By Gregg Bell / The News Tribune
INDIANAPOLIS — The Seattle Seahawks have started at least initial talks on a new contract for franchise quarterback Russell Wilson.
They still “love” K.J. Wright, but they will be assessing what the Pro Bowl veteran linebacker is hearing about free agency over the next two weeks before having a clearer read whether he will remain with Seattle.
They remain intent on keeping Frank Clark from entering the free-agent market that opens March 13. It remains to be seen whether that’s with a franchise tag or long-term contract extension for their leading sack man.
No, the Seahawks have not talked to Earl Thomas recently.
And, no, their general manager does not like Wilson flying helicopters all offseason.
“No,” John Schneider said with a grin Wednesday from behind a podium at the Indiana Convention Center as the 2019 NFL combine began.
“No, I do not.”
As for the more pertinent matter of keeping Wilson under contract with a megabucks deal beyond his current one ending with the 2019 season, Schneider said: “We’ve been in communication with his agent, Mark (Rodgers), and I’m sure we’ll continue to talk. There’s just, there are some guys who are unrestricted free agents right now, you know, so we try to work through that process and the different phases of it.
“There are several guys who have one year left on their contracts, in terms of extensions (fellow franchise cornerstone Bobby Wagner’s deal also ends after the 2019 season).
“Obviously,” Schneider said of Wilson, “he is incredibly important.”
Thomas’ time in Seattle was seemingly near an end last summer when he held out for all of the offseason and training camp; he returned to the team in early September days before the opener to avoid losing game checks. He wanted a new Seahawks contract at the top of the market for safeties, or to be traded. He got neither.
One week after he was blowing off practices while still mad at the team, Thomas broke his leg during a Sept. 30 game at Arizona. Thomas’ time with the team basically ended when he flipped a middle finger at the Seahawks’ sideline from the back of a motorized cart as he was being taken off the field with his season-ending injury.
Unlike fellow injured Seahawks safety Kam Chancellor, who stayed around the team mentoring through the end of last season, Thomas stayed away.
Asked Wednesday if he’s been in contact with Thomas recently, Schneider had a short, clear answer. It said plenty.
“No,” the Seahawks GM said.
“He is a free agent. He is going to test free agency.”
Clark’s rookie contract is ending. Seattle’s top pick from the 2015 draft had a career-high 14 sacks in 17 games, including one in the playoffs, last season. He stands to get a raise from $943,000 in 2018 to at least $17.3 million or so in 2019. That’s the figure estimated for a franchise tag for defensive ends in the league this year.
Clark is still only 25, likely on the cusp of his prime. He said minutes after the Seahawks’ season ended with a playoff loss to the Dallas Cowboys that he expected the Seahawks to re-sign him, that he will be at team headquarters April 15 when Seattle begins its formal team offseason program.
Schneider took a chance on Clark four years ago, months after Michigan kicked him out of its program for a domestic-violence arrest that had some NFL teams dropping him from their draft boards.
Schneider was asked if there was any update to Seattle’s talks on a new contract for Clark.
“Frank and I, we have a great relationship,” Schneider said. “Communications have been great. There’s a strong level of trust between the two of us.
“So that would be the update.”
Schneider said he expects Clark to be a Seahawk in 2019.
Does the GM expect to use the team’s lone franchise tag for the year on Clark to do that? The last time the Seahawks used a franchise tag was in 2010, on Olindo Mare, a kicker. That was in Schneider’s and coach Pete Carroll’s first months running the Seahawks.
“Ummm … I don’t know yet,” Schneider said of using a tag to keep Clark in lieu of a multiyear extension. “I mean, it’s been 10 years. Olindo Mare. I mean …you know.
“We actually talked John Lynch into doing that with their kicker,” Schneider joked.
This week the 49ers and Lynch, their general manager, announced they were using their franchise tag to retain kicker Robbie Gould.
Wright has said he intended to test the free-agent market. Schneider said the Seahawks have been talking to Wright’s representatives, and that Wright proved upon his return from knee surgery with impressive games late last season and a extraordinary one in the wild-card playoff loss at Dallas last month that he still can be a Pro Bowl-caliber player.
Yet the chances on him returning to the Seahawks appear to still be 50-50.
Wright is 29. He played in only six of the 17 games this season following knee surgery in August and a setback in his return. He sees what the Seahawks have done — and not done — for Thomas and wonders what’s next for him.
What indications have the Seahawks given him they might re-sign him?
“Nothing,” the outside linebacker said last month.
“I want to be here. I’d love to be here. I love playing with this team, with (defensive coordinator Ken) Norton, with Bobby (his All-Pro linebacking partner),” he said. “And I believe it would be in the team’s best interests if I stay here.
“I’m heading to free agency. We’ll see how that goes.”
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