As the 2021 season wound down, there was a lot of speculation about whether quarterback Russell Wilson and linebacker Bobby Wagner were at the end of their time in Seattle.
When Wilson’s future came up during a Pete Carroll press conference Wednesday, the Seahawks head coach said that the team has no intention of trading him this offseason. Wagner’s outlook was less clear.
The veteran linebacker is set to make a $16.35 million base salary and count $20.35 million under the cap in the final year of his contract. The Seahawks would save $16.6 million of that cap space by parting ways with Wagner and the cap situation is why Carroll said he’s hopeful there’s a way to work out a return for 2022.
“We expect to play with Bobby,” Carroll said, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “We love playing with Bobby. He’s been a great player, another great season. At this time of year, there’s a lot of guys that are in the position where we got to figure out where everybody fits together, and Bobby’s been such a steady part of it. We’d love to be able to play with him, so we’ll work towards that. If we can do that, we’ll do it.”
Seahawks General Manager John Schneider said Wednesday that the team wouldn’t add void years to contracts in order to spread out cap hits, which would leave an extension as the path to lowering Wagner’s cap number while keeping him on the roster. Schneider added that conversations at the Scouting Combine will help give an idea of what the market looks like for Wagner and others as the new league year draws closer.
