Two of the Seahawks’ three visitors Thursday will end up signing. Hours after Devin Bush committed to Seattle, CBS Sports’ Josina Anderson reports Julian Love will do the same (Twitter link).
Love will sign a two-year, $12MM deal with the Seahawks, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. This represents an intriguing addition, as the former Giants safety is only going into his age-25 season and will now do so for a team rostering Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs. While Love wanted to stay with the Giants, he will add to what was already the NFL’s most expensive safety group.
Adams suffered a torn quad tendon in Week 1 of last season, but the former All-Pro is still tied to the league’s third-most lucrative safety contract. Diggs is also in the top 10 at the position, having re-signed with Seattle last year. Love joining the duo represents a staggering commitment to the position. Before Love’s addition, Seattle had $39.7MM committed to its safety position. No other team has more than $31MM, in 2023 cap dollars, tied to that spot.
Three-safety looks would appear to be in the offing for the Seahawks, unless the team is making unexpected plans to jettison one of its well-compensated incumbents, and Love is coming off his best season. The Notre Dame product played 1,006 snaps for a depleted Giants secondary last year, and DC Don Martindale used him all over the formation. Love’s versatility figures to help the Seahawks keep their three safeties on the field together often.
The Giants negotiated with Love prior to the legal tampering period and were in talks with the young defender after that point, but it did not sound like the sides were too close on terms. That said, the $6MM-AAV point would seemingly not have been too much higher than what the Giants were prepared to spend. But Big Blue has an Xavier McKinney extension to consider. That stood to affect their Love offer, and the former fourth-round pick heading to the Pacific Northwest marks the third Giants safety starter to move on over the past two offseasons. The team let Jabrill Peppers walk last year and cut Logan Ryan. That opened the door for an impact Love contract year.
Pro Football Focus slotted Love 44th overall among safeties, which is middle-of-the-pack placement among regulars at the position. But Love, PFR’s No. 39 free agent, commanded a midlevel market after his solid Giants contract season. Love finished with 124 tackles — nearly double his 2021 total — and intercepted two passes. Love also forced a fumble and deflected five more. It will be interesting to see how the Seahawks deploy their new DB, presuming Adams recovers in time for Week 1.
Something is off about this signing, considering the stable of Safety’s on the roster already. I smell another move.
Maybe they just aren’t counting on Jamal Adams for 17 games? That seems reasonable given recent events. Maybe they think that they won’t be able to match offers for Ryan Neal? Maybe they are going to let Jamal Adams be more aggressive and play at the line like a LB/Safety cross that he really is and not play him in coverage?
Yeah, I’ve backed off my initial reaction that something smells funny about this move. I think you’re right about two things primarily; not counting on Adams for the full season, and the better of the two, using Adams more aggressively at the line of scrimmage. It’s just a TON of money to spend on your Safety group.
Sad to see him go, but that’s the way it goes. Love plays hard and is a good tackler, especially in the open field. Seahawks fans will like him.
Not sad at all….looked like he was playing hard but was way too often late more than he wasn’t….and he wasn’t a good tackler at all…..not physical enough and always was late on the tackle and used his shoulders rather than making a hit…..bye!
I saw him make plenty of open field tackles this season regardless of your criticisms of his form.
Here’s some video evidence instead of me just blowing smoke:
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
link to youtube.com
Love this pick up
But what does this say about Jamal Adam’s? He’s most likely not healing well
Sounds like they want Reid on the team also
Seems like the Hawks are aggressive this year another solid draft keeps them in contention
Would love Bobby Wags back but the cap situation that seems unlikely
This is terrible news for the Eagles. Don’t get to play against Love 2x a year anymore…