Seahawks lose key CB D.J. Reed, gain Artie Burns, still have post-Russell Wilson QB issue
With more than $100 million tied up in their safeties, the Seahawks let their best cornerback go.
Deshaun Watson reportedly doesn’t want to play in the Pacific Northwest. That means Seattle is off his list to go in a trade from Houston. The Seahawks remain without a proven NFL quarterback under contract.
Coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider were scheduled to have a press conference at Seahawks headquarters Wednesday afternoon. They have a lot to answer.
At nearly the same time, Russell Wilson was to have a press conference in Denver introducing him as the Broncos’ new quarterback. Seattle and Denver were to make official their mammoth Wilson trade after the new league year was to begin at 1 p.m. Wednesday.
Yes, there have been better weeks in Seahawks history than this last one.
D.J. Reed, one of eight cornerbacks Seattle played last season and the only proven, consistent starter, signed with the New York Jets. The deal Tuesday was for an eye-raising $33 million over three years.
That’s an astronomical raise from the $920,000 Reed made last season. It was his second one excelling in Carroll’s Seahawks system since Seattle restarted his career.
Reed and reserve tackle Jamarco Jones (to Tennessee) were Seattle’s two losses in free agency through the first two days of the league’s negotiating period.
The Seahawks re-signed safety Quandre Diggs, cornerback Sidney Jones, tight end Will Dissly and defensive tackle Al Woods to begin the week.
Wednesday morning, Seattle added a veteran cornerback. Former Chicago Bear and Pittsburgh Steeler Artie Burns agreed to sign a one-year, $2 million contract with the Seahawks. ESPN’s Adam Schefter reported that first.
Burns, who turns 27 in May, is 6 feet tall. He was the Steelers’ first-round draft choice in 2016 out of Miami. He struggled with the Steelers but played well at times last season for Sean Desai’s defense in Chicago.
Desai is now the Seahawks’ associate head coach focusing on the secondary and pass defense.
Reed, 25, had nothing but love for Seattle on his way out town Tuesday.
“I got to show love to Seattle’s fans. It was one helluva ride,” Reed posted on his Twitter account, with emojis of a heart and a bumping fist.
The Seahawks entered this week with more than $40 million in space under the NFL salary cap, among the league’s top five in cap space. Yet they couldn’t get into a bidding war with the Jets for Reed at a per-year pay that was more than 11 times what Seattle paid Reed in 2021.
Not with the Seahawks having agreed Monday to pay Diggs $40 million for three years to keep the Pro Bowl safety from free agency. That’s on top of Jamal Adams’ $70 million deal last summer, the richest contract for a safety in league history.
So Carroll and Schneider will, for now, run with the former Washington Husky Jones and 2021 rookie draft choice Tre Brown competing with Burns as their cornerbacks. Brown had season-ending knee surgery in November. He was Seattle’s fourth-round pick in last year’s draft.
Offensive line questions
The only other Seahawks moves on day two of the NFL free agency negotiating period: the team decided to tender offers to exclusive-rights free agents, according to ESPN’s Brady Henderson. Returning are Safety Ryan Neal (the sixth, dime defensive back last season), special-teams linebacker Jon Rhattigan from Army West Point, special-teams linebacker Tanner Muse, defensive back Nigel Warrior and Dakoda Shepley.
Shepley could become interesting to the Seahawks’ 2022 season. The team claimed him off waivers from San Francisco early last September. Ethan Pocic and Kyle Fuller, Seattle’s starting centers last season, are entering free agency. But Shepley’s stlll a Seahawk.
Asked about Shepley two weeks ago at the league’s scouting combine, Schneider said in a hallway of the JW Marriott hotel in Indianapolis: “Yeah, Dakoda Shepley’s the guy we claimed last year. He just hasn’t had a chance to play yet. And you guys weren’t able to see him play in the preseason.
“So yeah, we were fired up about him.”
