Very Little Progress In Russell Wilson Contract Talks
We’re almost a week away from the April 15 deadline that Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has set for a new contract, but Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times hears that there has been very little progress between player and team as of yet. That is despite the fact that the Seahawks were reportedly aware of the deadline in January, and despite the fact that head coach Pete Carroll indicated that extension talks would begin in January (which did not actually happen).
Of course, it’s not as if the two sides are somehow precluded from working out a deal after the April 15 deadline, which has no significance other than being the start of the Seahawks’ offseason training program. Condotta suggests that Wilson set the deadline simply because he wants to avoid an offseason of speculation about his contract, and because it’s unlikely that the quarterback market is going to change much between April and July, so it doesn’t necessarily make sense to wait if he can avoid it.
Additionally, both Wilson and the Seahawks know that Wilson has more leverage than he did when he signed his last extension in 2015, and Wilson likewise knows that the team is more apt to go year-to-year with the franchise tag. Wilson has already said that he would not hold out if he is hit with the tag, and given the success that Kirk Cousins had going year-to-year, it makes sense that a player like Wilson would be open to the idea.
As Condotta observes, Wilson also would not hold out this year if his April 15 deadline passes without a new contract in place. But if that happens, the “strong implication” is that the 30-year-old passer would tell the team that he doesn’t want to negotiate again until after the 2019 season is over. And that may be just fine with the Seahawks, who could put the franchise tag on Wilson in 2020 and 2021. The QB franchise tender for those two seasons are projected to come in at $30.6MM and $35MM, respectively, and those numbers are not too far removed from what Wilson would get under a new contract anyway. Plus, Wilson would still be able to hit the open market at age 33 — a franchise tag in 2022 would come in at an unpalatable $52MM — and 2021 is the last year of Carroll’s current contract. The head coach will be 70 at that point, and he may choose to call it a career.
Indeed, if Wilson and the Seahawks are able to hammer out a new deal, the current thinking is that it would only be a three-year pact that runs through the 2021 season. There is speculation that the deal would be worth $100MM guaranteed, which would give Wilson the satisfaction of setting new precedents while allowing him to get at least one more big payday three years down the road.
Seahawks Hosting N'Keal Harry
- The Seahawks will visit with Arizona State wide receiver N’Keal Harry before the draft, tweets Mike Garafolo of NFL.com. Harry (6’4″, 213) managed at least 70 receptions, 1,200 yards, and eight touchdowns in each of the past two seasons. He should be available when Seattle makes its first-round pick at No. 21, and could reinforce a Seahawks receiving corps that already includes Tyler Lockett and Doug Baldwin.
Seahawks Sign DE Nate Orchard
The Seahawks have agreed to sign defensive end Nate Orchard, according to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times (Twitter link).
Orchard was part of an early-week workout session that also included defensive lineman Courtney Upshaw and cornerback Davon House, but — so far — he’s the only member of that group to land a contract. He’s the second defensive end Seattle has signed today, joining former 49er Cassius Marsh.
Orchard comes with pedigree, as the Browns selected him 51st overall in the 2015 draft. An 11-game starter during his rookie campaign, Orchard has started only two contests since 2015. His last significant action came in 2017, when he played on 40% of Cleveland’s defensive snaps while grading as the NFL’s No. 68 edge defender among 123 qualifiers, per Pro Football Focus. Last year, despite a valiant effort on HBO’s Hard Knocks, Orchard was waived by the Browns and final cutdowns, and subsequently spent time with the Bills and Chiefs.
Seattle has a history of taking chances on former early-round defenders (Barkevious Mingo, Dion Jordan), and Orchard probably didn’t receive much — if any — guaranteed money. He’ll have to fight for special teams snaps in order to make the Seahawks’ roster.
Seahawks Sign Cassius Marsh
Cassius Marsh is heading back to the team that drafted him. On Thursday, Marsh agreed to a one-year deal with the Seahawks, as Brady Henderson of ESPN.com writes. 
Marsh was displaced in March when the 49ers acquired Dee Ford. By cutting the left outside linebacker, the Niners saved $4.7MM against the cap with just $900K left over in dead money.
