The Seahawks can be Super Bowl contenders in 2020. They just need help. Fortunately for general manager John Schneider, salary-cap manager Matt Thomas and coach Pete Carroll, they have plenty of time during this offseason to acquire reinforcements and retool the roster.
Here’s my 10-step guide to making that happen. (Note: All contract information is via Over the Cap.)
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1. Re-watch the playoffs
The Seahawks can learn from taking a good, hard look at what happened in their two postseason performances, but only if they’re paying attention. Don’t look at the rushing numbers and imagine how much better they would have been if Chris Carson and Rashaad Penny were healthy. (Sure, the numbers would have improved, but it’s hard to do much worse than 58 yards on 32 carries.) Instead, focus on how the team didn’t alter its offensive approach even knowing it didn’t have a fully healthy backfield. Russell Wilson was the Seahawks’ best offensive weapon and behaved like it, leading the team in rushing while averaging 9.9 yards per pass attempt with zero turnovers. Had Seattle entered either game treating him as the No. 1 option, if for no other reason than the injuries to the tailbacks and offensive line forced it to, then the Seahawks would have advanced further in the postseason.
Seattle wants to pattern itself after the 49ers — only with a far better quarterback — and that’s perfectly fine if you have an elite defense. But Seattle does not and likely will not, even with some solid free-agent moves and a little luck in the draft. What the playoffs demonstrated was how important it is to invest in ways to maximize the strengths of your best player, because he’s the one who will most likely lead you to victory. Help Wilson succeed because his success is directly tied to the success of the franchise. Everything the Seahawks need to do this offseason on the offensive side of the ball starts with understanding this.
2. Free up more cap space
The Seahawks are projected to have around $60 million in salary-cap space this offseason, but the only thing teams like better than cap space is more cap space, so Seattle needs to make moves to free up more money. The important thing to remember here is that players should only be considered expendable if they free up a significant chunk of change and play a position at which the team already has a more-than-serviceable backup or would be wise to address early in the draft.
As it stands, here’s whom I would consider the cut candidates, along with the projected cap savings: tight end Ed Dickson ($3.2 million), center Justin Britt ($8.7 million), safety Tedric Thompson ($2.1 million), linebacker K.J. Wright ($7.5 million) and right guard D.J. Fluker ($3.6 million). That’s not to suggest that all of these guys should be cut — releasing Wright doesn’t make a ton of sense, for example — but Seattle will have to part with one or two of the above players at least to make room for more impactful, cheaper players.
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3. Re-sign Jadeveon Clowney before he hits the market
If Clowney reaches free agency, it’s unlikely he stays in Seattle. Even without an eye-popping statistical season, the 26-year-old edge defender is still a marquee name at a premier position. It will take only one or two teams looking to make a splash to outbid the Seahawks for his services. Seattle’s best hope is to bank on its culture and locker room chemistry and hope they are enough to make Clowney want to stay in the Pacific Northwest at a price less than his market value. It’s the difference between Clowney telling his agent “get me the best deal possible” and “get me the best deal possible … to stay in Seattle.” Otherwise, Clowney on the open market is sure to command a five-year contract worth at least $110 million. Will the Seahawks pay that? Probably not.
4. Keep Germain Ifedi
You’re angry right now. I understand. Take a minute, relax and let me explain.
Starting-caliber right tackles are hard to find unless you’re very good at drafting and developing them or willing to break the bank for the best available guy on the market. The Seahawks don’t fall into either category. Offensive tackle isn’t a position Seattle can afford to rely on hitting on in the draft. If Schneider wants to throw a bag of money at Jack Conklin, he can go right ahead, but history tells us that won’t happen.
That brings us back to the need to keep Ifedi. Paying the former first-round pick a reasonable salary on a multiyear deal and expecting him to continue improving is better than the alternatives when you consider Seattle’s typically frugal approach in free agency and organizational inability to draft and develop linemen. And it’s important to remember this is the time of year when those alternatives matter most. Of course, Seattle should still test out offensive linemen in the draft, but if you think Wilson’s prime is being wasted now, imagine life with an untested day-two draft pick holding down the right side in 2020.
5. Relax during the first wave of free agency
Quick, annual reminder: This is not the NBA. You don’t win the offseason by making splashy moves in the first wave of free agency. Be patient. Hit the second and third waves, find bargains and hit on mid-tier talent. Signing a quarterback can serve as an exception, but even then teams must ask themselves why the guy they’re pouring money into is on the market in the first place. That is all.
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If Seattle really wants a splash, it should only happen if Clowney doesn’t come back. Then Seattle has to hit the phones and see what it takes to get guys like Yannick Ngakoue, Dante Fowler, Robert Quinn or Bud Dupree. Those types of pass-rushers will be expensive, but they’re probably not commanding over $100 million like Clowney likely will.
