A rebuilt defense and a strong year from Russell Wilson helped the Seattle Seahawks make a surprising playoff run, but they still have work to do to catch the Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West.
Entering 2018, hopes were not high for the Seattle Seahawks. Sports Illustrated published a story detailing the rise and fall of the Legion of Boom, and it was timely with Kam Chancellor’s retirement and Richard Sherman’s free agent departure to San Francisco.
Pete Carroll and his staff went all in with building the team around Russell Wilson, and the results were strong, with Wilson putting together a tremendously efficient season. Seattle made the postseason but fell to the Dallas Cowboys on Wild Card weekend, leaving plenty of room to improve.
Long-time general manager John Schneider has about $52 million in cap space to improve the Seahawks, giving him plenty of ammo to upgrade the roster. The issue for Schneider is that he needs to catch up to a Super Bowl team in his own division, so the Seahawks figure to be busy this spring.
One of the first items on Schneider’s to-do list will be to get free agent defensive end Frank Clark signed to a long-term contract.
5. Lock up Frank Clark long-term
Defensive end Frank Clark is Seattle’s most important free agent. In an era where pass rushers may be the most valuable commodities in the league outside of franchise quarterbacks, Clark has developed into an elite one for Seattle, recording at least nine sacks in each of the last three years.
Clark set a career high with 14 sacks in 2018, and he would be in line for a huge payday if he were to hit the open market. That won’t happen, as Seattle is planning to tag Clark if they can’t reach a long term deal.
A long term deal would be beneficial to both sides since Clark would get long term security while Seattle could put him on their books at a lower cap figure than the $18.6 million defensive ends earn under the tag. That would allow Seattle to spend more in free agency to address other areas of the roster.
Signing Clark to a long term deal also makes sense in order to avoid a potential holdout in training camp. The Seahawks lived through the Earl Thomas fiasco a year ago and likely won’t want to do it again with Clark.