BRADY HENDERSON

Most Intriguing Seahawks: No. 8, DL Michael Bennett

Jul 22, 2017, 9:08 AM

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Seahawks DE Michael Bennett said Colin Kaepernick can't be taken out of conversations with the league. (AP)

(AP)

LISTEN: Most Intriguing Seahawks: No. 8, DL Michael Bennett

During each show until the start of training camp, “Brock and Salk” is counting down the 20 most intriguing players on the Seahawks’ roster. The countdown continued with defensive lineman Michael Bennett. The segment on Bennett is embedded above. Brady Henderson’s thoughts are below.

The intrigue

Michael Bennett might be the best free-agent addition in Seahawks history, particularly when you consider the bang Seattle has gotten for its buck. The Seahawks took advantage of a soft market in 2013 to sign him for one year and $5 million then kept him with another team-friendly deal that averaged a little over $7 million. Since then he’s been Seattle’s best defensive lineman, so versatile and disruptive that the Seahawks gave him a third contract last December, almost two years after Bennett began expressing his desire for a raise. The three-year, $30 million extension Seattle gave Bennett came after he missed five games because of a knee injury that required surgery, which ended his streak of 70 consecutive games played dating back to his final season in Tampa Bay. After keeping himself busy over the offseason with humanitarian work, Bennett is back for his fifth season with the Seahawks, this time without the contract drama hanging overhead.

By the numbers

9th. Where Bennett’s new-money average of $10 million ranks among NFL defensive ends, according to the contract website Spotrac.com. That’s around where Bennett previously said he felt he deserved to be on the positional pay scale. As coach Pete Carroll said after the deal was announced, Bennett didn’t let his displeasure over his previous contract affect his play. “That’s the truth. Mike expressed something quite a while back, so it’s come to this day where we finally have a chance to make a statement about it,” Carroll said. “He’s always done his thing, he’s always done football the way it’s supposed to be done, he’s always been a good team guy, he’s always fought for us just as well as anybody on this team. It’s a good day.”

34. Number of times over the last four seasons that Bennett has been flagged for either offsides, encroachment or neutral-zone infraction, according to this website that tracks NFL penalties. That total includes the postseason and takes into account penalties that were not enforced. As I’ve written before, Bennett’s overeagerness at the line of scrimmage is a trade-off of the lightning-quick get-off that allows him to make so many disruptive plays in the opponent’s backfield. You’ve got to take the bad with the good when it comes to Bennett, and the good far outweighs the bad.

292. Quarterback pressures by Bennett from 2012 to 2015, a four-year stretch in which he didn’t miss a game (that total takes into account the regular season only). That stat comes from Pro Football Focus, which noted that only Houston’s J.J. Watt recorded more pressures than Bennett during that stretch. Bennett recorded 34.5 sacks over those four seasons, which, according to PFF, was 16th-most in the NFL. Bennett is a good example of how sack totals don’t always tell the full story of how much pressure a pass-rusher is generating.

Notable

Last summer, when Bennett was getting into one training-camp scuffle after another, it was easy to assume that his frustrations over his contract situation had something to do with it. Well, Bennett got his new deal last year, and when he reported for mandatory minicamp this offseason after skipping voluntary OTAs, it took all of two plays during a team drill in his first practice for Bennett to lose his cool again. That suggests there’s a decent chance we’ll see more of the same between Bennett and his sparring partners on Seattle’s offensive line during training camp, when the pads come on and the intensity ramps up.

Quotable

Carroll, last December, on Bennett’s versatility and style of play: “He has really special talent and as always, you hear me talking about uniqueness, Mike is a really unique football player. He’s not the biggest or the strongest or the fastest, he’s just a terrific football player. We try to utilize Mike in positions and give him areas and spots in the defense where he can utilize his savvy and that natural feel he has. There’s times Mike takes some chances that sometimes bite us, but the great majority of the time, he’s able to utilize his instincts, the scheme, and then we can play the defense the way we want to, and allow him to be really active. I would think most people that play us are really concerned about Mike, because you’re not quite sure how he’s going to hit it and how he’s going to get in the backfield. Every game, he makes a play in the back defending the running game and he’s always a factor in the pass game. He’s been a great asset to us.”

Most Intriguing Seahawks: No. 20, WR Jermaine Kearse; No. 19, K Blair Walsh; No. 18, S Bradley McDougald; No. 17, RB Thomas Rawls; No. 16, DT Jarran Reed; No. 15, DE Frank Clark; No. 14, WR/KR Tyler Lockett; No. 13, WR Amara Darboh; No. 12, CB C.J. Prosise; No. 11, RT Germain Ifedi; No. 10, S Kam Chancellor; No. 9, TE Jimmy Graham.

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