The sticky situation the Seahawks are in with LT Duane Brown
Aug 9, 2021, 8:25 PM
Duane Brown, who joined the Seahawks in 2017, is entering his last year under contract. (Getty)
(Getty)
Duane Brown’s desire to be signed to a contract extension by the Seattle Seahawks is no longer sitting on the back burner.
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Some attention was diverted away from the Seahawks’ scrimmage at Lumen Field on Sunday when head coach Pete Carroll told NFL Network reporter Tom Pelissero that Seattle’s veteran left tackle is “making a statement” about his contract situation by sitting out practices during training camp. Brown, 35, is entering the final year of his current deal, carrying a salary cap hit of $13.35 million for 2021.
It’s a sticky situation made just a little more complicated by the facts that not only has Brown been the best protection for quarterback Russell Wilson since he came to Seattle in a trade with the Houston Texans in 2017, but that Wilson said after Sunday’s scrimmage, “We’ve got to figure that out because we need Duane Brown.”
Monday on 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny and Gallant, the likely thinking of both sides was explained when former Seahawks quarterback Jake Heaps joined the show.
Heaps, who now co-hosts 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake and Stacy, thinks Brown holds a lot of power and believes the Seahawks would be best off getting him a new contract even though they’re already preoccupied with trying to sign strong safety Jamal Adams to an extension.
“Do you play this game of chicken with Duane Brown? I can confidently tell you that Duane Brown is not playing games,” Heaps said. “And what I mean by that is I would not be surprised in the least if Duane Brown sits out regular season games because he doesn’t have a contract extension. And if that is the case, if you feel like you are a perennial Super Bowl team, that you have a legitimate shot this year, which I know that they do – Pete Carroll, Russell Wilson, John Schneider, the whole crew, they feel like they have a great chance at this thing – then that is an incredible risk to be taking as an organization to not have this guy playing games for you at left tackle when you do not have a clear exit strategy, and it could potentially cost you games.
“It’s a tough, tough position to be in, and obviously I would lean more on the side of extending Duane Brown, because it’s not just affecting your future, which I don’t think they have a clear exit strategy for, but it’s going to affect you here in 2021, and every game is going to be crucial.”
Danny O’Neil had the flip side of the argument.
“If you’re worried about how Seattle has prepared for a future without Duane Brown, or feel that they don’t have an exit strategy, that makes it even riskier to make that decision right now, though, to extend him,” O’Neil said. “Because this team has seen what it’s like when Marshawn Lynch, Cliff Avril, Michael Bennett and Kam Chancellor have all signed extensions where they never played a down of the new years. They weren’t on the team when those extension years were going to kick in.
“I don’t know what Duane’s asking for here and I don’t know what the team is doing or how receptive they are to (signing Brown to an extension), but I would just say looking at it from the outside, I totally get if the team’s stance is, ‘Hey, we’d prefer to answer this after the season and not right now.’ That seems to me the prudent thing to do.”
You can hear the full conversation, which includes Heaps’ thoughts on why Brown will continue to be a productive player into his late 30s, during the Blue 42 segment of Danny and Gallant in the podcast at this link or in the player below.
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