‘All Time Great Man’ K.J. Wright signing with Raiders is Seahawks’ —and Seattle’s — loss
The many holding out hope the Seahawks would bring back K.J. Wright after all don’t have to hold out anymore.
He’s signing with the Las Vegas Raiders, instead.
The 31-year-old linebacker was Seattle’s longest-tenured player until the Seahawks decided not to offer him another contract following the 2020 season. Wright confirmed to The News Tribune Thursday he is signing a one-year deal with the Raiders.
When Russell Wilson heard the news of Wright signing with Las Vegas upon coming off the practice field from a morning walk-through Thursday, Seattle’s franchise quarterback posted online: “Going to miss you in the Blue & Green @KJ_WRIGHT34 All Time Great @Seahawks & All Time Great Man. #BestIsAhead”
Last season, Seahawks defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. called Wright “a coach’s dream, a special player.”
Now he’s a Raider.
The football
Wright reunites in Las Vegas with Gus Bradley. The Raiders hired Bradley this offseason to be their defensive coordinator. He was Wright’s defensive coordinator with the Seahawks in 2011 and ‘12, the outside linebacker’s first years in the NFL.
Bradley then left before the Seahawks’ 2013 season to become the head coach of the Jacksonville Jaguars.
Wright wanted to finish his career with Seattle. But the Seahawks decided to go with second-year players Darrell Taylor at strongside linebacker and Jordyn Brooks at weakside linebacker for 2021 and beyond.
Wright remained unsigned through the preseason, while the Seahawks had injuries at linebacker to Ben Burr-Kirven and Cody Barton. Wright wasn’t going to come back to Seattle to fulfill their roles on the Seahawks, as backups and special-teams players.
Wright was seeking a contract that rewards his last two seasons being two of the best of his 10-year career. They came after knee surgery in 2018 that threatened the playing future of one of the savviest, surest-tackling linebackers in Seahawks history.
Vic Tafur wrote online Thursday on his Twitter account: “Wright always had the leverage. Raiders had $2.3 mil in cap space when they first talked and he is going to get close to twice that. They didn’t really want to play the young LBs.”
Last season, he was the only NFL player to have double-digit tackles for loss (11) and passes defensed (10).
Las Vegas has injuries at linebacker. Wright’s attraction is he’s played all three linebacker positions in the Seahawks-like 4-3 scheme Bradley is using with the Raiders. That’s weakside linebacker (where he played most of his 10 seasons for Seattle), plus middle and strongside (in 2020) linebacker.
Wright was exemplary off the field in Seattle — and worldwide — too.
The person
Wright was the Seahawks’ nominee for the 2018 NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year Award. That was after he led a drive to build homes in south Seattle for those in need.
Wright got involved with the Sawhorse Revolution, which began in 2010 as a summer carpentry camp for children on a farm north of Arlington in Snohomish County north of Everett.
“They’re tiny homes. They’ll be in south Seattle,” Wright said in 2018. “We went in there just cutting wood and laying the foundation on the floor and building the roofs. We just really wanted to help.
“I met them when they came out to practice (at Seahawks headquarters in Renton), so I made that connection and just stuck with it.”
Upon he and his wife visiting Kenya, Wright returned with a promise to build wells to provide villagers there clean drinking water.
“It’s an amazing place,” Wright said in November 2018. “And I when I was there, I noticed this young girl had dirty, brown water, and so, I just wanted to help this community. Young ladies have to walk many miles, twice a day, just to bring back water. And when they do get the water, it’s not even clean. So millions of people suffer from (not having) easy access to it.
“I just want to bless this community that blessed me.”
That community is in the Maasai Mara region of southwest Kenya. It is known for its wildlife, including lions and the great migration of wildebeest each summer, along the border with Tanzania.
“This year I am donating $300 for every tackle (to providing clean water to the Maasai Mara region),” Wright said. “I just want to make this a community effort. I want everyone to feel a part of it. I want everyone to feel involved, because I think it’s a really good thing, to help people that are in need.
“It’s something I’m doing. I’m going back next year.”
And he did. He saw to it that the wells, plus new buildings and infrastructure for the village, got built.
Wright has joined former Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril on Avril’s annual trips to Haiti; he helped build a school there in La Chanm. Wright coached a youth football camp in Port-au-Prince. He’s been a mentor for Chargers and former Seahawks left tackle Russell Okung’s Future Leaders program, working with inner-city kids to help them learn basics of entrepreneurship and technology to tackle problems in their communities. Wright has also been a mentor for Seattle-area youth through Rainier Athletes, a local program that seeks to motivate students to achieve, and through the NFL’s Character Playbook teaching Seattle-area middle-school students how to build healthy relationships and make good decisions.
That’s what the Seahawks — and Seattle — are losing with Wright signing with the Raiders.
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 12:20 PM.
