Bobby Wagner says he didn’t hear it from the Seahawks that he wasn’t coming back
Bobby Wagner is ticked for more than just the Seahawks cutting him.
It’s even more, he says, for how they cut him.
The six-time All-Pro linebacker, team captain and franchise cornerstone the last decade says the Seahawks didn’t tell him that they were releasing him this week.
“Crazy part about all this. I played there for 10 years & I didn’t even hear it from them that I wasn’t coming back,” Wagner posted online on his Twitter account Friday.
That’s Wagner’s damning account of what happened Tuesday night. It was hours after news broke the Seahawks were trading quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos.
The Seahawks did not immediately respond to the TNT’s request for comment Friday.
The team made the abrupt move official Wednesday; it released its 31-year-old middle linebacker, center of their defense, likely Hall of Famer and 2020 nominee for NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year for his philanthropic work in the community.
Wagner had been scheduled to cost the team $20.35 million against Seattle’s salary cap for 2022, the final and non-guaranteed year of his contract. The Seahawks found that charge untenable. They saved $16 million by releasing him.
Wagner confirmed to The News Tribune Tuesday night he was getting released.
Wagner doesn’t have an agent. The linebacker has been representing himself without one since the months before he re-signed with Seattle for $54 million in the summer of 2019. That was then a record for NFL inside linebackers. Wagner alone had been negotiating with general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks into this week on whether to restructure his 2022 cost.
Wagner is saying by his post Friday that despite those direct negotiations between player and team, the Seahawks didn’t tell him he wasn’t returning for an 11th season with Seattle.
Wagner said at the end of the Seahawks’ 7-10 season this winter he was wondering about his future with Seattle.
“You think about it. You think about what the next year looks like and just, period, what the future holds,” Wagner said Dec. 29, “because this was a season I don’t think we all planned for. We didn’t plan for the season to go this way, so, obviously, there’s going to be some changes.
“Whether or not I’m a part of those changes, I don’t know.”
He had to take a pay cut to stay. At the end of last season, Wagner said he wanted to continue playing for the Seahawks — but that he wasn’t looking to give back money.
A trade wasn’t tenable, either. His ending contract with that $20 million cap charge for 2022 would have gone with him to any team acquiring him in a trade.
The Seahawks have changed their defensive coaches and system since the end of the 2021 season. Coach Pete Carroll promoted line coach Clint Hurtt to defensive coordinator last month. Hurtt and Carroll said Seattle will have more 3-4 principles and looks instead of the 4-3 Carroll has featured with the Seahawks for 12 seasons. A 3-4 means two inside linebacker instead of the lone one Wagner played while running the 4-3 defense all the way to the franchise’s only Super Bowl title, at the end of the 2013 season.
Cody Barton, the Seahawks’ third-round pick in 2019, could get his chance to replace Wagner. He’s more of a true middle linebacker than 2020 first-round pick Jordyn Brooks. Barton’s first NFL regular-season snaps there came in the final game and a half of the 2021 season, after Wagner hurt his knee.
Brooks set the franchise record for tackles last season as a weakside, outside linebacker replacing K.J. Wright. Brooks played middle linebacker one year in college, his final one at Texas Tech. He could play next to Barton as the two inside linebackers as Hurtt’s defense gives more 3-4 looks in 2022.
Or the Seahawks could use one of their four picks in the first 74 selections of next month’s draft or pay a free agent some of their $37 million in new cap space from trading Wilson and releasing Wagner.
In a manner, Wagner says, he did not appreciate.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 11:44 AM.
