Mar 7, 2022
Brady HendersonESPN
SEATTLE — The Seattle Seahawks should be ready to cut a big check to a pass-rushing outside linebacker such as Von Miller or Chandler Jones when the NFL’s negotiating window begins next Monday.
You read that right.
Normally, splash signings are the stuff of pipe dreams for Seattle fans, who wait restlessly March after March as their team sits out the start of free agency. The Seahawks typically let other teams spend big money early on, instead opting for value buys in the second wave. Most of their marquee additions have come via trades much later in the offseason.
But the dynamics seem a little different this year.
The Seahawks are in good enough shape cap-wise to be players in free agency, especially with roughly a third of the NFL currently sitting in the red or just under the 2022 spending limit. Seattle has around $38 million in available cap space according to Roster Management and would free up more either by moving on from veteran linebacker Bobby Wagner (which would create another hole in their defense) or restructuring his contract to lower his $20.35 million cap number.
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They’ve made no secret about wanting to beef up their pass rush after ranking 29th last season in sacks per dropback; they also finished in the bottom half of the NFL in pressure rate and pass rush win rate. They want outside linebackers — as opposed to bigger 4-3 defensive ends — to play on the edge as they transition to more of a 3-4 structure. And first-year coordinator Clint Hurtt might have dropped a hint as to how far they’ll go to add that type of player when asked last month on Sports Radio 950 KJR-AM what their defense needs.
Hurtt complimented the pieces they already have up front, a group headlined by veteran Carlos Dunlap II and third-year edge…
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