This chart shows the Seahawks’ positional spending problem
Former Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll is undoubtedly a future Hall of Famer, as new head coach Mike Macdonald told reporters in his introductory press conference last week. Whether or not Carroll sticks around for his as-yet unnamed advisor role remains to be seen. One thing we do know for sure is that he will no longer be making the team’s personnel decisions. That is now general manager John Schneider’s realm, exclusively.
One thing Carroll often mismanaged over the years was cap spending relative to positional value. This chart from Ben Baldwin shows how distorted the picture is going into the 2024 offseason.
On defense, the greatest and worse expense is at safety. While there’s nothing wrong with fielding a strong safety room, the Seahawks are spending way more than reasonable, especially considering the production they got from Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs in 2023. Both might be cap casualties in the coming weeks, but at the very least we can expect Adams to get cut and Diggs to do a contract restructure.
Offensively, spending big at wide receiver is a good thing in the modern NFL and Seattle’s top three at the position are as strong as any team’s. The real issue on this side of the ball is the relative lack of investment in the offensive line, which was the cheapest unit in the league this year by a significant margin. Ideally, over the coming years the bars on the right side of that graph will grow, but they may need a rookie contract at quarterback in order to make the picture fit.
Given their cap hits, Geno Smith and Dre’Mont Jones are both decent candidates to be traded – but if that’s going to happen it will have to be soon. Both have millions in guaranteed money that will hit the books on Feb. 16.
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