The Seattle Seahawks continue to chip away at their offseason to-do list, and now have just one of their 2018 draft picks left to sign.
The team announced the signing of linebacker Shaquem Griffin and cornerback Tre Flowers on Thursday. The day before, the team agreed to terms with running back and first-round pick Rashaad Penny.
The only one of their nine picks yet to agree to a deal is defensive lineman Rasheem Green.
Penny, the 27th-overall choice in last month’s draft from San Diego State, got a four-year contact with a fifth-year option, as all deals are for first-round picks.
He is slotted per the NFL’s collective bargaining agreement and salary cap to get a contract with a total value of $10,903,622, including a signing bonus of $6,000,306. Much of his contract is likely to be guaranteed; the higher the draft picks, the more the deal is guaranteed because the team’s expectation of performance is obviously higher.
Penny’s reaction on his social-media account Wednesday: Hands clasped in thankful, blessed prayer.
The days of rookies and their agents haggling over first NFL contracts and sometimes, for first-round picks, holding out into training camp ended with the current collective bargaining agreement the league’s players and owners finalized in 2011. It set a rookie pool for draft-pick contracts that effectively is a cap on their salaries.
Griffin was one of the stories of the spring. The world learned his story of growing up in lock-step with twin brother Shaquill, the Seahawks’ starting cornerback, through childhood and through college. Of Shaquem, the American Athletic Conference’s defensive player of the year at Central Florida in 2016, being the first one-handed player drafted into the modern NFL — and reunited in Seattle with his twin after 2017 was the only year they’ve ever been apart.
The fifth round pick was impressive during the Seahawks rookie minicamp, and coach Pete Carroll even hinted that he might get some time at safety, too.
Safety is the position Flowers played at Oklahoma State. The Seahawks drafted him to play cornerback, because he fits their prototype for one (long arms and body).
He’s 6-foot-3 — or the same height as the recently departed Richard Sherman — and his arms measured 33 7/8 inches at the league’s scouting combine in March. All nine of the cornerbacks Carroll and GM John Schneider have drafted for the Seahawks in nine years have had arms at least 32 inches long.
Seahawks sign two, including ex-Navy man
The Seahawks’ search for more receivers continues.
Seattle signed former Navy quarterback and Baltimore Ravens wide receiver Keenan Reynolds to a free-agent contract to catch passes and possibly return kicks.
The team also announced it had signed defensive end Dadi Nicolas on Thursday. To make room on the roster, they waived defensive ends Marcell Frazier and Noble Nwachukwu.
The Seahawks lost wide receiver Paul Richardson to Washington in free agency in March. In September they traded former No.-2 wide receiver Jermaine Kearse of Lakewood to the New York Jets for defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson. And one-time Pro Bowl kick returner Tyler Lockett, another Seahawks wide receiver, is entering the final year of his rookie contract with Seattle.
The 24-year-old Reynolds was on Washington’s practice squad late last season, beginning in November. He was on the Ravens’ practice squad as a rookie in 2016.
In 2015, Reynolds set the NCAA top-division record for the most career rushing touchdowns with 85, breaking the old mark Adrian Peterson had set at Oklahoma. Reynolds finished fifth in voting for that year’s Heisman Trophy. That was the highest finish by a service-academy player since Navy quarterback Roger Staubach won the Heisman in 1963.
Reynolds was a running back when he was invited to East-West Shrine Game for college all-stars following his senior season at Navy. He’s been a wide receiver and kick return during those seasons since with Baltimore and Washington.
The 5-foot-10, 185-pound Reynolds has yet to appear in an NFL game.
