What if we don't extend Wilson or Wagner this offseason?

I may be in the minority on this opinion, but I don't see the need to extend both Wilson and Wagner this offseason. In my opinion, the point of extending someone early is to get a better deal than they'd receive on the open market. If we're going to give Wilson the largest NFL contract ever, why rush to do it? We gain nothing from it. He isn't going anywhere either way. We can franchise him next year if necessary. Considering it's Wilson's team and he knows it, I don't think he'll feel so disrespected that he'll refuse to sign if we wait a year.

I think we should only extend one of those two this offseason, wait it out with the other, and keep the franchise tag as an emergency option. The only real danger I can see from not extending them early is a holdout. That's more likely with Wagner IMO, so he would be my choice to extend this offseason. I'm sure Wilson also makes way more than Wagner from endorsements, so Wagner probably needs the money more. There's no way Wilson would hold out and lose valuable time with his offense.

The reason you extend them is two-fold

1) By extending them now, you get the ability to sign them to a more cap friendly contract by giving them a larger signing bonus which they get up front and spread out, while still only paying them a minimal salary. If you wait until their contracts expire you lose this ability and it would cost you millions extra in cap space.

2) You risk the players being peeved at not getting the respect they deserve after playing at such a high level and then seeing what the market has to offer. This creates a bidding war, which in the case of these two, would not end well, especially for our salary cap.


Also, with the franchise tag, you take immediate cap hits and there is no way to structure it positively towards the cap and you lose the respect of the players which the team has earned over the past few years by taking care of their core guys.

That very well could happen.

Right now, the Seahawks have the leverage as a deal now protects the player in the event of some severe injury. In addition, you want to avoid franchise tags on both sides.

Interesting thought, but if you turn it around, I believe Wagner's hit on a Tag would be far less than Wilson's.

Not a bad thought, though, IF the players and agents understand what we're doing and are on-board with it. In many ways, they want to sign early and get the guaranteed cash in their accounts, instead of risking another season where they might have one of those career ending injuries we all try to not talk about. I'm sure that would be another sticking point.

Also, the 'highest ever' contract is more expensive every year. Deals that look ridiculous the day they're signed end up being viewed as bargains after the next batch of free agents gets signed.

jkitsune":2sd9stby said:

Also, the 'highest ever' contract is more expensive every year. Deals that look ridiculous the day they're signed end up being viewed as bargains after the next batch of free agents gets signed.

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Actually this is a huge reason to sign them now. You wait a year, that means more risk to up the anty. There are a LOT of good LBs out there that may be due new contracts in the next year or two. Pay now, show them the love, avoid the risk...there isn't a good reason to NOT pay them now anyway. And bear in mind, this doesn't just erase the last year of their contract, so we won't be paying all that money straight out the gate

The problem with not signing them both now, is whoever we do not sign will get hurt feelings, will hold and will not come back until the team promises not to tag them in which case the leverage is gone, and odds are we loose them. Unless everything is made nice nice before all of this is done. However there is still risk as the price tags will go up, and part of playing nice nice will be a guarantee of being resigned not tagged.

I could see holding off on a Wilson extension if somehow it allowed us to sign a Suh or a Dez and Wilson was on board with the plan. The big risk in not extending a player as early as possible is the chance of new benchmark contracts being signed in the interim. The 2013 QB draft class won't be setting any new benchmarks and the only 2012 QB that might bump the benchmark is Luck. If I were him though, I would hold off until after Wilson's contract so that he can leverage it in his negotiations.

I would resign Wagner as soon as possible. The price tag for top tier linebackers is likely to increase significantly over the next year so it would behoove us to get him under contract before the cost goes up. I also think that Wagner is a lot more likely than Wilson to go out and test the market next year if we don't extend him.

Of course, the benefit of holding off has to be balanced against the drawback of not being able to spread the cap hit over an additional year.

-bsd RPA