By Bob Condotta / The Seattle Times
RENTON — Two days before the beginning of training camp, the Seattle Seahawks secured one of their best defensive players — rush end/outside linebacker Uchenna Nwosu — for three more years while also creating some needed salary-cap space.
The Seahawks officially announced the signing Monday night.
Nwosu, who was entering the final season of a two-year contract he signed in 2022 as a free agent, agreed to a deal that is worth $45 million over the three new seasons of the contract — 2024, 2025 and 2026 — according to the NFL Network and Pro Football Focus.
That brings the total value of Nwosu’s contract with Seattle, including the existing 2023 season, to up to as much as $59 million with $32 million guaranteed.
Nwosu, 26, was due to make a $7.5 million base salary in 2023 on a contract that included a cap hit of $13.010 million this year, fourth highest on the team.
While a full breakdown of Nwosu’s new contract was not available, a source said the extension will bring down his cap number for 2023, with some speculation it could be by as much $5 million.
The Seahawks entered the day with just $7.1 million in available cap space and there had been speculation the team might look to redo Nwosu’s deal as a way to create some more cap space.
Seattle needed to create some space to sign first-round pick Devon Witherspoon and second-round pick Zach Charbonnet, who each have yet to sign their four-year rookie deals.
Witherspoon’s contract is expected to carry a cap hit of $5.7 million for the 2023 season and Charbonnet’s $1.25 million, according to OvertheCap.com.
The Seahawks are set to open training camp Wednesday with players reporting on Tuesday, and Seattle will undoubtedly hope to have all under contract by the first practice.
But the new contract for Nwosu also simply keeps a young, ascending player in the fold for the long term.
Nwosu signed a two-year deal worth just over $19 million in March 2022 as a free agent after four seasons with the Chargers, who drafted him in the second round in 2018 out of USC.
Nwosu tied with Darrell Taylor for the team lead in sacks last season with 9.5 and led the team with 26 quarterback hits, which was tied for ninth in the NFL.
After making 9.5 sacks in 30 games in his final two years with the Chargers, Nwosu matched that total in 17 games last season when he also made a career-high 66 tackles.
Nwosu began his Seahawks career by earning NFC Defensive Player of the Week honors following the first game of the season when he helped lead a win over Russell Wilson and the Denver Broncos with seven tackles, one sack, two QB hits and a forced fumble at the Seattle 1-yard line.
The extension continues an offseason in which the Seahawks have spent handsomely to try to upgrade the defensive front seven for the long-term.
Seattle signed free-agent defensive end Dre’Mont Jones to a three-year deal worth just over $51 million in March, the most the Seahawks paid an external free agent in the Pete Carroll/John Schneider era, while also bringing back defensive lineman Jarran Reed, signing him to a two-year deal worth up to $9 million, and also taking edge Derick Hall of Auburn with the 37th overall pick in the second round.
This story will be updated.
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