Where Seahawks, Chris Carson — and, yes, Russell Wilson — sit as NFL free agency begins
So it begins.
The most unusual free-agency period during the most unique 12 months in NFL history starts Monday for the Seahawks and the 31 other teams in the league. It’s become known as the “legal tampering period.”
Unrestricted free agents and their representatives can at 9 a.m. Monday begin negotiating with any team for two days, until the free-agent market officially opens Wednesday at 1 p.m.
That’s when teams can begin announcing the agreements that they will begin agreeing to unofficially Monday and Tuesday.
For decades free agents and other teams were negotiating silent deals leaked for all to know in advance of the market officially opening. The premature deal-making became so prevalent the actual start of free agency was becoming anticlimactic. So the NFL a few years ago basically legalized the illegal negotiations ahead of free agency by corralling it into a two-day window before the market opens.
The Seahawks begin free agency with $17.1 million in salary-cap space. That’s 17th-most in the league, and it doesn’t count the money needed to sign what is for now just four picks in April’s draft. Yet it’s far more buying power than Seattle had this time last week, before the team released two-time Pro Bowl defensive end Carlos Dunlap. That saved $14 million in cap space.
Free agency begins at the same time the new league year starts on Wednesday. That’s when the 2021 salary cap takes effect.
It’s $182.5 million this year. That’s $15.7 million less than each team’s cap in 2020. The coronavirus pandemic kept ticket-buying fans from attending games and depressed in-stadium revenues throughout last season.
This week, veteran players will begin feeling the first tangible, financial effect of that.
Wednesday’s start of the league year is also the start of the NFL trading period. You may have heard (one or 100 times) wild rumors over the last month about the Seahawks possibly making one of their franchise quarterback.
Yet this week begins the way the last nine years have been in Seattle, with Russell Wilson as the Seahawks’ cornerstone, and under a $140 million contract that calls for him to be so for the next three years.
If his team wants to use some or most of Wilson’s $19 million in base salary for 2021 toward adding to their cap space for free agency, it doesn’t need Wilson’s permission to do it. The News Tribune confirmed this past weekend with multiple sources with knowledge of Wilson’s contract that it includes language allowing the Seahawks to convert base salary to bonus money for cap purposes without Wilson OK-ing it.
Wilson very publicly voiced his frustration with his Seahawks offense and line last month, stating, “I’m frustrated with getting hit too much.”
The Seahawks have under coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider mostly sat out the expensive, first days of free agency and bought during the cheaper second waves.
But this year they have some spending room and two, immediate needs on the offensive line for Wilson: at center and left guard. Center Ethan Pocic’s contract has ended and he is headed into the market. Left guard Mike Iupati said last month he is retiring.
Carson rises in market
The Seahawks’ already slim chances of re-signing lead rusher Chris Carson got slimmer Sunday.
Carson became the most attractive running back on the free-agent market.
That’s because the Green Bay Packers agreed to re-sign 26-year-old lead rusher Aaron Jones to a four-year contract worth $48 million, his agent told ESPN. Jones made the Pro Bowl for the first time this past season and appeared until Sunday headed to free agency.
Carson, also 26, has rushed for more yards per game 72.7 in his four-year career as Jones (62.3) has in his four seasons. Carson’s two best seasons of 1,151 yards in 2018 and 1,230 yards in 2019 are better than Jones’ career best: 1,104 yards in 2020 and 1,084 yards in 2019.
Jones has scored more touchdowns (37 to Carson’s 21). And he’s been more available and less injured than Carson. Jones has played in nine more games over four years than Carson, who has yet to complete a full season injury-free since junior college.
The Seahawks chose last week, by the league’s deadline, not to use their franchise tag or transition tag to keep Carson from free agency. Carroll has said Carson has earned the right to shop on the market for the first time.
Carson isn’t likely to get Jones’ $12 million per year in free agency. But he’s likely to get at least $8 million annually. That’s the average of the league’s nine highest-paid running backs in 2020, starting with Denver’s Melvin Gordon on a two-year deal.
Carlos Hyde’s contract also expired. He is four years older; he turns 31 in September. He is coming off a debut season for the Seahawks in which he rushed just 81 times for 356 yards while backing up Carson and missing six games with injuries. Seattle signed Hyde to a one-year contract at $2.75 million before the 2020 season. That was with him coming off the first 1,000-yard rushing season of his career, with Houston.
Hyde can return more cheaply, and with what Carroll sees as a thumping style similar to Carson’s. The Seahawks’ offense is seeking to return to the run more with new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron in from the run-based Rams for 2021.
It makes sense that Carroll will bring back at least one of his two top backs so he isn’t starting over completely at the position.
“I really like Carlos,” Carroll said. “Carlos and Chris, really they’re the kind of the epitome of hardball running guys. They bring you attitude. They bring you a connection to the physical part of the game the way we’d love it.
“Carlos is right in there. He’s one of our guys. We’d love to have him back.”
It might be Hyde and Rashaad Penny as Seattle’s lead backs in 2021.
Penny, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2018, will be entering the final year of his rookie deal.
The Seahawks have a decision to make on him in the first days of May. They must decide whether to give him a guaranteed fifth-year option at about $4.5 million for 2022. Doing that would also guarantee Penny’s $1.95 million base salary for 2021.
Guaranteeing more than $6 million to a player who is 15 months removed from reconstructive knee surgery and from which he did not return until this past December would be a big leap of faith by Carroll and Schneider.
Neal, Fuller, Mone returning
The league year starting Wednesday means teams must tender offers to restricted and exclusive-rights free agents by then, or else they become unrestricted free agents for anyone to sign.
Seattle has already decided to tender backup center-guard Kyle Fuller, defensive back Ryan Neal and backup defensive tackle Bryan Mone as exclusive-rights free agents. That’s according to ESPN’s Brady Henderson.
The Seahawks’ restricted free agents are starting defensive tackle Poona Ford, reserve guard Jordan Simmons and reserve linebacker Shaquem Griffin.
Their other exclusive-rights free agent is backup cornerback Linden Stephens.
The NFL set the tender amounts for restricted free agents on Friday. First-round tenders will pay $4.77 million for a one-year contract in 2021. Second-rounder tenders are worth $3.38 million. Original-round tenders are $2.18 million. Tenders entitling the offering team to only the right of first refusal are worth $2.13 million.
Seattle is likely to keep the valued, hustling Ford, undrafted by the Seahawks out of Texas in 2018, at a second-round tender. Ford would be way fine with that. It would mean a $2.6 million raise: from $750,000 last year to $3.38 million this year.
If another team signs a restricted free agent, it must give the tendering team a draft pick at the round the losing team tendered the player.
Seattle has decided not to tender Simmons, ESPN’s Henderson reported.
Griffin is unlikely to get tendered, as well.
His twin brother Shaquill, the Seahawks’ starting cornerback the last four seasons and a Pro Bowl selection in 2019, is heading into free agency and likely to leave at more than $10 million per year.
Here is the Seahawks’ list of free agents, with their likelihoods of re-signing or leaving Seattle.
This story was originally published March 15, 2021 at 5:45 AM.
