Now that Chris Carson’s back, Russell Wilson is a clear way the Seahawks can pay for him
The Seahawks pulled the coup of their offseason so far, bringing back seemingly gone Chris Carson.
That made “frustrated” Russell Wilson happier.
Agents Murphy McGuire and Casey Muir told The News Tribune Friday evening Carson is re-signing with the Seahawks for what is essentially two years, $14,625,000 with $5.5 million guaranteed in 2021. Carson could earn up to $6.9 million in the first year of the contract with incentive bonuses.
The deal in total is three years and $24,625,000. The third year and that additional $10 million is a voidable year. The Seahawks included that to thin and spread Carson’s salary-cap charges over three years instead of two. His salary-cap charge for 2021 is an affordable $2.5 million.
Carson, 26, becomes the first running back not named Marshawn Lynch to get a multiyear contract extension from the Seahawks in the Pete Carroll-John Schneider leadership era. Seattle’s coach-general manager partnership began in 2010.
It’s difficult to overstate how large it is for Seattle’s offense and how Carroll wants it to run in 2021 and beyond that its leading rusher is unexpectedly back. The coach wants to re-balance the Seahawks with more run-based passing. He’s hired Rams pass-game coordinator Shane Waldron to be a first-time offensive coordinator to install Los Angeles’ quicker, shorter passing schemes.
Waldron’s new offense in Seattle is intended to be based on running the ball first, then on play-action and bootleg passes off those runs. Often those throws are designed for the lead running back, as they were for years including a Super Bowl one in L.A. to Rams’ top rusher Todd Gurley.
Wilson celebrated his lead back returning as a key to the Seahawks’ offense. He posted Carson’s jersey number and picture online on his Twitter account Friday with the proclamation: “Big time! Let’s go 32!!!”
That’s a lot better for the team and its fans than what Wilson said in January, when he was asked on a Zoom online call with Seattle reporters if he is frustrated with the Seahawks.
“I’m frustrated with getting hit too much,” Wilson said.
Market in Seattle’s favor
The market for running backs came back to Seattle, bringing Carson back with it.
Last weekend, Green Bay gave Aaron Jones four years and $48 million, on the eve of free agency to keep him from it. Then...crickets for running backs across the league.
The Las Vegas Raiders eventually signed Kenyan Drake, less-accomplished than Carson, this week to a two-year, $11 million contract with $8.5 million guaranteed. That became a barometer for Carson.
Carson shopped over the first 4 1/2 days of free agency. He reportedly had heavy interest from the New England Patriots and Miami Dolphins.
That was while veteran Carlos Hyde, Carson’s backup last season and a 1,000-yard rusher with Houston in 2019, left Seattle. Hyde signed with Jacksonville this week for two years and $4.5 million.
Days later, Carson was back to be Seattle featured man for its recommitment to run.
Carson romped for 2,381 yards and 16 touchdowns in the 2018 and ‘19 seasons for Seattle. But the Seahawks were hesitant to sign him to the longer-term, big-bucks extension he wanted. He hasn’t completed a full season injury free since junior college.
He rushed for 681 yards and five touchdowns in 2020. He played through a twisted knee in September. He missed four games from October into November last season with a foot injury. That validated the Seahawks’ concerns about committing too much money and years at the NFL’s most-injured position with the league’s shortest shelf-life for a career.
That also could be why Carson was still available Friday for Seattle to re-sign, after all.
Until then, the Seahawks were staring at Rashaad Penny, their unproved first-round pick from 2018 coming off reconstructive knee surgery, being their lead back in 2021. DeeJay Dallas, recently re-signed Alex Collins and Travis Homer were the other running backs on the roster.
Ultimately, Carson went with familiarity, Seattle’s money and Carroll’s vow to return the Seahawks’ offense to more balance and more running in 2021 to improve Wilson pass protection.
Penny will be Carson’s backup entering the final year of his rookie deal. The decision by May the Seahawks have on whether to pick up Penny’s fifth-year option at a guaranteed $4.5 million for 2022 may not be a decision any more, with what they are now spending to keep Carson for at least the next two years.
All (very) good for the Seahawks.
So how are they going to pay for him?
Before they agreed to the deal with Carson Friday, the Seahawks had just $426,987 in salary-cap space. The reason the Seahawks could reach the agreement with Carson without the cap room for his new contract is as of Saturday he had yet to sign the deal. The team had yet to make it official. The cap charge does not take effect until the contract is signed and submitted to the NFL for certification.
Before Carson signs officially, the Seahawks are going to have to either cut veteran players and their salary or restructure their most expensive contracts—or both—to clear cap space for this move plus others they still need to do: for a veteran pass rusher and a third wide receiver, to name two.
The most logical candidate to restructure his contract is the team’s most important player.
Wilson’s unique situation
Wilson is due to earn $19 million in base salary on the $140 million contract in 2021.
The Seahawks don’t even have to ask him to restructure.
They could covert up to $17.9 million of that salary for this year into a bonus money. They could then by league rules spread that new bonus money over the three years remaining on Wilson’s contract. That would save up to $11.95 million against Seattle’s cap this season, reducing his team-leading (by far) $32 million cap charge.