The Cleveland Browns released 31-year-old center JC Tretter Tuesday to save $8.25 million in salary cap space. That’s one of many middle-priced veterans with more proven careers than Pocic, Fuller and Shepley — if the Seahawks are serious about upgrading one of their weakest positions for the last several years.
The Seahawks also have needs at offensive tackle. Both starters from 2021 are heading to free agency: left tackle Duane Brown and right tackle Brandon Shell.
Edge rusher remains a need to upgrade starting Wednesday in free agency. Chandler Jones, Wilson’s and the Seahawks’ nemesis for years with Arizona, is the top and most experienced pass rusher on the market. The Seahawks would have to spend hugely — probably too hugely — to sign him.
Carroll and Schneider may be more willing to add an edge rusher or three in a draft that has one of the deepest pools of outside sack men in decades. The Seahawks now own the ninth-overall pick, from the Broncos, plus two choices in round two.
Yet none of those needs supersede the most fundamental and vital one for Seattle, one the team hasn’t had for 10 years.
Who is going to be the Seahawks’ starting quarterback?
Baker Mayfield?
Seattle received Drew Lock among three players and the five draft picks from Denver in the Wilson trade. Lock is 8-13 in his spotty, three-year career. He has 25 touchdowns and 20 interceptions in the league.
Schneider and the Seahawks liked the 6-4 Lock in the 2019 draft when he was coming out of the University of Missouri. But that draft was less than two weeks after Seattle signed Wilson to a then-record $140 million extension. So the Seahawks took defensive end L.J. Collier, safety Marquise Blair (their likely primary nickel back in 2022) and now-star receiver DK Metcalf instead of drafting a quarterback three years ago.
The Browns reportedly met with Watson in Houston Tuesday about a possible trade. That has intensified the belief the Browns are seeking to trade their quarterback Baker Mayfield. Cleveland.com reported that on Tuesday.
Mayfield, 26, was the Heisman Trophy winner at Oklahoma in 2017 and the first overall pick in the 2018 NFL draft by the Browns. He publicly criticized coach Kevin Stefanski’s play-calling during last season.
How awkward would it be for him entering the final year of his contract to come back to a team whose owner flew to Texas to try to get Mayfield’s replacement?
Mayfield didn’t sound happy about his situation with the Browns Tuesday night. He posted on Twitter a long thank-you note to Cleveland’s fans, which read like a first goodbye.
“The past four years have been nothing short of truly life changing...,” Mayfield wrote to Browns fans in an online letter that began addressing “Cleveland.”
“This is strictly to thank the city of Cleveland for embracing my family and me...”
In 2019 before the Seahawks played at the Browns, Carroll told Cleveland’s media this about Mayfield on a pregame conference call: “He has all the ability. He has great awareness. He has had tremendous experience throwing the football. He is just way ahead of schedule for most guys. That is why he was chosen where he was. Just the sense, the arm talent and accuracy.
“He has a big belief in himself, I would think. I do not know him, but I would think that he does. That lends itself to the confidence that it takes to hang in there as you learn and to grow and to bounce back from the setbacks that are obviously going to happen as you go along. That is just so difficult. He is an excellent player right now. He is going to be great when the times come.”
Mayfield is due to earn $18.56 million in 2022. The Seahawks entered this week with more than $40 million in salary-cap space, among the NFL’s top five in cap room.
As of Tuesday, pending the Diggs’ new deal becoming official Wednesday, Seattle’s top scheduled cap charge for this year is defensive tackle Poona Ford at $10,075,000. That has to change with the team adding a veteran starting quarterback, no?
Or does it?
Carroll and Schneider weren’t going to answer questions about Watson or Mayfield, or any other play currently under contract with another team Wednesday. That’s against NFL rules on tampering with players on other clubs.
But they are answering among themselves and their staffs how best to proceed without Wilson as their quarterback for the first time since 2011.
Until they settle that issue, all other players the Seahawks sign and lose in free agency that is officially kicking off won’t mean as much to the team’s chances of rebounding in 2022.
This story was originally published March 16, 2022 at 6:05 AM.
