Uchenna Nwosu waited, for the Seahawks’ convenience.
He got more up-front cash — and his team got more salary-cap space — for his patience.
The veteran outside linebacker set back by injuries since signing an extension two years ago following a career season has re-worked his contract, as first reported by overthecap.com. He agreed to take a $6.9 million pay cut inside a new two-year deal worth up to a maximum of $19.5 million. His cap charge for 2025 dropped from $21.2 million to $11.8 million.
So Seattle gets $9.4 million back in cap space on Nwosu for this year.
This came after Nwosu’s original $45 million deal had a mid-February trigger date on a $6 million guarantee for 2025. General manager John Schneider said at the NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis late last month that Nwosu had agreed to push back that trigger date while the team negotiated a new contract with the linebacker’s representatives.
Nwosu’s reward for doing all this: He gets $6.98 million in new guaranteed money. That’s a $4 million signing bonus plus a guaranteed base salary of $2.98 million.
The moves add $2 million to the team’s accounting costs (cap hit) for Nwosu in 2026, the final year of his contract. His cap charge for next year is now a non-guaranteed $20 million, meaning the Seahawks will have another decision point on his contract this time next year.
Schneider and the Seahawks began looking at trimming the 28-year-old Nwosu’s cost following two injury-filled seasons. He’s played in just 12 of a possible 34 games since he signed his $45 million extension before the 2023 season. Seattle gave Nwosu that deal after he had a career-high 9 1/2 sacks in his Seahawks debut season of 2022.
Schneider and then-coach Pete Carroll signed Nwosu as a free agent in the spring of ‘22, after his first four NFL seasons with his hometown Los Angeles Chargers.
Schneider confirmed the re-working of Nwosu’s contract for 2025 and ‘26 on Thursday during his weekly talk with the team’s flagship radio station KIRO AM.
Nwosu was the Seahawks’ 2024 nominee for the NFL Walter Payton Man of the Year award, for his work off the field in the communities of Western Washington and Southern California.
“He’s amazing,” Schneider said.
The GM said Nwosu had surgery early this offseason soon after last season ended Jan. 5. Schneider didn’t say what kind on which body part to heal which of his injuries.
Schneider said the team isn’t sure if Nwosu will begin training camp on the physically-unable-to-perform list, and that the timing of his recovery will be “pretty close” to when camp begins in late July. If he’s not on the PUP list to begin camp, it’s possible the team “rides it out” with Nwosu limited into August, Schneider said.
“It’s way too early to tell,” the GM said.
“What we know about ‘Chenna is, he’s still a young man but that guy’s a dog. He’s nasty. He’s a leader. He’s all about the work.
“Like, he’s awesome. He’s great for the defense.”
Nwosu missed the first month of last season after he injured his knee getting cut-blocked by Cleveland’s Wyatt Teller in the final preseason game last August. He returned in early October, in his first game back he tore his quadriceps. He ended up playing six of 17 games, including through a wrist injury.