Revisting Wright's contract

KJ Wright came into the league at 4 yrs, 2.526m or 631,500 per year.

His extension was 4 yrs, 27m or 6.75m apy in new money.

Lavonte David came into the league at 4 yrs 3,596, 732 or 899,133 per year. He just signed an extension worth 5 yrs, 50.25m or 10.05m in new money.

Not saying Wright is on David's level but for a player that became a starter as a rookie and a quiet leader on some of the NFLs best defenses the past 3 years. His current salary isnt bad and its no guarantee that Wright will play out his contract where his big money hits come in the last 2 years of his deal.

Furthermore, DeAndre Levy has played the last 2 years at 5.25m or 2.625 per (twice as much than Wright's rookie deal in half the time) before signing an extension worth 8.43m in new money.

Imo, Wright is only going to get better as he gets more comfortable playing the WLB position that he just transitioned to back in 2013. With the addition of Graham and the continued development of Willson, Wright has a great opportunity to work on weaknesses and transform into a better coverage LB to become a more complete LBer. As Wright has already been a stellar run defender and a great LB near the LOS for much of his young career.

Wright is one of those guys that everybody on the teams respects, he works hard and sets am example for the younger guys.

Kj is a solid player and for us and does the Seahawks proud.

I think Wright is a good solid player, but will have to improve upon his 2014 performance in order to remain on the team in the next offseason, IMO. This is a player whom, regardless of position, is being payed roughly on the level of Kam Chancellor (not to make this about him), one of the most dominating defenders in all of football. Wright will have to start being a playmaker to warrant keeping given the contract he has that grows each year and our recent bottleneck in leftover money.

I would cut Wright after this season in order to re-sign JR Sweezy and free up some more cap space. IMO weak-side LB is the easiest LB position to replace. We have a couple of guys already on the roster that can step into that position and probably not drop off in production. There are a handful of players in next years draft that have the combination of size/speed at the LB position that fit the Seahawks profile.

If Wright comes back this year and plays closer to how he played in 2013 or better then it's a different story though. It's just that these things have to be looked at a lot tighter now.

David is probably the best "splash play" 4-3 LB in football, followed by Kuechly and maybe Kiko Alonso. Wagner is probably in the top 10 for splash plays at his position, but I think his value mostly comes from the rarity of his speed (which David and Kuechly have also).

Wright is very good at making open field tackles, and he's a stud at setting the edge when asked to. However, I think he's somewhat mediocre as a pass rusher. He's good at defending crossing routes because they take advantage of his arm length, but his coverage ability drops off dramatically once he starts chasing downfield.

Wright is easily the most exploitable starter on our defense, though keep in mind... it's decently common for good defenders to have weaknesses. On a lesser defense, I think he'd be a star, but on our defense he often feels like a liability since there are so few weak spots to attack, he ends up getting picked on a lot.

I think our LB group is good but not the best. All we really need our LBs to do is be assignment sound and cover ground. I think too much money has been put into an area with such a fungible job description, especially while areas like OL and WR could use a big name or two. I understand why they kept Wagner, he's a top 5 ILB in the league and it's really, really hard to find a good LB with 4.46 speed. With Wright, I'm not a huge fan of the move to extend him for 6.75m in new money, but at the end of the day it's not worth crying over. Both contracts are designed for an easy exit down the road if need be.

Can't agree with Kearly's post more.

The OP mentioned both David and Levy, but Wright won't be that level of player. He can be very good, and get close, but Wright is doing the best he can with what he has. He's not nearly as athletic as the others mentioned. He runs a high 4.7 forty, and makes up for that with his length and size.

Like Kearly mentioned, he can jam up crossing routes, but if he has to turn his hips and run with a receiver, he's usually in trouble. The SB on Gronk is a good example. In comparison, Wagner was covering one of the quickest slot WRs in the league vs. GB and even though he got a PI call, he was in position to make that play 30 yards downfield.

I was actually surprised by Wright's contract, and I honestly think it was Schneider trying to show the team how players get rewarded when the perform. We can plug in KPL to that position and get the same production, and a maybe a few more splash plays, while giving up Wright's elite ability to set the edge vs. the run on that side. I honestly don't think we see Wright make it to the end of that contract without a restructure.

I find it interesting that David got 10 mil/year. I'm not saying he's not worth it, but I shudder to think what Kuechly is going to get when his turn is up. That kid's going to get QB money.

I pretty much fall right in line with everything Kearly said. It's pretty hard to really make a big impact as a 4-3 OLB, and David jumps off the screen. I used to watch a fair amount of Bucs defensive footage trying to watch Mason Foster, and became pretty amazed with David. In 2013, he had about as good of a season as a 4-3 OLB can have. He made big play after big play, with a bunch of sacks and picks. He's so good that I don't think the two conversations have too many shared aspects. KJ Wright is nice, but he just isn't that player. David reminds me a bunch of Junior Seau. Maybe not quite as strong at the point, but just gets to everything.

