SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks began taking care of some offseason business this week – getting compliant with the salary cap – by restructuring the contract of defensive lineman Leonard Williams.
As first reported by OvertheCap.com Thursday morning, the move creates $14.1 million in cap space for 2025. The Seahawks had been about $27.5 million over the cap before the move and are now $13.4 million over the cap, according to the website.
As explained by OvertheCap.com, the Seahawks converted $18.745 million of Williams’ 2025 salary to a bonus.
They added two void years to his contract – which runs through the 2026 season – to spread out the cap hit.
That brought down Williams’ cap hit for the 2025 season from $29.1 million to $14.06 million. It increases his cap hit for 2026 to $29.6 million and adds new cap hits of $4.686 million for 2027 and 2028. Those are dummy years added solely to spread out the cap hit.
Illustrating the need for the Seahawks to make cap-cutting moves, they still have the third-least cap space available of any team even after the restructure of Williams’ contract.
The Seahawks, and all NFL teams, have to be at or under the cap when the new league year begins March 12.
Williams can still be a free agent after the end of the 2026 season. The Seahawks seem likely to consider an extension for Williams after this season that would bring down his 2026 cap hit and mean that he would be a member of the team during the void years.
Williams, 30, led the Seahawks in sacks with 11 and made the Pro Bowl for the second time in his career.
Contract restructures such as this are typically written into contracts as an option and not something to which the player has to necessarily agree. Teams typically have the option to enact a restructure of turning salary into bonus – which means the player gets the money immediately instead of in regular installments throughout the season – at any time.
Void years are a fairly common tactic used to push out future cap hits.
The Seahawks generally resisted using them until the challenges created by drops in revenue because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
They have used them relatively sparingly in recent seasons. With the challenge presented by this year’s cap, and some other big questions the team needs to address, they felt it worth it to kick some money down the road.
Making it easier is the knowledge that the salary-cap numbers are expected to continue to rise.
Teams this year had $255.6 million to assemble their rosters this season. Teams are working with an estimated cap number of $265-275 million for the 2025 season – that number will be set by the start of the new league year.
Overthecap.com is basing its 2025 cap numbers on an estimate of the cap set at $272.5 million.
It is expected to continue to rise in similar increments in future seasons. The cap number is determined via a formula in which roughly 48% of all league revenues are apportioned to teams to use for player salaries.
The move with Williams came a week before a Feb. 14 date when $17.7 million of his $20 million salary for 2025 would have become fully guaranteed. That date helped spur the decision to make an alteration to Williams’ contract.
Pushing the cap hit into future seasons indicates that the Seahawks remain in “win-now” mode, creating space without sacrificing the roster.
Harsher moves to create more space could come later.
The Seahawks could open up $17 million in cap space by releasing veteran receiver Tyler Lockett. His cap hit of $30.895 million is the third-largest on the team, which along with his age (he turned 32 in September), has led to widespread speculation that he won’t be with the team in 2025.
The Seahawks needs cap space not just to get compliant but to make additions to the team when the free-agent signing period begins March 12.
They could create cap space by redoing the contracts of quarterback Geno Smith and receiver DK Metcalf. Each is entering the final years of their contracts with Smith holding a $44.5 million cap hit for 2025 and Metcalf at $31.875 million. Seattle could give each extensions that would assure they will stay with the team beyond 2025 while bringing down their cap hits.