The Seattle Seahawks’ season is over. Seattle finished 10-6, earned a wild-card berth to the playoffs, then beat the Minnesota Vikings in the opening round before bowing out to the Carolina Panthers in the divisional round.
The players have packed their bags at the Virginia Mason Athletic Center and departed, signaling the beginning of the offseason. Here’s five questions I’m chewing on as the offseason begins:
1. Will Marshawn Lynch be back?
Lynch is a Seahawks icon, as Beast Mode powered Seattle’s offense over the past six seasons with his uniquely physical style of running the ball.
However, signs point toward now being the right time for Lynch and the Seahawks to part ways. Lynch will be 30 next season, which is old for a running back. After missing only one game during his first five seasons with the Seahawks, Lynch sat out nine this season as his body finally started breaking down.
The Seahawks can save some money by cutting ties with Lynch. Lynch is set to make $11.5 million next season, but Seattle can receive $6.5 million in relief under the salary cap by releasing Lynch. The Seahawks also already have a successor in place in the form of Thomas Rawls, who had an impressive rookie campaign.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider said on the radio Friday he thinks Lynch is leaning toward retirement. Only Lynch truly knows what’s going on in his head. But whether Lynch retires or not, the cold, brutal truth is that it may make logical sense for the Lynch era to come to an end in Seattle.
2. What happens with Kam Chancellor?
There’s no secret Chancellor is unhappy with his current contract. He showed his displeasure with a 55-day holdout that saw him miss all of training camp and the preseason, along with the first two games of the regular season.
Chancellor eventually returned without the Seahawks making any concessions, and he was named to his fourth Pro Bowl. However, he’s sure to have the same issues with his contract he had last offseason, both in terms of the average dollar amount per season and the amount of guaranteed money. Two years remain on Chancellor’s contract, and the Seahawks have been steadfast in refusing to renegotiate deals until there is only one year remaining on a contract.
It’s not just Chancellor, either. Defensive end Michael Bennett has also voiced his displeasure with his contract, and like Chancellor he has two years remaining. Bennett said he came close to holding out himself last season. He’ll no doubt be watching what the Seahawks do with Chancellor.
Who blinks first in these showdowns, and will it affect whether they play for Seattle next season?
3. How will Schneider finesse the salary cap?
The Seahawks reached the Super Bowl in consecutive seasons largely with a young roster that contained players who outperformed their contracts. The most notable of those players was quarterback Russell Wilson, who had a salary-cap number under $1 million each of those seasons.
However, the days of Seattle getting discounts on its stars are over. The likes of Wilson, cornerback Richard Sherman and linebacker Bobby Wagner all hit the cap hard in 2016 — Wilson alone sees his cap number jump by more than $11 million to $18.5 million.
Schneider did a good job of getting his most important stars locked up to long-term deals before they reached free agency. However, now those players are eating up a big percentage of the cap, meaning there’s less to go around for the rest of the roster. The lack of flexibility means this offseason will be a bigger challenge for Schneider than the past.
All of which leads to …
4. Who gets sacrificed in free agency?
Seattle has 17 unrestricted free agents and seven restricted free agents. Among the unrestricted free agents are seven starters: offensive linemen Russell Okung and J.R. Sweezy, receiver Jermaine Kearse, defensive tackles Brandon Mebane and Ahtyba Rubin, linebacker Bruce Irvin and cornerback Jeremy Lane.
With the Seahawks having so much money committed to their stars, and with the younger players like Irvin, Kearse and Lane likely to demand substantial pay increases in the open market, Seattle will not be able to re-sign everybody. Which of those players will the Seahawks decide are necessary to continue being a Super Bowl contender, and which will be deemed too expensive for what they provide?
5. What will the Seahawks do about the offensive line?
Seattle’s offensive line in 2015 was a grand experiment. The Seahawks chose to divert their financial resources to other parts of the roster and go with the low-budget option on the line, making the calculated gamble that the combination of a physical ball carrier like Lynch and a mobile quarterback like Wilson would help compensate for a line that was learning on the job.
The gamble came with mixed results. The line was a disaster early in the season as Wilson constantly found himself under pressure. However, things stabilized in the second half of the season. A combination of improved pass protection, along with tweaks to the offense designed to have Wilson get rid of the ball quicker, helped the offense reach new heights.
But now Okung and Sweezy, Seattle’s two most experienced linemen, are free agents. If the Seahawks are unable to retain those two, how do they fill the gaps? Do the Seahawks fill through free agents, trades or the draft? Do they continue the experiment for another season, but on an even tighter budget? And can the line continue to function adequately if that’s the case?
Check out Nick Patterson’s Seattle Sidelines blog at http://www.heraldnet.com/seattlesidelines, and follow him on Twitter at @NickHPatterson.
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