JOHN CLAYTON
Clayton: Where Seahawks stand after busy start to Week 1 of 2021 season
Sep 7, 2021, 3:12 PM
Pete Carroll's Seahawks are getting ready for Sunday's season opener against the Colts. (Getty)
(Getty)
Tuesday was extra busy for the Seahawks.
Seahawks notes on roster moves, Brown’s contract
The big news is the new contract for left tackle Duane Brown, who returned to practice Monday.
The Seahawks converted about $7 million of base salary to signing bonus. He didn’t get much more money than the $11-plus million already on the books, but he does get the satisfaction of somewhat of an extra year with an injury protection benefit for 2022.
The Seahawks save about $3.5 million of cap room with the restructure. We’ll see in a day or two how the deal really breaks down.
The next mission for the Seahawks is to get something done with free safety Quandre Diggs. The 2020 Pro Bowler is making $6.2 million, and top safeties are now getting between $14.5 million and $17.5 million a year.
Figuring out a new number won’t be easy but the Seahawks should end up being the first team in the NFL with two $10-plus million safeties. Diggs ended up stopping his hold-in and is back on the practice field.
The Seahawks were busy dealing with their roster on Tuesday, as well. They continue to work on the cornerback position. They signed former New York Jets corner Blessaun Austin and brought John Reid up from the practice squad. They put rookie Tre Brown on injured reserve, which will keep him out at least three weeks. They also put cornerback Nigel Warrior on injured reserve.
It’s no surprise tight end Colby Parkinson ended up on IR, as well. He’s going to be out a couple more weeks with a foot injury. One pleasant surprise is that the Seahawks replaced his roster spot with wide receiver Penny Hart, giving them a fifth wide receiver. Hart had a great training camp and it was surprising to see him cut last week. There was no way Seattle was going to open the season with only four receivers.
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