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Breaking: Extensions
ESPN Reports It: Seahawks Plan to Extend Both JSN and Devon Witherspoon This Offseason
This is the extension news Seahawks fans have been waiting for, and it landed Monday morning. ESPN’s Brady Henderson reported that the Seahawks plan to extend both Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon this offseason. Both were drafted with first-round picks in 2023 — the first time Seattle had made multiple first-round selections since 2010 — and both are entering the final years of their rookie deals, with a May 1 deadline to exercise fifth-year options. The team plans to do both extensions. At the same time. Schneider is going to need a very large pen.
The numbers are going to be eye-popping. JSN, coming off 1,793 receiving yards and the AP Offensive Player of the Year award, has made clear he wants to be the highest-paid receiver in football, topping Ja’Marr Chase’s $40.25 million per year. The Draft Network projects a four-year, $154 million deal for JSN, while Witherspoon — who shut down every quarterback in the NFC playoffs and had two sacks in the Super Bowl — is projected at $27 million per year on a three-year deal, which would make him the third-highest-paid corner in football behind Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley Jr. Add those two together and you’re looking at potentially $220–230 million committed to a cornerback and a wide receiver drafted in the same class in the same offseason. That is, objectively, a fantastic problem to have.
Seattle enters the offseason with roughly $73 million in cap space (fifth-most in the NFL per Spotrac), but creative restructuring of deals like Leonard Williams’ $29.6 million cap hit will almost certainly be part of the path forward. The fifth-year option deadline is May 1. The extensions will come after that.
SOURCES →
White House Watch
The Seahawks Won the Super Bowl Two Weeks Ago. The White House Has Not Called.
Keep Reading ↓
The tradition of championship sports teams visiting the White House stretches back decades, but has grown increasingly complicated in recent years. Seattle Storm legend Sue Bird, commenting on the situation to the Times, captured the moment: “It doesn’t feel exciting. Nobody wants to go. It’s totally changed and that’s disappointing because it used to be something that most athletes looked forward to.” The Seahawks have not commented publicly on whether they would attend if invited. For now, the question is moot. Nobody has been asked.
SOURCES →
Combine Day 1
The 2026 NFL Scouting Combine Opened Today in Indianapolis. Seattle Picks 30th. Time to Start Learning Names.
Keep Reading ↓
The priorities are clear: Seattle needs cornerback depth behind Witherspoon and whoever remains after the Woolen and Bryant free agency situations resolve. They also want edge rusher competition behind their starters, and the combine is where that evaluation begins. The full draft order, with dates and times, won’t be released until spring. The draft itself is April 23. Start Googling cornerbacks from Power Five schools. You’re going to be hearing a lot of their names for the next two months.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
ESPN’s Adam Schefter has reported the Seahawks are not expected to use the franchise tag on Kenneth Walker III, who becomes an unrestricted free agent in 8 days. The tag deadline is March 3 at 4 p.m. ET. Tick tock. Heavy / ESPN Heavy / ESPN
The Rams are reportedly proposing a rule change to effectively outlaw “The Zachwards Pass” — the term now being used by fans and writers for the wild two-point conversion play that helped eliminate Los Angeles in the NFC Championship. The Seahawks ran the play perfectly. The Rams want it to be illegal. Stages of grief, NFC West edition. Field Gulls Field Gulls
The negotiating period for unrestricted free agents opens March 9, just 14 days from now. Teams can contact agents starting March 9, and players can officially sign starting March 12 when the new league year begins. The next three weeks are going to move fast. Seahawks.com Seahawks.com
The Seahawks previously never exercised a fifth-year option under John Schneider — until last offseason, when left tackle Charles Cross not only got the option exercised but received a new four-year, $104.4 million extension before the regular season ended. Cross appears to have changed the front office’s approach to the fifth-year option entirely. JSN and Witherspoon are the next beneficiaries. Field Gulls / SI Field Gulls / SI
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
The Rams have formally proposed a rule change to outlaw the play now known to Seahawks fans as “The Zachwards Pass,” the two-point conversion that helped knock Los Angeles out of the NFC Championship. Sean McVay has also called Seattle’s winning fourth-down conversion “fortuitous.” For those keeping score: the Seahawks won the Super Bowl. The Rams proposed legislation about it. These are both real things that are happening.
NINERS
The 49ers lost offensive coordinator Brian Fleury to the Super Bowl champions, where he will attempt to make an already-excellent offense even better. The 49ers are reportedly evaluating their receiver room for “value options” this offseason. “Value options” is what you look for when you didn’t win the Super Bowl and your salary cap situation is complicated.
CARDINALS
Tied for the lowest projected win total in the NFL. Exploring trading Kyler Murray. New OC is Nathaniel Hackett. Their off-season has the energy of a man reading the terms and conditions before clicking “I agree.” Best of luck down there.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
Devon Witherspoon had two sacks in Super Bowl LX. What happened on his second one, and why did it effectively end the game?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Witherspoon’s second sack was a strip-sack blitz in the fourth quarter with the Seahawks leading 22–7. He stripped the ball from Drake Maye, linebacker Uchenna Nwosu scooped it out of the air and returned it 45 yards for a touchdown, pushing the lead to 29–7 with 4:27 remaining. That play, per Wikipedia’s Super Bowl LX article, effectively clinched Seattle’s second Lombardi Trophy.
THIS DAY IN SEAHAWKS HISTORY
2005
Tim Ruskell Introduced as Seahawks President of Football Operations — And Then Everything Changed
On this date in 2005, the Seahawks introduced Tim Ruskell as president of football operations — a move that set the stage for the most successful single season in franchise history up to that point. Ruskell came in after Mike Holmgren threatened to leave following the firing of Bob Whitsitt the previous January. With Holmgren placated and Ruskell in place, Seattle would go on to win their division, reach Super Bowl XL in Detroit, and win 11 straight games at one point — the longest winning streak in team history. They lost to the Steelers in the Super Bowl in a game disputed to this day, but reaching it marked a new high-water mark for the franchise. The 2005 season also produced the team’s first NFC West title since 1988. Twenty-one years later, the Seachickens have finally exceeded it. 🏆
THE GOLDEN EGG
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THE MAILBAG
“If the Seahawks extend both JSN AND Witherspoon, do they even have enough money left to re-sign KW3 AND Coby Bryant AND Riq Woolen? I need a spreadsheet.”
— — Spreadsheet in Shoreline
Dear Spreadsheet: You’re right that it gets tight, and you’re right to want a spreadsheet. Here’s the honest picture. With roughly $73 million in available cap space (per Spotrac), and JSN likely landing north of $38–40 million per year and Witherspoon at around $27 million per year, those two extensions alone could consume the majority of current space depending on how the first-year cap hits are structured. The key is restructuring existing contracts — Leonard Williams at $29.6 million, Cooper Kupp at $17.47 million — to create additional room in 2026. That’s how Schneider operates. He doesn’t spend cap space; he engineers it. The more realistic picture is that KW3 gets resolved one way or another in the next 8 days, Coby Bryant is likely re-signed to a team-friendly deal given his preference to stay, and Woolen — per some recent SI reporting — may actually be one of the players who doesn’t come back. It’s going to be messy for six weeks, and then it’ll probably make sense. It always does.
Got a take? A mailbag question? Opinions about The Zachwards Pass?
Send us your hot takes, cap space math, or arguments for why the Rams’ rule change proposal is historically embarrassing.
See you tomorrow. — The Rooster