Seahawks' Lackluster Start to Free Agency Shows Effects of Russell Wilson's Exit

It's been 13 days since news first broke that longtime Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson was heading to the Broncos in one of the biggest trades in NFL history. The deal sent ripples throughout the league and put Seattle in a position it hasn't found itself in for a very long time.

Those 13 days have felt like an eternity in the Pacific Northwest, and the ramifications of the franchise's hard reset have already reared their ugly head. Teams have been able to negotiate with free agents for a full week now and the top of the class is more or less off the board at this point. Save for the concerning departure of cornerback D.J. Reed, the Seahawks have mostly succeeded in their goal to retain their own free agents, but they have made just three outside additions thus far and only one—edge rusher Uchenna Nwosu—has come with a significant financial and multi-year commitment.

Seattle currently ranks second in the NFL in available salary cap space at $31.5 million, per OverTheCap.com, and have plenty of future flexibility with the majority of Wilson's dead money set to come off the books in a year's time. Thus, the underwhelming start to free agency for general manager John Schneider and friends isn't a product of limited funding. They have the money and the desire to stay competitive in 2022, but what they don't have is the allure of a superstar quarterback and the championship foundation that entails.

No matter the sport, from the travel to the weather and everything in between, the city of Seattle and the state of Washington have historically been a difficult sell to top-billed free agents. Winning has helped alleviate some of those issues for the Seahawks over the past decade, but it's still been a hangup in certain situations.

Some players just don't want to relocate their families to the Pacific Northwest and oftentimes it has nothing to do with the organization itself. But when tacking on the departures of Wilson, linebacker Bobby Wagner and other noteworthy veterans, the state of the franchise is naturally playing a much larger role than it has in recent years.

As such, popular free agent targets who already felt like a long shot before the Wilson trade suddenly became impossible to land. This hasn't kept Seattle from pursuing—or at least kicking the tires on—high-end talent like edge rusher Chandler Jones, but these efforts have ultimately felt hopeless in nature.

In most instances, the Seahawks won't be able to attract talent on merit alone—not until they can prove capable of winning in the post-Wilson era. Players will not come at a discount in the meantime; in fact, many will likely require an overpay to be reeled in at this point.

Trent Brown may be the latest example of this. The free-agent tackle reportedly spent multiple days in the Seattle area visiting the Seahawks this past week, and the organization appeared highly motivated to get a deal done. Instead, seemingly out of nowhere, Brown ended up signing a two-year contract to remain with the Patriots on Monday.

While there's still plenty of time for the landscape of Seattle's offseason to change significantly, this could be a common theme with coveted free agents for the foreseeable future.

So while the Seahawks have refuted the notion that 2022 is a rebuilding year for them, the market may be forcing them into one anyway. Not only did the Wilson trade create a chasmic hole on Seattle's roster, but it also set a precedent that will take time to shake.