After winning a Super Bowl in Seattle, Michael Bennett would love to stay a Seahawk.
The free-agent-to-be will not, however, take less than market value to do so. Last week, receiver Golden Tate said he would rather take a little bit less money to stay in Seattle than make more on a bad team. Bennett, however, made it clear in an interview with the NFL Network that he expects to earn what he’s worth wherever he ends up.
“Obviously you want to be loyal to your teammates that you played with and won a Super bowl with, but also you have a family so you want to be in the best situation for them,” Bennett said on “NFL Total Access” Tuesday night. “It’s all about which team wants you. Every team says they want you, but somebody has to open up that wallet and actually sign that check, and it has to clear at Wells Fargo.”
“It’s definitely a business. People hate to say it’s that, but it is what it is. I would love to play for the Seahawks, but they have to want me back and the numbers have to be right.”
Bennett, who began his career in Seattle in 2009 before blossoming into a premier pass rusher in Tampa Bay, signed a one-year deal with Seattle before this season. As a versatile pass rusher who played both tackle and end, Bennett had 8.5 sacks in the regular season and might have been the most important player in Seattle’s front seven.
Asked specifically about the idea of a hometown discount, Bennett said, “There’s no such thing as discount. This is not Costco, this is not Walmart, this is real life. There’s no discount, because you go out there and you don’t give a discount on effort. You go out there and give the best effort every day and fight for y our teammates, and you want to be compensated for the way you perform and the kind of teammate that you are.”
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