After benching him for D.J. Reed, Seahawks trade Ahkello Witherspoon to Steelers
The Seahawks have solved what to do with Ahkello Witherspoon and his guaranteed money now that he’s on the bench.
Send him away.
Seattle general manager John Schneider on Friday got something for what had become next to nothing for the defense in the past week. He traded Witherspoon and his guaranteed salary to Pittsburgh.
The Seahawks made the deal official Friday morning. They will get a fifth-round draft choice from the Steelers in 2023.
Witherspoon was Seattle’s starting left cornerback for all of training camp through August. Then Tre Flowers won the starting right cornerback job this week. Coaches moved D.J. Reed, the right cornerback in 2020, to the left side.
Coach Pete Carroll said again this week how much he and the Seahawks love Reed’s aggressive play and edginess to everything he does.
So Reed’s playing. He’s opposite Flowers, and both are on track to be Seattle’s starting cornerbacks in the team’s opener at Indianapolis next weekend.
That left Witherspoon without a place to play. Yet the Seahawks owed him $4 million guaranteed for 2021, on the one-year contract to which they signed the former San Francisco 49ers starter in March.
He, like Flowers, is 6 feet 3, the prototype for a Carroll cornerback in Seattle.
But last week defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. tepidly assessed Witherspoon’s performance in preseason games as just “fair.”
Former University of Washington cornerback Sidney Jones arrived in a trade this week from Jacksonville able to play left and right cornerback. Right corner Nigel Warrior is on the active roster after Seattle claimed him off waivers. Practice-squad left cornerback John Reid has impressed Seattle’s coaches since his trade from Houston last week. That left no place or need for Witherpsoon.
Plays like DK Metcalf easily beating Witherspoon in training camp are the reason for his departure.
The trade means the Seahawks have an open spot on their 53-man roster nine days before the first game. And it means Seattle saves $1.5 million in salary-cap space for this year. The team must eat the $2.5 million signing-bonus guarantee it gave Witherspoon. Those charges are $1.25 million in dead money this year and $1.25 million for the gone Witherspoon in 2022, already a void year Seattle put in his contract for cap purposes.
The Steelers take on his $1.5 million guaranteed salary for this year, taking off Seattle’s cap.
The Seahawks also are likely to lose a middle-round compensatory draft choice in 2022 for signing Witherspoon as an unrestricted free agent this year.
But that’s for another day, another year, in fact. It’s a secondary concern to the Seahawks’ primary need of making the always-difficult cornerback position less vulnerable for this season.
This story was originally published September 3, 2021 at 11:24 AM.