Marsh, who turns 27 in July, will help to fill one of the Seahawks’ biggest needs. Last year, Marsh amassed 5.5 sacks, bringing his career total to 11.5 across 68 games. He also saw action on roughly 50% of the 49ers’ special teams plays a year ago, and has nearly reached the 80% ST threshold in prior seasons.
Marsh was unhappy during his nine-game stint with the Patriots and didn’t win much with the Niners last year, but he now has an opportunity to thrive opposite of Frank Clark.
Latest On Russell Wilson, Seahawks
Although news surfaced of Russell Wilson‘s April 15 deadline for a new contract, the team was not blindsided by it and thus trying to address this situation at the 11th hour.
The eighth-year Seahawks quarterback provided that date to the team in January, Adam Schefter of ESPN.com reports (on Twitter). Wilson has one season remaining on his four-year, $87.6MM deal. As of February, no new negotiations had commenced, despite Pete Carroll indicating they would in January.
As for what would be next if the Seahawks do not extend Wilson within these next two weeks, the prospect of a franchise tag stands to increase. However, Wilson would not plan a holdout if tagged in 2020, with Ian Rapoport of NFL.com reporting (video link) the decorated passer would sign his franchise tender soon after.
Despite the possibility for acrimony here, the Seahawks would also like to get a deal done by Wilson’s deadline, Mike Garafolo of NFL.com notes (video link). The Seahawks, who have begun negotiations with Bobby Wagner and franchised Frank Clark last month, begin their offseason program April 15.
This may well be a negotiating tactic by Wilson’s side, with the 30-year-old franchise cornerstone signing his current contract late in the 2015 offseason. But Wilson has a bit more leverage this time around, having earned more than $60MM on his current deal compared to having played on a third-round rookie salary from 2012-14.
In 2018, Wilson expected a scenario of being franchised in 2020. The quarterback tag was worth just less than $25MM this year. Wilson in that price neighborhood would be quite reasonable, obviously, given what he’s worth to the Seahawks. Wilson piloted the Seahawks to another playoff berth last season, doing so when few expected the team to be playing in January. He is now the organization’s unquestioned centerpiece, which was not necessarily the case in 2015 — when the Seahawks’ defense housed Pro Bowlers Wagner, Earl Thomas, Richard Sherman and Kam Chancellor. Only Wagner and K.J. Wright remain from those Super Bowl units.
When Wilson signed his current deal, he was the NFL’s second-highest-paid quarterback. Due to the seismic shifts in a previously stagnant market, the signal-caller salary landscape looks quite different now. Wilson is the 11th-highest-paid passer. Any new deal would almost certainly have to eclipse $30MM AAV, which Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan did via 2018 extensions, but likely would make Wilson the game’s highest-paid player.
Seahawks Eyeing More 2019 Picks
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.”
- 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.
Seahawks Want To Extend Jarran Reed
The big news coming out of Seattle today is that star quarterback Russell Wilson has set an April 15 deadline to complete negotiations on a new contract. Whether that happens or not is anyone’s guess, and even if it doesn’t, it’s not as though 2019, the last year of Wilson’s current deal, will be his last in Seattle.
Tom Pelissero of the NFL Network notes that the Seahawks have just $104MM in committed cap space for 2020, so they have the financial flexibility to fit a Wilson deal, but he also points out that Wilson’s contract is not the only one the team needs to address (video link). We already heard that Seattle has begun extension talks with linebacker Bobby Wagner, and franchise-tagged DE Frank Clark will likely get a lucrative multiyear deal in the immediate future.
But Pelissero says that the team also wants to extend defensive lineman Jarran Reed, who, like Wilson and Wagner, is entering the last year of his contract. Reed had a breakout campaign in 2018, registering 10.5 sacks and making 16 starts. He graded out as an above average interior defender per Pro Football Focus’ advanced metrics, and he has set himself up for a nice payday.
He was under investigation for domestic violence in May 2017, but nothing came of that investigation. The Seahawks selected him in the second round of the 2016 draft, and he is starting to live up to that draft status.
CB Jamar Taylor Visits Seahawks
Veteran cornerback Jamar Taylor is visiting with the Seahawks today, per Mike Garafolo of the NFL Network (via Twitter). After losing former slot corner Justin Coleman to the Lions, Seattle is looking for reinforcements in the secondary.
