The Seahawks’ best and worst contract values in 2016

The Seahawks have seven players making at least $10 million a season. According to contract data from Spotrac.com, no other team has more than five such players while 11 teams have two or fewer.

By that measurement, Seattle has by far the most top-heavy pay scale in the NFL, the type of roster construction that makes it that much more important for the Seahawks to get significant contributions from lower-cost players. They need to find value.

Here’s a look at which players gave the Seahawks the best and worst contract value in 2016. It’s not about who played the best or the worst per se, but rather whose play produced the most and least bang for the buck.

Best contract values

DE Frank Clark. The Seahawks were hoping that more playing time would translate to more production from Clark after he recorded three sacks as a rookie in 2015. It did. According to Pro Football Reference, Clark’s 682 snaps were second among Seattle’s defensive linemen as were his 10 sacks. His rookie contract as a second-round pick counted $848,000 against the Seahawks’ 2016 salary cap. Of the 16 NFL players with double-digit sacks last year, Clark’s was the third-lowest cap charge.

CB DeShawn Shead. The Seahawks gave Jeremy Lane a new contract averaging $5.75 million a year over the offseason, but Shead beat him out to be the team’s No. 2 cornerback. He held up quite well while seeing plenty of action opposite Richard Sherman, leading Seattle’s defense with 14 passes defensed and ranking fourth in tackles with 81. He was also fourth in defensive snaps with 919 despite missing a game. Shead played on a one-year, $760,000 deal as an exclusive-rights free agent, and it only counted $600,000 against the cap because of what’s called the minimum-salary benefit. That is tremendous value.

C Justin Britt. He finally found a home at center, his third position in as many NFL seasons after starting at right tackle then moving to left guard. Britt was Seattle’s best offensive lineman this season and he was a pretty good value, counting $943,000 against the cap on the third year of his rookie contract as a former second-round pick. That ranked 27th among NFL centers, according to Spotrac.com.

Worst contract values

OL J’Marcus Webb. The Seahawks signed Webb in free agency as a veteran fallback option for their young offensive line. They had to pay a decent amount of money to do so, giving him a two-year, $5.75 million deal with $2.45 million guaranteed. That would have been fine had Webb won a starting job and held onto it. But he missed a significant amount of offseason work with an injury, made only three starts as an injury replacement at right guard and was cut in November.

WR Jermaine Kearse. The Seahawks gave Kearse a three-year, $13.5 million contract last offseason and didn’t get a very productive year out of him in 2016. His receptions (41), yards (511) and touchdowns (one) were all down from his 2015 totals while his targets (90) went up considerably. Kearse was a magnet for offensive-pass-interference penalties and he lost his starting job late in the season, only reclaiming it when Tyler Lockett broke his leg. Kearse counted $2.63 million against the cap.

FS Earl Thomas. To be clear, he’s on this list not because of how he played but because of how he couldn’t play. Save for the season opener when he uncharacteristically struggled, Thomas was his usual, All-Pro self. But he missed one game in November with a pulled hamstring then was lost for the remainder of the season the next week with a broken leg. He ended up playing in nine full games and parts of two others while counting $9.9 million against the cap.