Seahawks get offseason job one done: Quandre Diggs re-signing, 3 years, $40M
The Seahawks stuck by Quandre Diggs, perhaps a tad below the price he wanted.
Seattle fulfilled its first offeseason priority in re-signing its own free agents Monday. The team agreed to a three-year, $40 million contract with Diggs, their Pro Bowl free safety of the last two season.
Diggs confirmed the agreement via his Twitter account, posting him running off Lumen Field celebrating at a Seahawks game in a video by West2East Empire’s Daniel Mogg. Diggs typed: “Yo! @Seahawks I think this how we both feeling!!”
The agreement came on the first day of the NFL’s so-called “legal tampering” period in which players with expiring contracts can begin talking to other teams. That’s in advance of the free-agent market officially opening Wednesday at 1 p.m., the start of the new league year.
That’s when to expect the Seahawks to announce Diggs’ contract.
The Seahawks also re-signed 35-year-old defensive tackle Al Woods, according to his agents. That contract is for $9 million with $4.75 million fully guaranteed, per NFL Network. Woods was strong inside for Seattle last season after taking the 2020 season off over concerns with COVID-19 and having a new daughter at home.
Woods is back to be with Poona Ford and newly acquired Shelby Harris at defensive tackle in what new coordinator Clint Hurtt and coach Pete Carroll have said will be more of a 3-4 defense in 2022. Carroll and the Seahawks have been primarily a 4-3 defense for the last 12 seasons.
Tight end Will Dissly, also with an expired Seahawks contract, posted on his Twitter account Monday afternoon “SEA!” — the start of fans’ favorite “SEA! HAWKS!” chant at games. That confirmed the former University of Washington Husky has agreed to re-sign with Seattle instead of testing the market.
Dissly’s deal is reportedly three years and $24 million, per NFL Network. He joins Noah Fant, acquired last week in the massive trade of Russell Wilson to the Broncos, as Seattle’s top two tight ends right now. Gerald Everett, the Seahawks’ number-one tight end last season, is a free agent.
Coach Pete Carroll had said in early January it should be obvious the Seahawks think highly of Diggs and intended to make him an offer rich enough for him to re-sign. That was after Diggs broke his leg in Seattle’s final game of the 2021 season.
The average annual value of $13.33 million per season makes Diggs the NFL’s ninth-highest paid safety per average annual value. It’s ahead of Cincinnati’s Jessie Bates ($12.9 million per year) and behind Kansas City’s Tyrann Mathieu and Washington’s Landon Collins ($14 million per year), per overthecap.com.
Diggs’ new Seahawks deal has been in the works since before he broke his right fibula and dislocated his ankle in the team’s season finale at Arizona Jan. 9.
Diggs has been wanting a new Seahawks contract since the summer. He “held in” during training camp in August 2021. He was at the team facility in Renton and participating in meetings and all-of-field work but refused to practice.
The Seahawks eventually got him back to practice and to start all 17 games this season by guaranteeing him $2.5 million up front before the opening game then adding a void year of 2022. That gave Diggs more money while his contract still ended with the end of the 2021 season.
“In my mind, nobody can tell me I’m not the best in the league,” he said of all NFL free safeties.
Diggs said that in early November, the day he became the only NFL player with at least three interceptions in each of the past five seasons (2017-21).
The last two seasons, the only two full seasons Diggs has played for Seattle, have been the first Pro Bowl selections in the 29-year-old’s seven-year career. The Seahawks traded with Detroit to get the Lions’ captain during the 2019 season.
The broken leg and surgery likely kept Diggs from the $14 million or more per season and into the top-five paid of all NFL safeties, a mark that seemed possible until that last game.
The affable Diggs, hugely popular among teammates in the Seahawks’ locker room, jokingly posted on Twitter minutes after his agreement became known Monday a GIF with the words, “I’m broke baby, I ain’t got no money.”
To the contrary, he and Jamal Adams are now two of the NFL’s nine highest-paid safeties, on the same defense. Adams last summer signed the richest deal for a safety in league history: four years, $70 million, $17.5 million per year, with $38 million guaranteed.
That’s money usually spent on cornerbacks in the NFL.
About those: the Seahawks reportedly have agreed to re-sign former University of Washington cornerback Sidney Jones, who debuted for the team last season. NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo first reported that Monday.
Seattle was in the top five in the league in salary-cap space at more than $40 million entering Monday.
The Seahawks also intend to re-sign D.J. Reed. The last two season he’s been their most consistent and dependable cornerback, at a position Seattle used eight players while missing the playoffs in 2021.
This story was originally published March 14, 2022 at 1:02 PM.
