His market booming, DK Metcalf shows up smiling for start of Seahawks voluntary workouts
Those fearing DK Metcalf may be wanting to join Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner as the next star out of Seattle are breathing easier.
The Seahawks published online photos on their social-media accounts of players arriving at team headquarters in Renton for the first day of their voluntary offseason workout program.
One player they prominently featured being there: Metcalf, smiling.
Metcalf set the Seahawks record with 1,303 yards receiving in 2020. He’s had seven, 10 and 12 touchdown catches in his first three NFL seasons for Seattle. He is entering the final year of his rookie contract.
He said at the end of last season “of course” he wanted a new contract from the Seahawks this offseason.
“I’m not trying to leave,” the 24-year-old Metcalf said in early January.
The Seahawks and the wide-receiver market have changed dramatically since then.
Seattle traded Wilson, its franchise quarterback, to Denver. The team decided to release Wagner, the team’s All-Pro linebacker, on the same day last month.
The Jacksonville Jaguars gave free-agent wide receiver Christian Kirk, far from an All-Pro or even Pro Bowl player, an out-of-left-field deal for $72 million over four years with $37 million guaranteed. Kirk is one year older than Metcalf. He has never had 1,000 yards receiving or six touchdowns in any of his four NFL seasons.
Kirk’s unexpected deal accelerated the wide-receiver market. The Miami Dolphins traded for Tyreek Hill last month and gave the former Kansas City Chiefs three-time All-Pro and six-time Pro Bowl pass catcher the richest wide-receiver contract in NFL history: $120 million over four years.
With the relatively pedestrian Kirk commanding $18 million per year and the top-of-the-market Hill now getting $30 million per season, Metcalf’s worth is likely around $25 million per year.
The top five wide receivers in average annual salary are Hill, new Las Vegas Raider Davante Adams ($28 million per year), Arizona’s DeAndre Hopkins ($27.25 million per), Buffalo’s Stefon Diggs (an average of $24 million) and Carolina’s D.J Moore ($20.6 million per year).
Diggs is four years older than Metcalf and coming off seasons with a league-leading 127 then 103 catches. Diggs got $70 million guaranteed this month on a $96 million, four-year extension with the Bills.
Other top wide receivers now are seeking to take advantage of this newly set market at their position. Deebo Samuel has reportedly asked the San Francisco 49ers to trade him. Tennessee’s A.J. Brown and Washington’s Terry McLaurin were also reportedly skipping the start of their team’s offseason workouts this week.
Brown and Metcalf are close friends. They have been since high school. They were teammates at the University of Mississippi.
That and this exploding market had some wondering if Metcalf was going to skip Seattle’s offseason work to also make a statement about wanting a new, rich deal, pronto.
He is not.
Metcalf made the Pro Bowl in his second season with the Seahawks, 2020. That was after coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider traded with New England back into the bottom of the second round of the 2019 draft to select Metcalf.
Carroll said late last month, after Hill won the lottery with the Dolphins, that the Seahawks “love” Metcalf and intend to re-sign him this spring into summer.
“It’s really important to us. We love him, you know,” Carroll said March 22 on KJR radio in Seattle. “He’s such a great, competitive kid, and he’s got so much upside. Maybe will go down as one of the great draft picks we ever had here. I thought we were SO fortunate to get him where we got him, the bottom of (round) two. How could that ever have happened?
“He’s proved why so many teams missed out, because he’s a great player.
“So we are going to do everything we can to get it done.”
The reason it hasn’t happened yet: the Seahawks have had their own issues.
The Wilson saga and league-shaking trade.
Wagner’s messy departure.
Re-signing Pro Bowl safety Quandre Diggs for $40 million last month, after his contract had expired.
Not having a starting left or right tackle signed for 2022.
The draft, which begins next week. Seattle owns the ninth-overall pick from Denver.
Meanwhile, the wide-receiver market has skyrocketed on the Seahawks, and every other NFL team.
“There’s a sense of shock when you see where the numbers are going, especially at that position,” Schneider said on KIRO-AM radio late last month.
That doesn’t mean the Seahawks can’t and won’t pay Metcalf.
“Everybody loves DK. He’s a great player,” Schneider said on 710-AM radio March 24. “People have to game plan for him and he influences every single game that he’s a part of, whether it’s people shifting coverages his way or him just running straight through the coverage or having guys play man (coverage) where he’s just tossing people off him, right? He influences games, there’s no question about it. And we love him. Everybody in the building loves him.”
Sure, his cost has gone up the last month. But Seattle’s ability to pay Metcalf for 2023 and beyond is going up, too.
The Seahawks don’t have Wilson potentially commanding $50 million or more per season beginning in 2024. Before the team traded him Seattle was looking at that number in contract negotiations with Wilson this time next year; his deal ends with the 2023 season.
Plus, the league’s salary cap is about to spike. It’s gone from $182.5 million last year in the coronavirus pandemic to $208.2 million this year. It could be $225 million or more per team next year when the NFL’s new media-rights contracts kick in.
So, yes, Metcalf is going to cost more. But the Seahawks are going to have more to spend, on him and others.
Meanwhile, yes, he’s showing up to work.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 1:14 PM.
