By Gregg Bell / The News Tribune
The Seattle Seahawks let Bobby Wagner go.
But they will still be seeing him. Often.
The All-Pro linebacker agreed to a free-agent contract Thursday with the Super Bowl-champion Los Angeles Rams. The deal for the 31-year-old middle linebacker, first reported by ESPN’s Adam Schefter, is for up to five years and $50 million, with a maximum value of up to $65 million for Wagner with Seattle’s NFC West rivals.
The Seahawks decided to release Wagner March 8. He was about to cost them $20.35 million against their salary cap in 2022, what would have been the final year of his $54 million deal he negotiated without an agent and signed with Seattle in the summer of 2019.
The Seahawks decided to send Wagner this month away hours after they finalized trading quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos.
Seattle will be playing its former franchise cornerstones three times this year.
The Seahawks will host the Broncos in the 2022 regular season. They also will play their customary home and away games against the Rams inside the division.
Wagner’s six All-Pro selections are the most in Seahawks history.
Seattle will go with Cody Barton, Wagner’s understudy for years, and Jordyn Brooks as their new inside linebackers in coach Pete Carroll’s changed defensive system this year. Carroll and new coordinator Clint Hurtt are promising more 3-4 looks and ways than the 4-3 defense Wagner anchored with the Seahawks for 10 years.
Wagner is a native of southern California and a huge basketball fan of the Los Angeles Lakers. He grew up in Ontario, about 40 miles east of Los Angeles, and still has family there.
In L.A., Wagner will be playing in a base 3-4 defense. He will be mentoring and playing next to fellow inside linebacker Ernest Jones, who is 22 years old.
Wagner visited the Rams this month to talk contract. There was also interest from the Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys with former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn and other teams. Many teams balked at Wagner’s asking price as he continued to represent himself in contract talks, without an agent.
Former Seahawks All-Pro cornerback Richard Sherman celebrated his friend and ex-teammate’s new deal with the Super Bowl champions on Twitter Thursday, proclaiming: “The rich get richer! Lose future HOF @VonMiller and gain future HOF @Bwagz. The @Ravens made a last min push but the Reigning champs @RamsNFL were too good to pass up.”
Wagner has more reasons for revenge against his former Seahawks than just that they cut him. It’s for how they cut him.
He said this month he didn’t hear it from the team that Seattle had decided to release him.
“Crazy part about all this. I played there for 10 years & I didn’t even hear it from them that I wasn’t coming back,” Wagner posted online on his Twitter account three days after the Seahawks released him and traded Wilson.
Carroll and Seattle general manager John Schneider both took the blame for how Wagner learned he was no longer with the Seahawks, who drafted him in 2012.
“That’s on me. I own that,” Schneider said during a press conference at team headquarters March 16.
“That’s on me,” Carroll interjected while sitting next to the GM.
“I wish I could’ve handled things better in that regard, from a communication standpoint,” Schneider said. “I owe it to him, the organization owes it to him.
“From a timing standpoint, I wish I would’ve handled things differently. …
“Too much respect to have that happen.”
Carroll said: “I’m guilty, too, because I didn’t want it to happen. I wanted Bobby to stay with us forever. I kept encouraging John to see what all of the possible options could be for a way out, that we don’t have to do this.”
Well, the Seahawks didn’t pursue all possible options.
A league source told The News Tribune the Seahawks never asked Wagner to take a pay decrease for 2022. There was no talk to Wagner of a restructured deal to lessen his cap hit and stay in Seattle this year, either. The team made no request Wagner take less money to stay for at least one more season.
There was no option other than his immediate release, the source told the TNT.
Asked two weeks ago if there another option besides playing out his contract for Wagner to stay in Seattle, Schneider said: “I would say, no.”
So it was messy on top of inflexible — and, for Wagner’s stated hope of retiring as a Seahawk, hopeless.
Barton, come on down.
And Wagner is now with the dreaded Rams.
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