Defensive tackle Leonard Williams was vacationing in Japan when his agent let him know they had agreed to a three-year, $64.5 million deal for him to return to the Seahawks. Williams jumped on a plane for a nine-hour flight back to Seattle from Tokyo, spent a few hours in town to sign the new deal and celebrate and then jumped on a flight back to Japan to complete his three-week vacation.
“I’m obviously like trying to enjoy my vacation, but I was also in free agency,” Williams said, via Curtis Crabtree of FOX 13. “So it was almost hard to enjoy my vacation because I’m like so involved in like, what’s going on in free agency? Like, what’s going to happen? Like, where am I going to end up? All those things. And then, you know, I’m getting a call from my agents at one point, and they’re thinking that it’s not going to be Seattle, and then they call me back, you know, the next morning or even the same day and they’re like, ‘OK, it might be Seattle.”
Williams, 29, wanted to stay in Seattle even after the Seahawks fired coach Pete Carroll.
“I think I built relationships here,” Williams said. “You know, I was obviously sad about Pete leaving. He was a great coach, a big part of the reason why I made the transition to come to Seattle. He’s a big part of me coming here and we’ve had that USC connection. He was a fun coach to play for. But even outside of the coaching staff, I’ve built relationships in the locker room as well. And, you know, I kind of wanted to continue with that.”
The Seahawks acquired Williams from the Giants last October for a pair of draft picks. He appeared in 10 games with the Seahawks, totaling 41 tackles with four sacks and 11 quarterback hits.
He became the first player in modern NFL history to play 18 regular-season games in a single year.
