By Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
SEATTLE — The disappointment of a 24-22 wild-card playoff loss to Dallas won’t go away easily for the Seattle Seahawks.
But while they while will spend the offseason ruing the plays that got away in a game they know was there for the taking, they also said Sunday as they cleared out their lockers that the defeat won’t wash away the optimism generated by their surprising run to a playoff berth.
“We’ve got great things in store,” quarterback Russell Wilson said to reporters as teammates signed and exchanged jerseys and packed away shoes and other equipment before holding their last official team meeting of the 2018 season. “I always said the best is ahead and I really believe that.”
But before the Seahawks will take the field again in eight or so months the team will have to answer a number of significant personnel questions.
Seattle has 14 players who can become unrestricted free agents when the new league year begins March 13 including six players who ended the season as offensive or defensive starters (defensive end Frank Clark, linebacker K.J. Wright defensive tackle Shamar Stephen, offensive linemen J.R. Sweezy and D.J. Fluker and nickelback Justin Coleman) as well as kicker Sebastian Janikowski and injured free safety Earl Thomas.
Thomas isn’t expected back and the Seahawks are widely considered likely to place a franchise tag on Clark if they cannot sign him to a long-term contract, which would keep him with the team in 2019 and allow the two sides to continue working on a multi-year deal.
Wright wants to be back but indicated after Saturday’s game he is fully prepared to hit free agency and see what happens.
Fluker has said repeatedly he wants to be back, and Sweezy also said Sunday he hopes to return.
“I would love to be a Seahawk until the end of it, you know what I mean?” Sweezy said, a hint that he’d love to play the rest of his career in Seattle.
The Seahawks can sign their own potential free agents at any time.
And if the Seahawks follow their usual routine, they will initially concentrate their offseason efforts on assembling their roster for the 2019 season.
That could include hitting outside free agency harder than they have in some time —according to OvertheCap.com, the Seahawks have an effective cap space number for the 2019 season of just over $54 million, the ninth-most in the NFL.
But at some point in the offseason, the Seahawks could also turn their attention to securing the future of their two most important players —Wilson and middle linebacker Bobby Wagner.
Each has just one year remaining on his contract, and the Seahawks could look to reup each before they enter the final season on their deal. That’s what they did when first, Wilson, and then Wagner, each agreed to extensions within a span of about 48 hours of each other in 2015 on the week training camp opened.
“To be the franchise quarterback of the Seattle Seahawks is a special thing,” Wilson said. “So we will see where that goes. I don’t like talking about my contract or anything like that but I think that, you know, I think good things will happen.”
Wilson, though, said he’d be okay with entering the season without a new contract and playing out the final year.
“Oh yeah, if that’s what I’ve got to do,” Wilson said. “It’s business and everything else and I know essentially after this season I could potentially be a free agent, that kind of thing. I don’t think that way —I see myself being in Seattle. I love Seattle, special place for me. I also understand it’s a business world and everything else.
“I think for me, to be honest with you guys, I love the game of football, I really do. And what I do know is a few things —my work ethic, I think the way I love the game and everything, that I want to lay it on the line every day, that’s going to be there every day no matter what happens. And I hope it’s here, I really do. But those decisions are way over my head and everything else. We’ll see what happens.”
Wagner confirmed he is serving as his own agent, and like Wilson said he hopes he can remain in Seattle long term.
“Would I like to be taken care of before the season? That’d be great,” Wagner said. “If I don’t, then that wouldn’t be the end of the world. I understand this is a business and I’m prepared for anything that happens. If they sign me before then, cool. If they don’t, cool too. I want to be here. This is where I want to be for my career. This is an amazing city, amazing fans, an amazing organization and so I would love to be here. We’ll make sure business takes care of itself.”
