TOP STORIES
Contract Watch
Witherspoon’s Extension Isn’t Close. That’s Not the Same as Trouble.
The Seahawks are back on the field today for another OTA session, and the most important player in the building still doesn’t have a new deal. Seattle made Devon Witherspoon an initial offer several weeks ago, per ESPN’s Brady Henderson, and the two sides do not appear to be close to an agreement.
Take a breath. This is the normal kind of stuck, not the scary kind. Henderson reports that the Seahawks routinely finalize veteran extensions right around the start of training camp, which is still two months away. Witherspoon has two years left on his rookie deal after the fifth-year option was exercised. Nobody is missing anything. Nobody is holding out. He’s been at the voluntary program smiling in team photos like a man who knows the money is coming.
Compare it to the JSN deal and the difference jumps out. Jaxon Smith-Njigba’s four-year, $168.6 million extension broke before anyone even reported the two sides were talking. It was fast, clean, and drama-free. Witherspoon’s is the other kind. Two parties who know each other’s cards, neither wanting to blink first.
“
JSN’s record deal broke before anyone reported they were talking. Witherspoon’s is the kind where everyone knows the cards and nobody wants to show them first.
And there’s a complication with a zip code in New England. Witherspoon shares an agency with Patriots cornerback Christian Gonzalez, also a 2023 first-rounder, also up for an extension. Whoever signs first sets the floor the other one leaps over. So both teams are sitting in a staring contest, waiting for the other to define the market. Trent McDuffie’s four-year, $124 million deal in Los Angeles is the current watermark, and Witherspoon’s camp would very much like to clear it.
$124M
Trent McDuffie’s four-year deal with the Rams is the top of the corner market and the number Witherspoon’s camp wants to beat.
This is the part where I tell you not to read tea leaves that aren’t there. Slow is not the same as broken. The Seahawks have done this dance with Witherspoon before, all the way back to his rookie holdout that lasted into training camp. The precedent says it gets done. The calendar says it gets done in July. Everything else is just two months of people being confidently nervous on your behalf.
SOURCES →
Roster
It’s June 1. Somewhere a Backup Guard’s Phone Is About to Buzz.
Keep Reading ↓
Haynes is entering year three of a four-year rookie deal and has been, per the writeup, one of the more disappointing returns on a draft pick when given snaps. Cutting him after June 1 would save Seattle roughly $1.3 million this year while leaving a dead-cap hit of about $260,000. That’s not a roster-altering move. It’s the kind of small bookkeeping nudge a deep, healthy champion can afford to consider while the stars eat.
$1.3M
Estimated 2026 cap savings if Seattle moves on from guard Christian Haynes after June 1, per SI on Seahawks.
The bigger point: the Seahawks are running it forward from a position of comfort. This is a team with the smallest list of real problems in the league poking at the margins of its bench, not scrambling to patch holes. When your June 1 drama is a third-string interior lineman’s cap number, you’ve had a pretty good offseason.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Macdonald gave the 2026 team a motto and it isn’t “run it back.” It’s “run it forward”, because reminiscing about a Super Bowl is exactly how you end up not winning the next one. The man coached one championship and immediately started worrying about the second. That energy is the whole point. KOMO News
The best news of OTAs week belonged to Tory Horton, whose recovery got feedback that could accelerate the timeline. “He deserves some good news,” Macdonald said. The kid scored six touchdowns in eight games before a shin injury ended his rookie year. A healthy Horton next to Shaheed and JSN is genuinely unfair. Field Gulls
Seattle released veteran running back Cam Akers on Monday, four-plus weeks after drafting Jadarian Price in the first round. The backfield math did the talking. When you spend a first-rounder on a runner, the veteran depth chart tends to get shorter in a hurry. Seahawks.com
Byron Murphy II got named by PFF as one of 10 players with a strong shot at a first All-Pro nod in 2026. The third-year tackle anchored the league’s best interior front last season and is somehow still considered an upside bet. Quarterbacks in this division should consider that a threat, not a projection. Yardbarker
Budget-conscious 12s, set an alarm. The Seahawks’ batch of at-or-below-league-average single-game tickets goes on sale tomorrow, Tuesday, June 2 at 10 a.m. For a team raising a banner against the Patriots on opening night, “affordable” and “Lumen Field” don’t usually appear in the same sentence. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
While Seattle worries about a backup guard’s cap hit, the Rams have a more existential line item. Owner Stan Kroenke is reportedly seeking more than $400 million in reimbursement from the city of Inglewood over Hollywood Park improvements, which has Los Angeles media openly wondering whether Kroenke could move the franchise again. The man relocated this team from St. Louis, built a $5 billion stadium, and is now apparently invoicing the neighbors. Puka Nacua is back at OTAs playing for about a million dollars while his owner haggles over nine figures. Priorities.
NINERS
San Francisco’s offseason injury ward stayed open: Isaac Guerendo tore a pectoral muscle lifting weights and joins Nick Bosa (ACL) and George Kittle (Achilles) on the mend, with Trent Williams still doing his annual disappearing act from voluntary work. The 49ers haven’t even put pads on and they’re already nursing a list. Nothing says “all-in window” like a training room that needs a waiting list.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Which undrafted quarterback held the Seahawks’ all-time franchise record for passing touchdowns until Russell Wilson eventually broke it, and what now-defunct college did he come from?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Dave Krieg, who went undrafted out of Milton College, a tiny Wisconsin school that closed its doors in 1982, the same era he was launching a 19-year NFL career. He threw for franchise records that stood for decades before Wilson passed him.
THE GOLDEN EGG
🏆
The Golden Egg goes to the guy who anchors the best interior defensive line in football and somehow still gets called an upside play. PFF this week named Byron Murphy II one of 10 players most likely to earn a first All-Pro selection in 2026, which is a polite way of saying everyone expects him to be even better than he already is.
Murphy had a year full of big moments on and off the field, and at OTAs he was the one preaching the “run it forward” gospel loudest, telling reporters the team has to start back from the bottom. A third-year tackle who just won a ring and is already grinding like he hasn’t. That’s the recipient profile.
Top 10
PFF First-Time All-Pro Watch
3rd
NFL Season in 2026
1
Super Bowl Ring
Got a Question for The Rooster?
Cap math, depth chart debates, or just yelling into the void about a cornerback contract you can’t control? Send it in. I read all of them, answer the good ones, and reveal my real name to exactly none of you.
Witherspoon's smiling in the team photos. The money finds him in July. Run it forward. — The Rooster