As the clock struck 3 p.m. Tuesday, marking 30 hours since the beginning of the NFL’S free agent negotiating period, one big question continued to hover over the Seahawks — the status of cornerback Riq Woolen.
Woolen ranked near the top of just about every list of available free agents as the negotiating period opened Monday — he was 34th on NFL.com’s top 100, for instance.
Yet Woolen remained available as Tuesday morning became Tuesday afternoon.
There were just six players rated higher on NFL.com’s list who had yet to agree to a new deal.
Making matters more curious is that there appeared to be little noise surrounding Woolen linking him to other teams. Of course, often there isn’t and suddenly a player agrees to a big deal, the work done quietly behind the scenes.
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It was a generally thought that Woolen might go quickly, as did five other Seahawks who all agreed to new deals on Monday.
Maybe it shouldn’t be a surprise that Woolen would be the last of that group to have his future settled.
Woolen has been one of the more mercurial players in recent Seahawks history, capable of great moments such as his Pro Bowl rookie season in 2022 when he tied for the NFL lead in interceptions; and of confounding ones, like the two passes he gave up late in the season-opening loss to the 49ers or the costly personal-foul taunting penalty he received in the NFC title game against the Rams.
NFL coaches and execs like predictability when deciding how much money to hand a free agent, and Woolen is one of the ultimate wild cards on the market.
Woolen had to accept a demotion in his role early in the 2025 season to split time with Josh Jobe in the base defense and at times playing only in three-cornerback sets.
There were moments of greatness — he allowed the third-lowest passer rating on “deep targets” this season, according to Next Gen Stats, at 16.3 behind only Patrick Surtain of Denver and Jobe.
Woolen also allowed the third-fewest yards per target at 5.0.
Pro Football Focus rated Woolen as the third-best cornerback available behind two players who have already agreed to big deals — Jamel Dean, who agreed to a three-year, $36.75 million contract with the Steelers; and Jaylen Watson, who agreed to a three-year deal worth up to $51 million with the Rams.
Woolen surely wants something similar if not more than those two. PFF calculated a three-year contract worth up to $45 million with $30 million guaranteed for Woolen.
Wrote PFF: “Woolen’s time in Seattle has blended high-end ball production with uneven week-to-week play, including penalty issues and late-season role fluctuation in 2024. He has consistently found the football since entering the league, allowing a 76.3 passer rating into his coverage while producing eight interceptions and 20 pass breakups, ranking in the 93rd percentile in forced incompletions. That playmaking has been steady year over year, as Woolen surrendered only three touchdowns in 2025 on 601 coverage snaps and has recorded at least eight pass breakups in every season of his career.”
The longer Woolen remains available, the more people may wonder if there’s a chance he could return to Seattle.
That seems unlikely if only because for months it has seemed that the Seahawks were preparing to move on from Woolen at year’s end. They were even willing to do so in the fall when they let the rest of the NFL know that he could be had in a trade.
It wouldn’t be the strangest thing the Seahawks have ever done if he were to return.
Coach Mike Macdonald and general manager John Schneider have praised the way Woolen handled his demotion and rough start to the season.
“I thought Riq, you know, the first game, little shaky for him,” Schneider said two weeks ago at the NFL combine. “And then I thought he responded. I thought he did a really nice job of, you know, working through everything.”
Schneider said he thought Woolen took well to the advice of coaches and veteran players during that time, specifically citing the mentorship of Quandre Diggs and Shaquill Griffin.
“I thought he (had) a really nice season, really good season,” Schneider said.
The re-signing of Jobe to a three-year deal worth up to $24 million — he officially signed his contract on Tuesday afternoon — seemed to hint even more strongly that Woolen won’t return and that the Seahawks could add a cornerback in the draft to fill out depth.
For now, the larger question is how long will Woolen’s wait to find out his future home last, be that in Seattle or elsewhere.
Bob Condotta: bcondotta@seattletimes.com. Bob Condotta is a sports reporter at The Seattle Times who primarily covers the Seahawks but also dabbles in other sports. He has worked at The Times since 2002, reporting on University of Washington Husky football and basketball for his first 10 years at the paper before switching to the Seahawks in 2013.