At 4-3 OLB, you've got a couple of guys that make "splash" plays consistently, and there aren't that many. Then you've got basically everybody else. The difference between the 7th best 4-3 OLB and the 70th best might be smaller than any other position. That is why I view the KJ Wright deal as a bit of a surprise. The Will in our front is probably asked to do more than any other Will LB, and certainly asked to do more than our other two LB's. We require a guy that lines up between the tackles to have flat responsibility. That's not an easy thing, especially when play-action gets involved. KJ plays that role very, very well. I believe our front office thought that this made it very risky to replace him. I don't really agree. I think they could get 85% of the production for 1/10th the cost, but I can see not wanting to mess with it while you're contending.

cover-2":1kwlpws5 said:

I would cut Wright after this season in order to re-sign JR Sweezy and free up some more cap space. IMO weak-side LB is the easiest LB position to replace. We have a couple of guys already on the roster that can step into that position and probably not drop off in production. There are a handful of players in next years draft that have the combination of size/speed at the LB position that fit the Seahawks profile.

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I think KJ would bring something in a trade rather than just cut him. His contract isn't bad and he is a good player, somebody could use him.

I agree, too, with Kearly. We don't need the best LBrs.

However, the fact that Kearly used the word fungible makes me suspicious of his literary and grammatical intentions on these boards.

My post was really more about a comparison of money earned and money to be earned rather than a contrast of talent. More so to show that Wright has earned or will earn much less than some of his counterparts.

If we wanted to take the comparison up a notch, I can do that.

Here are the Career AV (see profootballreference.com if you are unfamilar) along with (games played/ games started)

Levy.......47 AV (89/82)
Wright...33 AV (60/56)
David.....29 AV (46/46)

These numbers cant really be compared head to head because of the differing numbers of games played.

AV adjusted to per games played

David.....(.630)
Wright...(.550)
Levy.......(.528)

AV adjusted to per games started

David.....(.630)
Wright...(.589)
Levy.......(.573)

David is obviously on another level while the other 2 are more comparative. Although Wright has only 4 years of exp, compared to Levy's 6.

If we broke the numbers down to Levy's first 4 years, it will show Wright has been a much better LBer.

Levy... 24 AV (57/50)

Per Game .421 (KW .550)
Per Start .480 (KW .589)

Before Levy's big year last year worth 14 AV, he had the same AV of 33 across 5 years that Wright obtained in 4 years.

I feel in comparison Wright has done pretty well for himself and at a cheaper cost overall.

And again I believe there is potential for Wright to become even better:

Naturally by just being another year wiser and more comfortable playing a LB position he transitioned to back in 2013 after being an SLB/ILB for much of his football career.

And

Competively by being able to practice against an athletically elite pass-catching TE in Graham. As well as, an improving uber athletic Luke Willson.

The potential and opportunity is there for Wright to take the next step up in his game.

I'm glad Wright is locked up. Many of us remember the 15 or so consecutive years that every other screen pass against us would go for 20+. Wright is probably the best Seahawk in 20 years (since I've been able to watch most games) at covering and limiting the flat.

Couple thoughts.

Wright is a solid LB. On the open market, very likely worth what we are paying him.

That said, getting and developing LB talent has not been difficult for Seattle. As the roster matures and people get paid, Wright's position and salary would be a prime candidate for trimming for cap purposes.

I always felt like Wright's signing was very similar to Chancellor's signing. That PCJS were making a statement that Seattle is going to be the kind of organization that will reward it's own guys. It made sense then, as now, that if you're going to pay market rates for a second deal, do so with players you've developed and grown and who have committed to the team's way of thinking. Wright did that and more.

He is undoubtedly the most versatile LB in our group, having played games at all 3 positions during his career.

Don't forget the timing of KJ's contract, late in the year. I'm not familiar with the NFL Year and Cap Money to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure that the time of year helped spend cap money that would lessen the effect on the following year's cap.

I think they did this same thing with Zach Miller and Max Unger. They paid them big up front when there was the cap space to do so. Pay out the money that you are going to "lose" anyway.

ivotuk":1uxdaq27 said:

Don't forget the timing of KJ's contract, late in the year. I'm not familiar with the NFL Year and Cap Money to say for sure, but I'm pretty sure that the time of year helped spend cap money that would lessen the effect on the following year's cap.

I think they did this same thing with Zach Miller and Max Unger. They paid them big up front when there was the cap space to do so. Pay out the money that you are going to "lose" anyway.

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That unused cap space doesn't go away; it gets rolled over to the following year.

I'm OK with Wright's contract for 2015, but it escalates.

http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/seattle-seah ... j.-wright/

So IMO if he doesn't REALLY turn it on to justify making 7-8M a year? Then he's gonna be one of the "middle class" cuts in 2016 or 2017..........and if KPL stays healthy and continues to improve? No brainer, KJ's gone.

http://www.profootballfocus.com/

PFF list David and Levy at #8 and #9 on their new top 10 linebackers list. Not sure whether to blast PFF for not having Wagner when they have Marshawn #1 and Bennett #4. FWIW.

PFF doesn't even have Wagner as a top 10 LBer.

I don't care what grading system you use. I don't care how you tweak stats. The algorithms used aren't important.

Wagner not being a top 10 LBer doesn't pass the eye or the smell test. Look at the guy on the field, and look at our defense when he was out injured. He's elite.