SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks suddenly have plenty to play for the rest of the 2024 season, resting in first place in the NFC West, a game ahead of the rest of the division with five games remaining.
With a rookie coach in Mike Macdonald and an almost totally new coaching staff, this year was always about setting a foundation for the future.
Twelve games into this season, the Seahawks appear to have taken a big step toward doing that on the side of the ball that needed the most attention – the defense.
After a rocky start to the season in which the Seahawks allowed 23.1 points and 148.4 rushing yards per game (21st and 28th, respectively, in the NFL, according to ESPN), Seattle has allowed just 14.0 points and 84.3 rushing yards in the last four (third and fifth).
While some asterisks could be placed on the first three games the Seahawks won this season when they allowed just 14.3 points per game, that isn’t the case now.
In their last three wins, the Seahawks have defeated teams quarterbacked by Brock Purdy, Kyler Murray and Aaron Rodgers.
All have come since a bye week that followed a good defensive performance in an overtime loss to the Rams and some significant reshuffling of personnel, which players called transformative.
“It’s crazy,” Seahawks safety Julian Love said following Sunday’s 26-21 win over the Jets. “I think it starts from the top with (general manager) John (Schneider) and crew and just a vision with what we wanted to do, just personnel things.
“There’s been a lot of change this past month, for sure, and it was just a cohesive effort to stay together. We made the approach, made the decision, to not just do the same things and just expect a different result. We had a sharper approach, we stayed committed to challenging each other, taking things personally in practice to where we had that confidence and swag going into games.”
Macdonald has preached the value of continuity in a defense in which communication and each player understanding not only their role, but everyone else’s, is critical.
Which leads to an inevitable question: Can the Seahawks keep this group together now that they appear to have found something that works?
That, of course, is an issue the Seahawks will take care of mostly after the season.
As we watch to see if the defense can continue to play at this level the rest of the season, and maybe even lead the Seahawks to a division title – which would be just its second since 2016 – it’s worth taking a big-picture look at the future of the defense.
So let’s review the Seahawks’ projected cap situation for 2025 and the contract status of key defensive players:
Seahawks will be tight against cap in 2025
The Seahawks project to have one of the more challenging salary-cap situations next year, listed as being $14.887 million in the red in effective cap space for 2025, via OvertheCap.com.
That’s a number that measures how much money the team would have after draft picks and other built-in expenses.
Only two teams are more in the red – New Orleans (at over $70 million) and Cleveland (at over $25 million).
That means the Seahawks will have to make some moves – and maybe some significant ones – to get cap compliant, which has to happen by the start of the new league year on March 12.
That’s why you’re going to hear a lot of speculation about the futures of high-salaried offensive players such as quarterback Geno Smith ($38.5 million cap hit for 2025) and receivers Tyler Lockett ($30.895 million) and DK Metcalf ($31.875 million).
The 2025 season will be the final year of the contracts for all three, and it’s typical for teams to redo deals entering the final season to reduce cap hits, if not outright cut players.
Smith confirmed he approached the team about an extension this offseason, so he would seem likely to do so again. How Smith’s contract situation is solved will heavily influence the rest of the team’s offseason plan financially.
Seahawks already spend heavily on defense
The good news when it comes to the defense is that most of the key players are already under contract for 2025.
In fact, nine of the top 11 players in defensive snap counts played this year are under contract for at least one more season.
Those players account for a heavy percentage of the $125.644 million the Seahawks have committed to the defense for 2025, sixth among all NFL teams, according to OvertheCap.com.
That includes significant numbers for defensive lineman Leonard Williams (just more than $29 million) and outside linebackers Dre’Mont Jones ($25.6 million) and Uchenna Nwosu ($21.4 million), the top three defensive cap hits for 2025.
Jones will be entering the final year of his deal in 2025 with no guaranteed money, meaning the team could look to make a move with his contract. Nwosu has no guaranteed money left, so his contract could be reworked as well.
Love is under contract through the 2027 season thanks to a new deal signed last summer with a cap hit of $6.116 million in 2025, which feels like a relative steal.
What greatly helps is that a number of key defensive players all are still on rookie contracts, notably cornerbacks Devon Witherspoon and Riq Woolen, outside linebackers Boye Mafe and Derick Hall, inside linebacker Tyrice Knight, safety Coby Bryant and defensive tackle Byron Murphy II.
Big questions
The key to keeping the defense together will be re-signing linebacker Ernest Jones IV, whose acquisition from Tennessee via trade in October has appeared to solidify things immensely.
Jones, 25, will be a free agent at the end of the season and the conclusion of his rookie contract. He is sure to want a significant raise from the $3.116 million he is making this year.
They will also have to consider if they want to keep veteran Jarran Reed, who turns 32 this month but is still producing at a solid level and is one of the team’s more influential leaders.
As noted, what happens with Smith, Lockett and Metcalf will be key.
Metcalf might want a new deal, so he is not playing next season with an uncertain future.
Lockett is 32 and on track for his fewest receptions and yards since his third season in the league. His hefty cap hit and other needs could lead to some tough talks at the end of the season. As the release of Bobby Wagner illustrates, Schneider isn’t afraid to make tough calls.
Also a wild card is how many members of the 2022 rookie class who will be eligible for extensions will want them – and at what rate.
That group includes Woolen and Mafe, left tackle Charles Cross, right tackle Abe Lucas, running back Kenneth Walker III, and Bryant.
In the big picture, working to keep this group together is a much better problem to have than where the Seahawks were a month ago.