Our Offseason Free Agent Budget?

[JayhawkMike]

Just curious of how much you think we have to spend. I know we are only guessing based on who gets cut.

I know we need a lot of upgrades and I keep seeing how we need to sign Player X but what’s the likely budget?

 

[Seahawk_Dan]

Gonna need to cut some fat if Seattle wants to do anything in FA. Also, Macdonald being from Baltimore, they’re not typically big spenders in FA but that being said it’s up to Schneider.

 

[renofox]

I've done a lot of armchair GM'ing and my best guess is the Seahawks will have ~45M and 7 draft picks to acquire ~8 starters and ~8 key contributors (rotation and depth).

They'll also need to upgrade their other depth in key areas, especially OL and ILB since they currently have nothing there.

They can gain more 2024 cap with a few restructures, but the 2025 cap situation is even worse than the 2024. I hope they change strategies and quit pushing so much cap forward. 2024 will tell us a lot about who was responsible for borrowing so much cap from future years - I hope it was PC, and that JS goes to work immediately on digging out of the cap hole.

 

[SeaWolv]

Guy came up with $21 million in cap space restructuring some deals. Resigns Williams Brooks and Lewis, lets Fant and Wags walk, cuts Diggs and signs Frankie Luvu.

 

[Seahawker]

We need to take our medicine in 24' & 25' and stop pushing the cap into the future. This will take some deep cuts and no one is exempt from kicker to QB. JS is going to need into hyper roster churn mode, find some reasonably priced FA's and snag a couple of promising UDFA's.
If they fix the interior O-line and front seven D early it should give us a running start.

 

[OneLofaTatupu]

I’m hoping we do what every other successful team has done and grow our own superstars and then keep some (rare) and let the rest walk - get overpaid somewhere else which causes other teams to suffer, while we continue to draft and develop draft and develop draft and develop.

 

[SeaWolv]

We need to take our medicine in 24' & 25' and stop pushing the cap into the future. This will take some deep cuts and no one is exempt from kicker to QB. JS is going to need into hyper roster churn mode, find some reasonably priced FA's and snag a couple of promising UDFA's.
If they fix the interior O-line and front seven D early it should give us a running start.

You're right, we're clearly going to need to restructure some deals and some of the current roster isn't going to fit future plans and will walk. This is all part of the process of getting the cap back into shape. First we need to use the freed up cap to retain the players we need that are affordable. We may find we have a little cap space for one FA piece MM need's for the future and then draft the rest. There won't likely be any FA splashing anytime soon.

 

[sutz]

We need to take our medicine in 24' & 25' and stop pushing the cap into the future. This will take some deep cuts and no one is exempt from kicker to QB. JS is going to need into hyper roster churn mode, find some reasonably priced FA's and snag a couple of promising UDFA's.
If they fix the interior O-line and front seven D early it should give us a running start.

Yeah, probably a major purge in the offing this season. Still a few guys I think should be priority keeps, like Spoon and Williams (IMO) on D. Spoon is on his rookie deal, so not a big concern to keep. Several more on offense, though to be honest we have some promising offensive talent on rookie deals that should definitely be in our plans going forward.

 

[SoulfishHawk]

I hope they actually use Kenny McIntosh next season. Kid is one hell of a player.

 

[CallMeADawg]

I hope they actually use Kenny McIntosh next season. Kid is one hell of a player.

Seriously agree!

 

[renofox]

Paying big FA contracts when you aren't close to competing at a playoff level is a silly strategy. High $ FAs are there to put you over the top once you get close.

Clean up the cap so you're ready to spend in 2-4 years once you have a solid roster with depth.

Geno 25, DK 25, Lockett 25, Williams 20, Diggs 20, Jones 17, ILB 15 that's 150 of a 245 cap. There's about 100 of dead money in each of 2024 and 2025 already.

That's 7 slightly above average players taking 3/5 of your cap with the other 2/5 taken by dead money. JUST PUSH IT FORWARD! Keep digging the hole deeper so that the hole we're in now looks like a divot compared to the Grand Canyon we'll eventually create. Brilliant.

 

[SeaWolv]

I hope they actually use Kenny McIntosh next season. Kid is one hell of a player.

I'm excited to see Mike Morris get some reps and beast out like my PFP.

 

[Glasgow Seahawk]

Guessing they will either restructure or cut Lockett. With JSN now there and a new coach that decision may be easier to do.

 

[SeaWolv]

Paying big FA contracts when you aren't close to competing at a playoff level is a silly strategy. High $ FAs are there to put you over the top once you get close.

Clean up the cap so you're ready to spend in 2-4 years once you have a solid roster with depth.

