How would you rank this offseasons FA priorities?

Players that are eligible for contract extensions count (Thomas, Sherman, etc). As do players that are likely to be released (Rice, Miller, etc). You can name as many as you want, I'm just naming ten.

Mine:

1. Thomas
2. Bennett
3. Sherman
4. Tate
5. Giacomini
6. McDonald
7. McDaniel
8. Baldwin (RFA)
9. Schofield
10. Hauschka

Bennett may price himself off the team. If we can't re-sign Bennett then the number one defensive priority is to find his replacement, either via draft or free agency. They need to give Baldwin a first round tender and try to get Hauschka signed. Sherman will wait until next year when he'll walk so this year it will be important to identify his replacement. They should seriously consider extending Maxwell. Hill, Smith or Brooks may already be identified as McDonald's replacement but I would say the DL is going to need some attention. It would be nice to extend Thomas.

1. Thomas
2. Bennett
3. Sherman
4. Baldwin (RFA)
5. McDonald
6. McDaniel
7. Tate
8. Giacomini
9. Schofield
10. Hauschka

1. Re-Sign Bennett
2. Extend Thomas (5 years, 45 million, no current cap loss to the team)
3. Extend Okung (similar to the one above will save us about 4 million salary cap)
4. Extend Sherman
5. Release Rice
6. RFA Baldwin
7. Re-sign Tate
8. Re-sign Schofield
9. Re-Sign Hauschka
10. Re-sign McDaniel

I think the veteran offensive linemen are gone. I chose McDaniel over McDonald because I believe Hill and Scruggs can do what McDonald can do, and are younger and cheaper options.

It may seem weird, but extending Okung is key to me because it not only locks down our LT, but frees up significant cap space because he is plpaying on the end of the last of the big rookie contracts.

From an organizational standpoint, I think it's important to re-up your homegrown All-Pros. I also think it's important to pay them near market value (assuming it doesn't destroy your cap).

Last year, PC/JS said extending Kam was their top priority (even over getting Harvin). I believe them, and I don't think this was just lip service. People were also surprised he got a market value contract. But there's a reason for this. Rewarding your top homegrown talent creates an important model for the other young players to follow: if you bust your butt and become the best at your position, you'll be rewarded handsomely. This is especially important for a team that relies on maximizing the development of late round picks, and I believe this is a big part of Pete's philosophy. Therefore, I think their top priority heading into this off-season is extending Sherman and Thomas, and I bet Pete talks a bunch about the positive impact of this on their organization at their joint press conference.

I think Bennett is a nice-to-have. I certainly hope they can work it out with him, but I sort of feel like the team could probably keep finding bargain pass rushers on short-term deals year-after-year. Rememeber, there was no market for Avril, Bennett, Abraham and Osi last year. Would your rather committ to Bennett for $8+ million or get someone like Jared Allen for $4-5?

Is Jared Allen really going to go from 17 M/yr cap hit to 4-5M contract?

1 - Bennett
2 - Tate
3 - Thomas
4 - Sherman
5 - Okung (extension)
6 - Miller ( renegotiate)
7 - Clemons (renegotiate)
8 - Rice (cut/renegotiate)
9 - Baldwin (3 yr deal)
10 - Bryant (renegotiate)
11 - Breno (let walk if you are confident you have a starting RT on the squad)
12 - Schofield (3 yr deal if you have to let Clemons walk)
13 - Avril (extend last year of the deal to a 3-5 yr deal, current last year of the deal is designed to motivate a redo of the contract - 10M cap hit I believe).

I'm not sure if we'll be doing many extensions since we can keep our team together much easier by delaying that till next year. If we extend Sherman and Thomas right now I don't think we could keep Tate or Bennett.

I think we'll try to keep the team together this year for a Super Bowl repeat and then next off season is when things are gonna get real scary. It would be nice to lock up Sherman and Thomas this year for ease of mind I just can't figure out how it would be possible if our main goal is to keep the team together this season. I'm not an expert whatsoever in the business contract stuff in the NFL so this is all just speculation.

I think I'm one of the only people who sees keeping Tate as the number one priority. I think we could more easily replace Bennett with someone at least comparable. Of course I hope we keep them both though.

I think we will keep the Wilson, Sherman, Thomas money problems saved for next off-season and we must pay guys this year in preparation for that unless they just a one season deal. Also waiting another season when possible before spending big bucks is probably wise for potential injuries.

