Seahawks Extension Candidates: Who’s most important?

There is still plenty of football to be played between now and the end of the NFL season. But once the offseason begins, the Seattle Seahawks will have some important choices to make.

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Like others across the league, the Seahawks will need to make decisions on which of their players they want to lock down for the long-term. Some of those will be players hitting free agency, and others will be players heading into the final year of their contracts.

During Wednesday’s edition of Seattle Sports’ Bump and Stacy, producer Curtis Rogers asked Yahoo Sports’ Eric Edholm which of the group of quarterback Sam Darnold, defensive tackle Byron Murphy II and newly acquired guard Quenton Nelson will be the most important for the Seahawks to sign to an extension. Darnold and Murphy are signed through 2027, though Seattle can also exercise the fifth-year option on Murphy’s rookie deal for 2028 after this season, and Nelson is a free agent after this season.

“Three difficult positions to compare on even footing, and I think there’s still some unknowns,” Edholm said.

Seahawks extension candidates

While the 30-year-old Nelson hasn’t played a snap for the Seahawks yet, Edholm believes the expectation is he will show he’s worth signing to a new deal.

“We assume he’s going to sort of maintain the level of excellence he has,” Edholm said. “Look, I don’t personally think that he’s as dominating and flawless as he was earlier in his career, but I really have been impressed with what I’ve seen just watching some of the Colts this year – and especially as a run blocker. Maybe that’s a little bit more of a strength right now. So, I think he’s going to have to be a strong option to consider bringing back just because you paid a price for them.

“And especially if he kind of unlocks some stuff in the run game and really brings this group together, it’s going to be hard to say, OK, we’re going to move on and we’ll wait for the compensatory pick in a year and a half.”

With that said, Edholm also believes there is a strong case to extend Murphy, especially when considering how difficult it can be to find players at his position who make the sort of impact he does.

“Byron Murphy obviously is an emerging young talent at a position where there, I think, is a dearth of game changers,” Edholm said. “You just don’t see as many defensive tackles who are problems, and I think Byron Murphy is a problem. He may not every single game have a pass-rush impact on the opponent, but more often than not I feel like he’s one of those guys who causes issues for offensive lines and especially right close to the ball. So, that’s  a hard thing that turn down.”

But when it is all said in done, Edholm believes the importance of the quarterback position is something that can’t be ignored, even if Darnold’s situation is a bit more complicated.

“That would have been an easy decision three months ago. I don’t think anyone would have would have questioned the idea of sort of working to bring him back,” Edholm said. “ But given the interceptions and the struggles and the injury, there’s at least a conversation to be had. Minnesota let him walk out the door after a darn good season. Are they regretting it now? I think so on some level. But it’s a different conversation now that he’s won a Super Bowl in Seattle.

“So, my instinct is that the quarterback significance, the importance of that position, is so much higher than offensive guard or defensive tackle that you kind of have to figure out that decision first and then decide how to handle the other two. But yeah, this is what contenders go through. They’re talented teams with a lot of guys who want to get paid and the confluence all kind of happens at once. So, that’s going to be an interesting crossroads in the offseason.”

Hear the full conversation at this link or in the audio player in this story. Listen to Bump and Stacy weekdays from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. on Seattle Sports or find the podcast on the Seattle Sports app. 

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