I thought this year would be different.
I really did.
I thought the most unexpected championship in Seattle’s history would mute the heavy sighs and general discontent that occur during the first days of NFL free agency. I thought we’d moved past feeling impatient when the Seahawks play defense while other teams sling fat sacks of cash at players who are good, but not great.
And maybe it has gotten a little better.
I still hear the grumbling, though.
Because while the Seahawks are going to retain cornerback Josh Jobe and receiver Rashid Shaheed, there is some anxiety about how – exactly – the Seahawks plan to restock, specifically at running back.
I’ll ask you to pause the wringing of hands so we can acknowledge a couple things:
The discipline that the Seahawks have shown in free agency is one of the biggest strengths in John Schneider’s 16-year tenure.
One of the biggest mistakes occurred three years ago when Seattle veered from this approach.
So while I don’t think that Seattle has gotten better by losing Kenneth Walker, Coby Bryant and Boye Mafe, I don’t think it was prudent to keep them, either. Not given the money that was thrown at them.
The Chiefs are going to make Walker one of the four highest-paid running backs in the league.
The Bengals are going to pay Mafe more per year than any player on Seattle’s defense who is not named Leonard Williams.
The Bears will pay $13.3 million annually to Bryant, who is the third-best safety on Seattle’s roster.
Good for them, and I mean that with every bit of my heart.
NFL free agency is insane.
Some of this is due to the desperation that losing engenders in the league. Some is due to the specific shape of the NFL economy.
The best pro football players rarely reach the open market. Most often, they sign extensions, which is exactly what Seattle will try to do with cornerback Devon Witherspoon and receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba later this year.
Even if a star doesn’t sign an extension, teams always have the option of applying the franchise tag, which functions like an economic wet blanket.
The result is that it’s usually the good-but-not-great players who reach the open market where a bunch of bad teams fight over the right to pay that guy a top-shelf salary.
This very thing happened in Seattle three years ago.
The Seahawks needed help on the defensive line, so they zeroed in on Dre’Mont Jones from the Denver Broncos. Jones was a former third-round pick who’d totaled 21 sacks in his first four seasons in the league, numbers which are strikingly similar to Mafe’s stats, by the way.
Seattle signed Jones to a three-year deal that totaled $51 million. It was far and away the largest salary Seattle had ever committed to an unrestricted free agent from another team.
Jones played two seasons with the Seahawks, totaled 8.5 sacks and was paid more than $30 million all told before he was released. After splitting last season between the Titans and the Ravens, he just signed a three-year deal with New England for $39.5 million.
History may not repeat itself, but it often rhymes.
Last year, the Minnesota Vikings committed a total of more than $300 million in contracts to a total of 14 players during the first week of free agency. They went 9-7, which was a five-win dropoff from where they’d finished the year before.
You’d think that would scare teams off from this approach. That’s only because you’re assuming that the primary objective is on-field success.
That assumption is actually incorrect, though.
The primary objective for general managers and coaches is to not get fired.
Winning is the single best way to prevent this from happening.
If you don’t win, the next-best thing you can do is convince the owner that you’re trying really, really hard to win and the most obvious way to do that is to spend a boatload of cash in free agency.
Exhibit A of this phenomenon was pointed out Monday by News Tribune reporter Gregg Bell: The Titans agreed to free-agent deals totaling $284 million on the first day teams could negotiate with free agents while the Las Vegas Raiders pledged $282 million
That’s more than half a billion dollars between two teams who went 3-14, tying for the worst record in the league last season.
The Panthers ($164 million) Commanders ($147 million), Colts ($134 million) and Giants ($127 million). Those four teams were a combined 25-43 in 2025.
The Seahawks, meanwhile, pledged $75 million to retain Jobe and Shaheed, and while no one is going to cheer for the deals that the Seahawks didn’t make this week, they really should.
It’s that kind of financial discipline that has kept this team from bottoming out over the past 16 years.
Danny O’Neil was born in Oregon, the son of a logger, but had the good sense to attend college in Washington. He’s covered Seattle sports for 20 years, writing for two newspapers, one glossy magazine and hosting a daily radio show for eight years on KIRO 710 AM. You can subscribe to his free newsletter and find his other work at dannyoneil.com.