Thomas would cost us nothing to extend. Literally. We could easily do a top level contract without costing us a penny in 2014.

The rest is easier than you'd think. Really the only key player we'd probably HAVE to lose from 2013 is Breno Giacomini.

Cut Rice . . . save about 7 million. Dude hardly even plays. We won't miss him.

Extend Okung and save about 4 million. You've just added 11 million without touching Clemons, Miller or Bryant.

Extend Earl at a zero sum. Still sitting at about 20 million cap.

Tender Baldwin for around 2 million. Still have 18 million to extend sign Tate and Bennett and extend Sherman and add whatever pieces are needed (less than you think with 2nd year progress from Willson, Bailey and Bowie, impact from redshirt rookies Hill, Williams and Simon, and another rookie class).

drdiags":1g59v1ec said:

Is Jared Allen really going to go from 17 M/yr cap hit to 4-5M contract?

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Not sure, but he's already made a ton of money and has spoken about his desire to get a ring. If not Allen, I'm sure there are other like-minded pass rushers who would come for relatively cheap like Avril/Bennett did last year.

Allen told USA Today: "If I continue to play, you want to try to win a championship at some point. Personal accolades can only go so far.

"I don't want to be chasing the ring. I want to earn the ring. I want to be somewhere, and obviously, you've got to have parts in place and you've got to be contenders."

Tokadub":2w7ncuwe said:

I'm not sure if we'll be doing many extensions since we can keep our team together much easier by delaying that till next year. If we extend Sherman and Thomas right now I don't think we could keep Tate or Bennett.

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Extensions almost always come with a low Year-1 cap hit. ET's cap hit will stay the same; Sherm's might cost you an extra $3.5m. Tate is gone IMO. We'll see with Bennett.

DavidSeven":2zc76hjh said:

Tokadub":2zc76hjh said:

I'm not sure if we'll be doing many extensions since we can keep our team together much easier by delaying that till next year. If we extend Sherman and Thomas right now I don't think we could keep Tate or Bennett.

Click to expand...

Extensions almost always come with a low Year-1 cap hit. ET's cap hit will stay the same; Sherm's might cost you an extra $3.5m. Tate is gone IMO. We'll see with Bennett.

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Possible Earl Extension . . . simplified but proper . . .

5 years, 45 million total with a 10 million bonus . . .

Year 1 . . . 2 million salary, 4 million cap hit
Year 2 . . . 4 million salary, 6 million cap hit
Year 3 . . . 7 million salary, 9 million cap hit
Year 4 . . . 10 million salary, 12 million cap hit
Year 5 . . . 12 million salary, 14 million cap hit

1. Thomas
2. Bennett

Not going any farther as it's dangerous to have an opinion atm.

drdiags":33z83sz7 said:

Is Jared Allen really going to go from 17 M/yr cap hit to 4-5M contract?

1 - Bennett
2 - Tate
3 - Thomas
4 - Sherman
5 - Okung (extension)
6 - Miller ( renegotiate)
7 - Clemons (renegotiate)
8 - Rice (cut/renegotiate)
9 - Baldwin (3 yr deal)
10 - Bryant (renegotiate)
11 - Breno (let walk if you are confident you have a starting RT on the squad)
12 - Schofield (3 yr deal if you have to let Clemons walk)
13 - Avril (extend last year of the deal to a 3-5 yr deal, current last year of the deal is designed to motivate a redo of the contract - 10M cap hit I believe).

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I like this list. Prioritize the guys who are UFA's and the extensions next because those can wait til April or May. However, I wouldn't renegotiate with Clemons, Rice, Miller or Bryant. Those are cuts to me otherwise you won't be able to afford extensions for both Thomas and Sherman. First year cap hits are low due to signing bonuses but still you'll have to offset those two contracts in opposite years to be able to absorb the cap hits on a yearly basis.

1. Bennett. Do what it takes, he is the perfect scheme fit and even if some veterans get cut, an all time great D remains intact with him back.
2. Thomas. Perfect time to extend the leader and tone setter for the defense.
3. Sherman. Just get this done if possible. He's earned it, I'd rather not see him get pissed if Thomas gets extended and he doesn't. Homegrown All pro.
4. Giacomini. I think he was our best O lineman last year. I'd love to retain him if possible.
5. McDaniel. Underrated starter on an all time great D.
6. Baldwin. RFA so thats easy. Gotta keep him.
7. Tate. Only if the price is right. If the Jets or someone else wants to give him more than $5 mil annually, let him go.
8. McDonald. Good player if the price is right.
9. Okung. Don't think he's elite or durable enough to warrant top LT money, but if you can lower his cap hit with an extension that sounds good.