The News Tribune confirmed last week with league source that have knowledge of his contract the Seahawks don’t need Wilson’s approval or initiative to restructure the quarterback’s contract that made him the richest player in NFL history in April 2019. It was done with a provision that allows the Seahawks to restructure the salary and bonus structure each year without his explicit or first approval.
Wilson, 32, has three seasons and $69 million remaining of his $140 million Seahawks contract.
Now, in the interests of practicality and doing business with their 10-year veteran and most important player, it’s highly likely Carroll, Schneider and Wilson would first agree to a restructure before the Seahawks did it. That would further show they are on board with Wilson following his stated frustration with the offense.
The point is: if push really came to shove and the Seahawks needed the cap space, the team could do it anyway.
It’s been done before
There is a precedent here.
During the 2017 season, the Seahawks traded with Houston to acquire veteran Pro Bowl left tackle Duane Brown. To complete the deal, Wilson restructured his contract. The Seahawks converted millions of his base pay for that year into bonus money it applied to the next two years of its salary cap. That allowed Seattle to take on Brown’s contract in that October 2017 trade.
The Seahawks under coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider since 2010 have been reluctant to kick the cap-charge can down the road and add unplanned costs to future years. Besides Wilson’s re-do to acquire Brown, wide receiver Doug Baldwin restructured his money so the team could acquire defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson in a trade with the New York Jets, earlier in 2017.
And that’s been about it in Seattle for restructures over the last decade.
But it’s the most expeditious way short of cutting veterans to stay under the league’s salary cap that this year dropped almost $16 million to $182.5 million per team, because of lost revenues from the coronavirus pandemic.
Re-doing Wilson’s deal would be the easiest of those quick ways Seattle to fit Carson’s new deal under the cap, plus Friday’s official signing of former San Francisco 49ers starting cornerback Akhello Witherspoon.
He got a one-year, $4 million contract. All of Witherspoon’s money to replace departed (to Jacksonville) Shaquill Griffin is guaranteed, so all Witherspoon’s $4 million must fit under the cap.
Reallocating Wilson’s money this year would make him more difficult than it already would be for the team to trade him before the end of his contract after 2023.
Teams prorate bonus money across all years of contracts, out to a maximum of five years, to make the annual salary-cap charges of the deal more manageable. That’s how clubs fit expensive, star player(s) plus all other contracts on the 53-man active roster under each year’s cap. When a team trades a player with years remaining on his contract, NFL rules require teams to take on an acceleration of total bonus money left on the deal.
If Wilson’s base salary gets restructured this spring into bonus money to clear more cap space this year, his cap charges would go up for 2022 and ‘23. That means a trade after a restructure would result in a cap acceleration charge for Seattle that’s even more than the $39 million.
So a restructure of Wilson’s contract is essentially a further commitment to him through the end of his contract after the ‘23 season.
What else it could pay for
The Seahawks have other needs that could require them cutting or restructuring veteran contracts.
Key linebacker K.J. Wright, the team’s longest-tenured player coming off one of the best seasons of his 10-year career, is a free agent. He wants to return and deserves far more than a minimum salary to do it. He remains unsigned. He’s waiting to see how else Seattle spends its money this month.
“Invest in K.J.,” Wright said in January.
The Seahawks re-signed 2020 starting center Ethan Pocic to a one-year deal for up to $3 million this past week. That feels like a fall-back plan if they can’t sign another, new center or use one of their three remaining picks in next month’s draft on one ready to play now in the NFL.
The team also would like to re-sign starting cornerback Quinton Dunbar. Because he was injured last season and hasn’t been named to the Pro Bowl as Griffin was in 2019, Dunbar will come more cheaply than Griffin’s three-year, $44.5 million contract with $29 million guaranteed by the Jaguars.
And the Seahawks need a new pass rusher, or three. They released their top one, Carlos Dunlap, March 8 to clear the $14 million in cap space. That allowed the team to in the past week to:
- sign Witherspoon
- re-sign Pocic
- sign tight end Gerald Everett for one year and $6 million from the Rams
- sign Pro Bowl special-teams ace Nick Bellore
- and trade for Las Vegas Raiders starting guard Gabe Jackson. He is scheduled to carry a cap charge of $9.6 million this year and next, though the Seahawks are likely to restructure that.
All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner is the next logical candidate after Wilson to restructure his money to create cap room for the team. He has a $13,150,000 base salary for this year on his $54 million contract. His deal, like Wilson’s, ends after the 2023 season. The Seahawks could save up to $6.04 million this year restructuring Wagner’s money.
That’s $18 million they could save re-doing Wilson and Wagner—but $18 million more onto Seattle’s 2022 and ‘23 salary caps.
Create cap room and go for it now, pay later? That would be new for Carroll and Schneider.
Then again: the third, voidable year they included in Carson’s new contract to spread his cap charges over an extra year departs from the Seahawks’ norm.
Tyler Lockett, coming off a team-record 100-catch season, is the next-highest-paid Seahawk with an $11 million salary for 2021. But this is the final year of his contract. To re-do his money into a more cap-friendly number for 2021 the team would have to give Lockett an extension beyond this year.
So the team has options to pay for Carson, and more.
The clearest one is the quarterback who is a lot happier this weekend than he was last.
This story was originally published March 20, 2021 at 1:06 PM.