Taylor, a 2013 second-round pick, spent the first three seasons of his career with the Dolphins before being dealt to the Browns. He was productive during his two seasons with Cleveland, including a 2016 campaign where he had three interceptions and 13 passes defended. He finished the 2017 season having appeared in a career-high 16 games and finishing with a career-high 62 tackles.
Last May, the Browns traded him to the Cardinals, who hoped to deploy him as their No. 2 CB opposite Patrick Peterson. Taylor agreed to a significant pay cut to facilitate the trade, but things did not go well for him in the desert. Arizona cut him in November, and he caught on with the Broncos to finish out the 2018 season.
Still just 28, Taylor provides experience and can be a solid contributor in a CB rotation.
In other Seahawks news, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com tweets that safety Taylor Mays, whose last NFL action came in 2015, will work out with the team tomorrow. Mays a former USC Trojan, could be reunited with Pete Carroll, who was USC’s head coach during Mays’ collegiate career.
Russell Wilson Sets Deadline For New Deal
Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson has given the team an April 15 deadline to complete negotiations on a new contract, a source tells Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. It’s not clear what the passing of the deadline without a deal would mean, but it would likely shut down talks until after his contract expires following the 2019 season.
As it stands, Wilson has one year to go on his four-year, $87.6MM deal. Wilson, who currently ranks 12th among QBs in yearly salary, likely wants a new deal to push him up the chart and he wants it done by the start of the club’s official offseason workout program. The reason for the deadline is unclear, but Wilson probably wants to minimize distractions heading into the new campaign.
In January, Wilson indicated he would be fine with playing the 2019 season without a new contract.
“Oh, yeah, if that’s what I’ve got to do,’’ Wilson said. “It’s business and everything else and I know essentially after this season I could potentially be a free agent, that kind of thing. I don’t think that way — I see myself being in Seattle. I love Seattle, special place for me. I also understand it’s a business world and everything else.”
The Seahawks also have the franchise tag on their disposal, so Wilson is not assured to reach free agency in March. The franchise tag for QBs would cost a projected $30.6MM and a repeat tag in 2021 would come in at a whopping $36MM. Meanwhile, the collective bargaining agreement is set to expire after the 2020 season, which may cloud negotiations for Wilson and other star players around the league.
Draft Notes: Sternberger, Jets, Thorson
The Patriots are on the lookout for tight end help in the wake of Rob Gronkowski‘s retirement, and the club will have a top-30 visit with Texas A&M TE Jace Sternberger, per Aaron Wilson of the Houston Chronicle. The Pats could use their No. 32 overall pick on a tight end, and while that may be a little high for Sternberger, top prospects Noah Fant and T.J. Hockenson may be off the board by that point. Alabama’s Irv Smith Jr. could be available, though, and there is no reason why New England, which has deployed two tight ends to great effect in the past, could not use several of its 12 picks in this year’s draft on the tight end position.
Now for more draft-related rumblings from around the league:
- In addition to the Patriots, Wilson reports that Sternberger has visits lined up with the Chiefs, Packers, Lions, Cowboys, Vikings, and Seahawks.
- Brian Costello of the New York Post does not believe that the Jets will invest high-end draft capital on the WR, RB, or TE positions this year in light of their free agent expenditures, but he still thinks the club could bolster those units with collegiate prospects. He suggests that Gang Green could use a middle- or late-round selection on a wideout, particularly if that player offers return ability, and he thinks a Day 3 blocking tight end and power back could also be in the cards. Of course, with only six draft picks at the moment, New York may need to focus on areas of greater need.
- Penn State DE Shareef Miller will visit with the Ravens, Cardinals, and Jets, as Adam Schefter of ESPN.com tweets. Miller currently projects as a Day 3 pick, but all three clubs could use pass rushing help, and Miller has the raw ability to succeed as a 4-3 DE or 3-4 OLB.
- The Broncos may be hosting some of the top QBs in this year’s draft class, but they’re looking at more under-the-radar passers as well, as Mike Klis of 9News.com tweets that Denver will be working out Northwestern QB Clayton Thorson in early April. Thorson is expected to be a middle-round selection.
- Valdosta State CB Stephen Denmark has top-30 visits lined up with the Browns and Saints, per Wilson (via Twitter).