Cuts: Rice, Clemons, Bryant. Cut if necessary: Miller
Bring back any of those guys on lesser deals if the market isn't good for them and if they want to come back.

Yeah you may want to let Tate test the market and once he gets a luke warm response, let him come back, take 15% off the top and done.

1) Bennett
2) Thomas
3) Baldwin (Tate makes more plays but Baldwin is way more clutch)
4) Okung (haven't really thought about it recently but it makes tons of sense to do an extension, save some bucks and lock up LT for awhile at a reasonable cost)
5) Sherman (only so far down because I just don't know how it's gonna go. I don't know if we can pay him top CB in the league, gonna be interesting to see what happens here)
6) Hauschka (kickers are cheap, might as well stick with what has worked)

And that's it. Everyone else (Tate, Breno, Mcdaniel) all will likely get more money from another team and I think the team is comfortable with the young guys we got on the o-line and d-line.

I wonder if it's possible to convert Miller's salary to a signing bonus and add some years on his deal as well (something like 3 yrs/$9M). I feel like this could bring his cap number down to a pretty reasonable number.

Looking at Okung's deal, he has two years left. He has a big cap number this year, but we can absorb it. It drops to around $7M in 2015, which is pretty reasonable for your LT. In 2016, he can sign a new deal with a low Year 1 cap hit, which will be helpful since we'll be paying Wilson and others a lot that year. Might make sense to wait.

I like the thought on Okung above. He's structured under the old CBA contract so it's already huge. If you restructure, you pay a big signing bonus which is averaged over the life of the contract and the base salary is low the first year. They'll need to shuffle around Sherm/Thomas/Okung/Wilson on different years for their big cap hits to take effect to avoid having to gut the team.

Okung is 8.4m in 2014 but we can afford it this year with a Thomas and possibly Sherman extension having low first year cap hits. Okung in 2015 is 4.5m but we probably extend him next off season to avoid UFA. Wilson as well.

So while Thomas/Sherman will be cheap in 2014 cap wise with extensions and more expensive in 2015, Okung and Wilson will be extended in 2015 so they'll be cheap then to allow the bigger hits from Thomas/Sherm but then starting in 2016 it really starts to get ugly unless you backload these contracts.

Still, that's two more years at a SB level and in the free agency era, I'll take a 3 year high level run anyday.

First, we have to keep our run stuffing ability in tact, whether that means keeping existing players, drafting or signing free agents. If teams can run on us and get into 2nd and short or 3rd and short situations, that minimizes the power of the Boom. Third and long is where we like it.

Second, we need to keep our pass rush. I just don’t think we can afford to keep Bennett. We saw what happened against the Lions and Falcons last year when we didn’t have any interior pass rush to collapse the pocket.

Third is o-line. Playing in the NFC Best, teams will get after RW.

That’s how I would prioritize for a rePete next year.

1. Bennett - Unlike Earl.. he can leave this year
2. Thomas - The catalyst on D
3. Sherman - Would prefer to knock this out now and keep him happy
4. Giacomini - Has improved a ton over the last two years, fits this scheme and just screams "Pete Carroll player".. used to hate Breno, now I love the guy
5. Baldwin (RFA) - Given the choice between Tate and Baldwin, I think Baldwin is much more important in retaining than Tate.
6. McDonald - Would like to keep him but I see him getting a Jason Jones type offer on the market
7. Hauschka - Kickers are largely under-appreciated but Hauschka has been one of the steadiest kickers in football during his time as a Seahawk
8. Tate - Look I love Golden and if he comes back.. thats awesome.. I just don't think he's as pressing a need to pay this offseason, given the draft being flooded with WR's that are comparable to his skillset. Again if he's affordable then by all means sign him, otherwise utilize that cash on keeping Sherman/Thomas here for the next 6 years.
9. McDaniel - Kind of a luxury.. unsure of his market at this point but with Jordan Hill waiting in the wings, and probable draft picks/UDFA .. I don't think he'd be a huge loss.
10. Schofield - Just like McDaniel. I like the guy.. but think Mayowa would be the same player.