Seahawks Have Spoken to Russell Wilson, Bobby Wagner About Contract Restructures
With a new league year approaching in early March, the Seahawks found themselves in a tight financial crunch. Like most other teams, a salary cap that plunged to $182.5 million due to the COVID-19 pandemic put them in a precarious position trying to retain players and improve their roster.
As a result, general manager John Schneider initially had less than $5 million in effective cap space at his disposal. Desperate for wiggle room, the team released veteran defensive end Carlos Dunlap to open up an instant $14 million in cap relief less than a week before the start of free agency.
Even with that move, however, Seattle had more than 20 players becoming unrestricted free agents, including running back Chris Carson and cornerback Shaquill Griffin. The team also had glaring holes to fill at guard, tight end, and defensive end, guaranteeing these additional savings generated by releasing Dunlap wouldn't last long.
With their championship window still remaining wide open, in order to fortify the roster, the Seahawks would need to find creative ways to further increase their cap space. One way this could have easily been accomplished would have been to restructure the contracts of quarterback Russell Wilson and/or linebacker Bobby Wagner.
But Schneider opted for a different strategy, instead adding "void years" to the end of contracts. Adding voided years to the end of contracts allows teams to spread out the player's signing bonus for salary cap purposes, which lowers the cap hit for 2021 as a result.
As an example, Carson reportedly signed a three-year contract worth up to $24.625 million to stay in Seattle. But in reality, the third year is voided with a $1.5 million dead cap hit, making it a two-year pact worth $10.425 million. The voided year dropped his 2021 cap hit to just $2.5 million.
These contracts structured with voided years allowed the Seahawks to re-sign Carson, Benson Mayowa, and several of their own free agents while also signing former 49ers pass rusher Kerry Hyder without breaking the bank. Dunlap also returned on a team-friendly two-year deal with a more traditional contract structure.
Away from using voided years, Seattle also created quick cap space by extending guard Gabe Jackson after acquiring him from the Las Vegas Raiders in March and also gave Tyler Lockett a four-year extension. Both of these moves lowered their respective cap hits for next season.
When asked why the Seahawks didn't restructure Wilson or Wagner, coach Pete Carroll indicated that while the team considered such options, they chose to go different directions to address their financial needs.
“As always, we have all of the options available to us,” Carroll said following Saturday's rookie minicamp practice. “We have talked about all of that, as we do every year. What are our possibilities? Where do we need to go? What do we need to do, if we get to certain levels of need for staying in compliance for the money we need to come up with for other contracts? We’ve done all of that."
If the Seahawks would have restructured both Wilson and Wagner, the team would have saved roughly $18 million against the 2021 cap by transitioning base salary into a signing bonus. Wilson on his own would have created nearly $12 million, while Wagner's restructure would have create $6 million in instant relief.
But by restructuring either player, Seattle would simply have been running up its credit card, as those cap savings would have shifted to 2022 and 2023. The team would have been kicking big expenses down the road and even with the cap expected to go up exponentially in coming years, Schneider has never been a fan of such short-sighted moves.
Carroll added that the Seahawks did speak to Wilson and Wagner about the possibility of their contracts being restructured. But ultimately, they preferred other alternatives that still allowed them to make roster upgrades and didn't add massive cap hits to future seasons.
"We've looked at every single option that's out there and even to the point where those guys know we've discussed that too. It just hasn’t been necessary at this point."
In all likelihood, the Seahawks won't need to reconsider their decision not to restructure Wilson or Wagner's contract. Per OverTheCap.com, the franchise still has nearly $8 million in cap space, which could be enough to bring in another established veteran or two down the road if they wish.
This is a highly unique offseason, however, with several notable stars still remaining unsigned due to the lowered salary cap league-wide. This includes multiple players with Seahawks ties, including cornerback Richard Sherman, linebacker K.J. Wright, and defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson. All three of those players could still command significant money on short-term deals.
If Seattle eventually decides it wants to sign one or more of those players before training camp opens in July and doesn't have quite enough cap space to pull it off, it's certainly plausible Schneider could decide to change course and restructure a contract to facilitate these moves.
