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ESPN Says the Best Move Left Isn’t Witherspoon. It’s the Big Cat.
While the entire fanbase refreshes its phone for a Devon Witherspoon update, ESPN’s Aaron Schatz looked at Seattle’s to-do list and circled a different name. Asked to pick the single best remaining offseason move for all 32 teams, his answer for the Seahawks wasn’t an offensive lineman, wasn’t a pass rusher, and wasn’t the corner everyone’s obsessing over. It was extending Leonard Williams.
The logic is annoyingly simple. Williams turned 32 last week, he’s entering the last year of his deal, and his contract voids in 2027, which makes him Seattle’s biggest pending free agent next spring. He was a second-team All-Pro in 2025 with seven sacks, and per ESPN Research he drew a double team on 66.6% of his pass-rush snaps, fourth among all interior defensive linemen. The Big Cat is still the gravity in the middle of this defense. Why wait until he’s a year from walking to start the conversation?
66.6%
Share of Williams’ pass-rush snaps that drew a double team in 2025 — fourth among all interior defensive linemen, per ESPN Research.
Schatz isn’t blind to the catch, and neither am I. His own warning is that age might bring a decline soon, and handing real money to a defensive tackle on the wrong side of 30 is exactly the kind of deal that ages like milk. The reason this isn’t a slam dunk is the same reason it’s interesting: you’re paying for what he’s been while betting he keeps being it.
What makes the take land is the timing. This is the second straight day a national voice has nudged Seattle toward writing a check, and for the second straight day the name attached to the advice is not the one Seattle has actually been negotiating. Schatz has been beating this drum for weeks now. The front office is letting both extensions sit while the building empties out until July 25. At some point the math on the interior catches up to the math on the perimeter.
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You’re paying for what he’s been while betting he keeps being it. That’s the whole deal in one sentence.
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Quarterback
Darnold Finally Says the Quiet Part About Minnesota
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“There’s a part of me that looks at it and says, ‘Okay, I’m just not supposed to be in Minnesota this next year,’” Darnold said, per Pro Football Network. “And that’s okay with me. It allowed me to focus on finding the next spot.”
The next spot was Seattle. The result was another 14-3 record and a Lombardi. So when Darnold says everything happens for a reason, he’s not selling a motivational poster, he’s reading a box score. The Vikings chose J.J. McCarthy and a clean cap sheet; Darnold chose the team that just won the whole thing. Both can be defensible. Only one of them ended with a parade.
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AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Darnold also kept up his unusual habit of grading his own Super Bowl harshly, lamenting his performance even after winning the thing. Most quarterbacks get a ring and a statue. This one got a ring and a list of corrections. The Hard Knocks cameras are going to love him. NFL.com
The full training camp schedule is locked in: ten public practices at the VMAC from July 25, then preseason against Dallas, Tennessee, and Kansas City. Twenty-nine days until the building fills back up and the cameras show up to film all of it. The countdown is now short enough to matter. SI
Latest on the Charbonnet and Horton rehabs: both remain on the optimistic side of their recoveries heading into camp, with Horton tracking toward an early-camp return. Nobody’s promising Week 1, but nobody’s slamming any doors either. “Everything’s possible” is still the official temperature, and for ACL math in June, that’s a good temperature. Heavy
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
The Rams rolled out a glowing “newcomer update” on Myles Garrett this week, reminding everyone how they got the best pass rusher alive: Jared Verse and a pile of picks. Here’s the thing about spotlight features in late June. They’re written before anyone’s been hit. Garrett is genuinely terrifying and the Christmas Day reservation at our place is still on the calendar. Talk is cheap until December 25th.
NINERS
George Kittle says his Achilles rehab is ahead of schedule and offered proof, telling Pardon My Take he ran and hit over 16 miles per hour. Good for him, genuinely. But “my star tight end clocked a respectable sprint speed in a rehab session” is the kind of June milestone a team posts when the actual roster news is thin. Get back to us when he’s catching one in pads.
CARDINALS
Arizona is heading to Green Bay for a joint practice before the preseason finale, and Kliff’s successor Jonathan Gannon isn’t even the storyline. The hook, per the team site, is that Matt LaFleur wanted out of the Wisconsin heat and joked he’d practice in Canada if the Packers’ brother-coach thing were possible. A whole August built around a family meetup. Adorable. Also: it’s still August, fellas.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This defensive end signed with Seattle as an undrafted-turned-free-agent addition in 2013, immediately led the team with 8.5 sacks on the way to a Super Bowl XLVIII title, and made three Pro Bowls across an 11-year NFL career. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Michael Bennett. Originally undrafted out of Texas A&M, he became one of Seattle’s shrewdest free-agent signings, anchoring the Legion of Boom-era pass rush before stints with Philadelphia, New England, and Dallas.
Got a Question for The Rooster?
Wondering whether Seattle can really pay both the Big Cat and Witherspoon, or just want to vent about the calendar? Send it in. The best questions get answered in this space, in my voice, with all the honesty that implies.
Twenty-nine days of quiet left. Use them to make peace with the cap math, because the calendar won't. — The Rooster