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The Line in Front of Witherspoon Now Has a Big Cat in It
For weeks the story was simple: Witherspoon is next. JSN got his record deal, Derick Hall got his, and the assumption was that the franchise corner would be the next big check out of Renton. Then two separate national voices spent this week pointing at a completely different locker. ESPN’s Aaron Schatz and SI’s Seahawks site both argued the same thing on the same morning, that the Seahawks should extend Leonard Williams before they get to Devon Witherspoon.
The case is annoyingly reasonable. Williams is coming off a second-team All-Pro season, he is entering the final year of his deal, and he becomes an unrestricted free agent in 2027. Witherspoon, by contrast, is locked through 2027 on his fifth-year option. One of these players can walk in eleven months. The other one cannot. When you frame it that way, the urgency points at the wrong jersey from everything we assumed in May.
2027
The year Williams hits free agency. Witherspoon is locked through that same season on his fifth-year option, which is the entire argument.
Here is the part nobody wants to put on a birthday card. Williams turns 32 today, and even the people arguing to pay him are hedging on the age. Schatz’s own warning was that there could be a decline coming. So this is the bet Schneider has to weigh: do you hand long-term money to a 32-year-old interior lineman coming off the best year of his career, knowing the cliff for defensive tackles is real, or do you let the best run-stuffer on the league’s best defense play out his deal and risk losing him for nothing?
I don’t think this is actually an either-or, and I suspect the front office doesn’t either. The cap has room for both. But the order of operations matters, and the loudest outside voices just flipped it. Nobody throws a birthday party for the depreciation schedule, but that’s exactly what a 32-year-old defensive tackle’s next contract is.
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One of these players can walk in eleven months. The other one cannot.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
The building is empty until July 25, and the front office’s summer to-do list still has the Witherspoon extension penciled in before the regular season. The general expectation hasn’t moved. Neither has the deal. Enjoy six weeks of confident speculation on a contract nobody outside the VMAC has seen a single number on. Spokesman-Review
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Turf Show Times spent the week asking whether the Rams have the best offense in football heading into 2026, which is the kind of question you ask in June when the receipts aren’t due yet. Stafford is 38, the offense is loaded on paper, and the Christmas Day reservation at our place is already on the calendar. Talk loud in June. We’ll see you the 25th of December.
NINERS
San Francisco recorded 20 sacks all of last season, so naturally their big June move is going “nuclear hot” for Maxx Crosby, the pass rusher whose last trade collapsed when he failed a physical. A team that doesn’t seem to know its own ceiling wants to mortgage draft capital for a 29-year-old recovering knee. The vibes are immaculate. The plan is not.
CARDINALS
Arizona’s offseason recap dropped the news that fourth-round pick Kaleb Proctor tore his meniscus, which their own team site noted is the third straight year a rookie defensive lineman has gone down. At this point it isn’t bad luck, it’s a draft-and-injure subscription service. Three years running is a pattern, not a coincidence.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This undrafted receiver out of Stanford led the NFL with 14 touchdown catches in 2015, setting a Seahawks single-season record, and retired third in franchise history with 49 career receiving scores. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Doug Baldwin. Signed as an undrafted free agent in 2011, he spent all eight of his seasons in Seattle, made two Pro Bowls, and his 14 touchdowns in 2015 tied for the league lead while setting the franchise’s single-season mark.
Got a Question for the Mailbag?
The building’s empty, camp is five weeks out, and the offseason is officially in its ‘arguing about contracts nobody has seen’ phase. Perfect time to send something in. Hit reply with your sharpest take, your dumbest hypothetical, or your honest panic about the Rams. The good ones get answered in The Rooster’s voice, which is to say honestly and at your own risk.
Williams turns 32 today. The cap doesn't send a card. — The Rooster