Geno 25, DK 25, Lockett 25, Williams 20, Diggs 20, Jones 17, ILB 15 that's 150 of a 245 cap. There's about 100 of dead money in each of 2024 and 2025 already.

That's 7 slightly above average players taking 3/5 of your cap with the other 2/5 taken by dead money. JUST PUSH IT FORWARD! Keep digging the hole deeper so that the hole we're in now looks like a divot compared to the Grand Canyon we'll eventually create. Brilliant.

There's going to be some pain over the next few years. They'll have to dump most of these bad contracts. They may not even be able to pay our good players what they deserve. We're going to lose some guys. But through draft and and a few savvy pickups in FA they can replace what was lost and get out of cap hell. The salary cap is going from $224.8M in 2023 to $240M+ in 2024 and ~$260M in 2025, that helps us dig out of our cap situation a little faster as well.

 

[Hawknight]

Man, I don't know about all the FA contracts and all and how it's structured here in the NFL. But man, I thought after we cut Wilson alot of this stuff would have improved tremendously.

 

[renofox]

Man, I don't know about all the FA contracts and all and how it's structured here in the NFL. But man, I thought after we cut Wilson alot of this stuff would have improved tremendously.

The cap mismanagement continued. It was never really bad in any single year, but every year they kept pushing just a little more forward (borrowing from the future).

In 2023, they restructured every high $ contract on the books, pushing all of that money into 2024 and 2025, just to have enough for 1 high $ free agent (Jones) who, as usual, vastly underperformed his contract. They also splurged a future 2nd and 5th on a half-year rental. They did this while also having massive extra draft capital for 2 seasons and 3 players from that trade.

The Seahawks squandered the RW trade capital, the free players, and a significant portion of their future cap to give us a couple of mediocre teams.

The cumulative effect of pushing 'just a little more' into the future for the past 5 years has the 2024 cap in a very bad space, and the 2025 cap even worse. If they do the same thing in 2024 and push into 2025 like they've been doing, we'll start 2025 $20M+ in the hole with only 30 rostered players. 2024 was a bad enough start with 40 rostered and -0- cap space.

 

[Jerhawk]

We need to take our medicine in 24' & 25' and stop pushing the cap into the future. This will take some deep cuts and no one is exempt from kicker to QB. JS is going to need into hyper roster churn mode, find some reasonably priced FA's and snag a couple of promising UDFA's.
If they fix the interior O-line and front seven D early it should give us a running start.

Yes!!! This is the best post I've read on here in a long time. Completely agree.

It's frustrating when people attribute this mindset to "tanking." They need to push the reset button and they should've done it 3 seasons ago. They kept borrowing from the future to keep Carroll happy or whatever the case may be. In the NFL, you need to reset and rebuild every now and then. It's like a roller coaster, or ocean waves. If you take your lumps for 1-2 seasons and do it RIGHT, you can set the team up for a good 5-6 year competitive window.

 

[renofox]

Yes!!! This is the best post I've read on here in a long time. Completely agree.

It's frustrating when people attribute this mindset to "tanking." They need to push the reset button and they should've done it 3 seasons ago. They kept borrowing from the future to keep Carroll happy or whatever the case may be. In the NFL, you need to reset and rebuild every now and then. It's like a roller coaster, or ocean waves. If you take your lumps for 1-2 seasons and do it RIGHT, you can set the team up for a good 5-6 year competitive window.

Exactly. The whole 'retool, don't rebuild' philosophy leads to constant mediocrity.

START THE REBUILD! TRIM THE FAT!

 

[SNDavidson]

There's going to be some pain over the next few years. They'll have to dump most of these bad contracts. They may not even be able to pay our good players what they deserve. We're going to lose some guys. But through draft and and a few savvy pickups in FA they can replace what was lost and get out of cap hell. The salary cap is going from $224.8M in 2023 to $240M+ in 2024 and ~$260M in 2025, that helps us dig out of our cap situation a little faster as well.

This is essentially my argument for cutting or trading Geno and putting it right into the lines

 

[SeaWolv]

This is essentially my argument for cutting or trading Geno and putting it right into the lines

Not sure I'm down with that plan. Geno is an above average QB that will not be easy to replace. So you either have to spend draft capital getting a high enough pick for a franchise QB now or if not an option this year you roll with Lock. If Lock has a good year you'll be right back to paying Geno money or having to draft a QB that will then be forced into an immediate starting role that may or may not be best for their development.

I'd rather keep Geno, which buys time to find that franchise QB and possibly gives them time to develop before carrying the weight of having to win at the NFL level. While at the same time finding your pieces for the OL and the D.