How Seahawks are approaching salary cap situation

The Seattle Seahawks’ front office has plenty of work to do this offseason to try and free up salary cap space.

The Seahawks entered the offseason with the third-worst salary cap situation and were projected to be well over the 2025 salary cap, according to OverTheCap.

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Seattle already took a major step in clearing up cap space earlier this month when it restructured the contract of standout defensive lineman Leonard Williams, which reportedly saved the team roughly $16.7 million against the cap in 2025. But there’s still work to do. The franchise now sits roughly $13.5 million over the cap, the fourth-worst mark in the league.

With the Seahawks’ cap situation in mind, Wyman and Bob co-host Bob Stelton asked president of football operations and general manager John Schneider how the team is approaching it.

Schneider said he’s been working closely with vice president of football administration Joey Laine and salary cap analyst Joey Schneider to work out a plan.

“All three of us really work together on trying to map out what the landscape is going to look,” John Schneider said during Seattle Sports’ John Schneider Show. “So we have a big screen (with categories) by position, what everybody’s contracts look like. It’s basically a huge puzzle, and then whatever you’re going to do at what position is going to affect another position on the team.”

The goal is to get the team in a situation where it’s not just within the salary cap restraints, but one where it can actively seek to add pieces up to next season’s trade deadline.

“We want to be able to have enough room and enough cash to be able to do the things we want to do to be able to address whatever is going on, what we perceive as a deficiency as we get closer to the trade deadline,” Schneider said. “… You’re constantly moving these pieces around trying to figure out what you can do with a certain contract, or is this guy a trade candidate or is he going to be a cap casualty.

“Unfortunately, we’ve talked about this every year, you have to make these tough decisions to keep moving forward.”

Who are the priorities?

While the Seahawks sit in an unfavorable cap situation, they do have plenty of options to remedy the problem. Two of those are signing quarterback Geno Smith and wide receiver DK Metcalf to contract extensions, which would afford the team an opportunity to move some of each players’ 2025 cap hits to other seasons.

Stelton asked if there is an order of priority when it comes to working out new deals with players, whether it’s extensions with Smith and Metcalf or restructures with other players.

“Yes, there is,” Schneider said. “That I can’t share with you. It’s like asking the offensive coordinator what the first 15 (plays) of the script is. Yeah, there’s definitely a priority, and you work that out through the early stages of free agency.”

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Schneider did mention that the team hopes to bring back linebacker Ernest Jones IV after his arrival via trade helped the defense’s midseason turnaround. Jones is set to be a free agent when the new league year starts March 12.

“Obviously we want Ernest back,” he said. “We’ve talked to his guys. We’ve had great, great communication with him and we’re hoping we’re able to accomplish that.”

Catch a new John Schneider Show at 4 p.m. each Thursday leading up to the 2025 NFL Draft during Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. Hear the season premiere in the podcast at this link, or in the video and audio players near the top of this post.

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