I'm erring on the side of Bennett being gone.

He's probably the biggest FA out there this year at this point. He did EXACTLY everything he needed to do last year - signed a cheap 1 year deal and turned it into a huge contract somewhere, but I think Pete and John will be happy with Avril and possibly get Clemons to restructure, and then possibly bring in some lesser known FAs, draft someone, or get Hill in he mix, and maybe get Irvin back into the pass rushing fold.

I could be wrong and we get him for a decent deal but I think a lot of teams will be kicking themselves about missing the boat on Bennett/Avril last year and witnessed what he can do and will be ready to write a check, a check that I don't think we can afford.

When he signed, we knew he was betting on himself and we needed pass rush.

Turned out good, now somebody will overpay for him.
I agree, he's as good as gone.

When Ian Rappaport, whom I would assume would only make strong statements if sourced, reported that Bennett will (emphasis his) be signed back by Seattle, my first thought was "franchise tag."

A lot of people seem to think last season was a "prove it" season for our team with Bennett... I tend to believe it was a "come here to play one season we can't afford you in the future, you are a placeholder" kind of deal. I really don't think we expected to be able to keep him beyond one year, and I fully expect we drop him so we can keep our team together for a chance at a dynasty.

I think we let Bennett go to keep Tate, only time will tell.

Tokadub":vbjxyzzk said:

A lot of people seem to think last season was a "prove it" season for our team with Bennett... I tend to believe it was a "come here to play one season we can't afford you in the future, you are a placeholder" kind of deal. I really don't think we expected to be able to keep him beyond one year, and I fully expect we drop him so we can keep our team together for a chance at a dynasty.

I think we let Bennett go to keep Tate, only time will tell.

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More sources point to Bennett being re-signed with us. I think you are letting personal issues with his public stance color you judgment.

I think they'll find a way to re-sign both Tate and Bennett. Pete says John Schneider has a plan to keep this team together and I believe him. Obviously he's talking about the key pieces because they can't keep everyone but I consider Tate and Bennett as part of the core that they intend to keep together.

What is Bennett. Is he a DE or is he a DT? We use him for both positions. Seahawks.com has him listed as an end while NFL.com are calling him a DT.

Here is why I ask

Franchise tag for an DE is 12.6 mil
Franchise tag for a DT is 9.2mil

I imagine he will be classified as a DE. I read something from about him taking 759 snaps total with 275 at DT. That spells DE to me.

He is not going to get the tag at $12.6M.. he had a great season, but by no means is he a Top 5 DE.

Was he signed last year to be just a one year plug in type guy? If they wanted him for more than one year why didn't they give him a contract for more than one year?

oldhawkfan":29y59rg1 said:

Was he signed last year to be just a one year plug in type guy? If they wanted him for more than one year why didn't they give him a contract for more than one year?

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I'm sure no one including the Seahawks was offering the type of annual average salary Bennett wanted to be locked into in a long term contract so he gambled on a 1 year deal during which he hoped to raise his value. It appears that strategy worked out beautifully for him.

Don't get me wrong I'd love to have Bennett on the team but not at the cost of our secondary, or Golden Tate for that matter. I think we can find some guys to rush the passer, maybe not quite as effectively but enough to not break the bank here. After watching the superbowl again last night and seeing clutch catches and wise punt return choices by Tate I think he's going to be too valuable to the team for the price we can re-sign him at.

I like Bennett but seeing how great our secondary is, I think we can still get the job done with a different guy to rush the passer. I realize both units help eachother out to be successful, that's true of any defense, but the way our defense operates, Thomas/Chancellor/Sherman are key. Our defense works because of Thomas' ability to cover the field, and that frees up Kam to worry about the intermediate middle, while sherman shuts down an outside guy. That chemistry to me is much more important than overpaying a pass-rusher that we can find a suitable cheaper replacement for.

Bennett is awesome and I would love to keep him, I just don't see the dollars making sense.

kearly":7ntsbeye said:

When Ian Rappaport, whom I would assume would only make strong statements if sourced, reported that Bennett will (emphasis his) be signed back by Seattle, my first thought was "franchise tag."

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I looked up the DE franchise tag price, and it'd be around 12M a year.

If we can afford that fine, but I'd like to try and get Bennett back for a longer deal with more guaranteed money. That way it's more of a 8-10M per year on a 2-3 year deal, which saves 2-3M in cap space to sign someone else.

rather than break the bank for bennet I'd rather get thomas re-upped and dump whatever extra cap space we can into front-loading that contract and then pay some of the other guys we need to keep. One way or another, sherman and thomas are likely going to have to have inverse-payout contracts to balance eachother out. Not as worried about wilson's contract because we can give him bonus money up front, prorate it, and restructure him ala brees/brady etc.

Suggs, who is 31 and has a more impressive resume than Bennett, just re-upped with the Ravens for 4yrs. It appears like a 2yr, 16M contract.. 11M signing bonus, and 16M guaranteed. 1M salary in year one, and 4M guaranteed in year two.

I see that contract as one to shoot for if I were in Bennett's camp and for the Seahawks, that would be pretty team friendly as well.

Barthawk":32m40dc1 said:

Suggs, who is 31 and has a more impressive resume than Bennett, just re-upped with the Ravens for 4yrs. It appears like a 2yr, 16M contract.. 11M signing bonus, and 16M guaranteed. 1M salary in year one, and 5M guaranteed in year two.

I see that contract as one to shoot for if I were in Bennett's camp and for the Seahawks, that would be pretty team friendly as well.

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I'd take this in a second for Bennett.

I read today that he should have had a surgery on his shoulder and didn't. I read below on NFL.com.

Michael Bennett, Seattle Seahawks, defensive end: If the Seahawks have to cut Chris Clemons to keep Bennett, they should do it. Bennett's shoulder, which held up in 2013, could be one reason Seattle would be comfortable with a one-year deal. Some teams believed Bennett needed to undergo surgery last offseason.

Bennett is the 20th best free agent on the market according to NFL.com.

20th.

http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap200000 ... s-for-2014

they also had him ranked behind guys like kreuger and ellerbe last year and had mike wallace #1 who didn't do much at all, with bennett coming in at 25th so their valuation is already pretty questionable.

Biggest free agent? No way. I think we get a little too insulated in our Seahawks world. There are several "big names" in free agency that will command way more attention than Bennett. Not even sure he's top 10. Greg Hardy, Verner, Jimmy Graham, Byrd, Grimes, Alex Mack, T.J. Ward, Talib, Vontae Davis, Houston to name a few...

He's probably the biggest name at defensive tackle, but not a fit for all schemes. Any team running a pure 3-4 will probably avoid him.

Edit: covered by ENGLISH's link above.

We brought him in to win a super bowl, this year was honestly an all or nothing going in and had we not suffered any injuries throughout the season, We may have been undefeated or only lost once this entire season. We got what we wanted, keeping him would've been easier had we not won a Super Bowl. But between keeping Bennett vs winning our first Super Bowl, lol I'm sure we all know what we'd choose. So we should all think of it as a win-win situation. Thank Bennett for his tremendous contribution towards our SB win, and congratulate him on his big contract elsewhere.