula, Marshall said during an appearance on Orange and Blue 760 (via The Athletic’s Nicki Jhabvala, on Twitter). The Ravens, who said they would have been interested in a multiyear Marshall pact post-draft, are one of the NFL’s premier comp pick-seeking conscious franchises. Marshall said he did not want to wait until after the draft. Both the Chargers and Cardinals also showed more initial interest than the Raiders, Marshall said (Twitter link), but those teams’ respective signings of Thomas Davis and Jordan Hicks pointed him elsewhere.
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