6. Make the right call on Jarran Reed
The Seahawks believe Reed is one of their best defensive players. After the season, Carroll quietly suggested Reed’s lack of pass-rush production (two sacks in 10 games) was due to the outside guys not doing their part to provide “the support around him to open up the rush lanes and things like that,” which is what an interior defender like Reed had during his breakout year in 2018. That’s when Reed looked like he was on a star trajectory, and according to his Twitter reply to a suggestion that paying him $8-10 million per year is “disrespectfully low,” it seems the 27-year-old still views himself as a star player. If Reed wants to be paid like a Grady Jarrett ($17M/yr) or a Fletcher Cox ($17.1M/year), Seattle will have to decline — respectfully, of course. Another option is the transition tag, projected to check in near $13 million. That might be the right call in this case.
7. Sign a veteran tight end
Greg Olsen is reportedly scheduled to visit Seattle on Wednesday, but as I wrote shortly after he became available, the Seahawks need to wait and see what the rest of the tight end market looks like in March before committing to a vet who will be 35 at the start of the season. Granted, the market might not look great, and the best guys like Austin Hooper will be too pricey. Still, a low-cost veteran who can be a No. 2 option or an emergency No. 1 in case Will Dissly’s recovery doesn’t go well is all the team needs in free agency. Honestly, even if the veteran they snag is a No. 3 to Dissly and Jacob Hollister at the start of the season, that’s OK, too, as long as the salary reflects that.
Could that guy be Olsen? Sure. But there’s no telling whether he’ll be there in March. A few names to consider: Tyler Eifert, Levine Toilolo, Nick Vannett. (Why not, right?) And when the draft comes around, Seattle should address the position again.
8. Trust in your young interior offensive line
Full disclosure: The title of this section was initially about addressing the interior OL, but after digging into the market and what’s projected to be there in the draft, I’m convinced Seattle would be better off sticking with young guys like Phil Haynes, Jamarco Jones and Ethan Pocic, adding another interior player in the draft and rolling with right guard D.J. Fluker for another year. That plan beats overpaying for Austin Blythe or Graham Glasgow, and Seattle will lose bidding wars for Joe Thuney and Brandon Scherff. With Mike Iupati set to become a free agent, there’s likely going to be some sort of interior linemen signing by Seattle, but it should be a second-wave move, at the earliest. There’s enough potential on the roster as is to avoid spending big there.
9. Get Russ another receiving option
While I’ve spent this column leaning into Seattle’s frugality, this is where I wouldn’t mind big spending. But not the “cash out on Amari Cooper” type of big spending, more like … drum roll, please … a trade.
Seattle wants to be involved in every deal, so Schneider and Thomas should hop on the phone with Minnesota and see what it takes to acquire Stefon Diggs, who just finished the first season of a five-year, $72 million extension that keeps him under contract through 2023. Diggs would be expensive (his cap hits for the next couple years are $14.5 million and $15.5 million, respectively), but ask yourself this: Would you rather have Seattle’s first-round pick this year or a 26-year-old No. 1 receiver to pair with DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett? Seattle would still have plenty of draft capital to improve the roster and the best receiving corps in the league, with an All-Pro quarterback running the show.
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For the folks not sold on a splashy trade, might I interest you in some potential bargains like Devin Funchess, Phillip Dorsett, Nelson Agholor or Demaryius Thomas? If those names don’t excite you, then perhaps you’ll understand why I went the Diggs route to start this season. The 2020 draft class is expected to be loaded with receiving talent, so that remains an option, but Seattle’s defense was such an issue in 2019 that most of the early picks should be used on that side of the ball. That would leave the Seahawks picking a receiver who would be more of a project than an immediate impact player, and at that point, it’d be better to roll the dice on a Diggs deal or see what it would cost to rent Funchess for a year.
10. Address the defensive line early in the draft
If Seattle ignores my advice on the Diggs trade and keeps that first-round pick, it needs to be used on the best edge rusher available. Then take another defensive lineman on day two. Maybe even another on day three. That unit needs such an overhaul that Seattle can use as many assets as it wants to revamp the pass rush. The goals should be to pair Clowney with young talent and possibly add another Ziggy Ansah-like veteran to the mix. A few names to consider on the first couple days of the draft: LSU’s K’Lavon Chaisson, Alabama’s Terrell Lewis, Florida’s Jonathan Greenard, TCU’s Ross Blacklock and Auburn’s Marlon Davidson.
If the Seahawks enter training camp with Clowney (or another marquee name), Rasheem Green, a couple of rookie edge rushers and another low-risk, high-reward veteran, that’s solid offseason retooling. It doesn’t guarantee anything, of course, because if the 2019 season taught us nothing else, it’s that familiar names and high draft picks don’t always add up to big production, but that’s the coaching staff’s job to deal with. Schneider needs to bring in the talent, and this is the best way to go about it.
(Top photo: Alika Jenner / Getty Images)