Last offseason was an active one for Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider as he spent money at reshaping the roster after ending the Legion of Boom era.
This year has been quiet. Outside of adding guard Mike Iupati and kicker Jason Myers, Schneider has mostly stuck to re-signing his own guys, like K.J. Wright, D.J. Fluker, etc., and franchise tagging Frank Clark, while watching others walk away in free agency.
The sleepiness in Seattle is a calculated approach by Schneider.
"I think just being able to kind of be a little bit more selective in terms of how we're approaching free agency," he said on 710 ESPN Seattle on Monday, via the team's official website. "Last year, we had some significant losses with Kam's (Chancellor) injury and Cliff's (Avril) injury and losing Luke (Willson) and Jimmy Graham leaving and Paul Richardson leaving. So I think we were a little bit more aggressive with the unrestricted guys. This year, we're trying to be a little bit more selective with the cap casualty guys that don't count toward your compensatory picks. Right now we're looking at 11 picks in 2020, but we have four right now and I just spent the weekend looking at our board like, 'that's not cool.'"
Compensatory picks are the selections the NFL gives out each year to teams who lost players in the previous offseason free agency without signing others. Over The Cap has a handy breakdown of where they believe things stand currently for 2020.
Some teams care more about comp picks than others, which rewards frugality on the open market or signing players who were cut by previous teams (which doesn't affect the formula).
The Seahawks lost Earl Thomas, Justin Coleman, J.R. Sweezy, Shamar Stephen, Mike Davis, Brett Hundley and Mo Alexander, among others this offseason. The only additions thus far that likely affect their compensatory picks are the additions of Iupati and Myers.
With just four picks in the 2019 draft later this month, the Seahawks are a prime candidate to trade back to accumulate more capital. Regardless of whether Schneider finds a trade partner willing to give him extra picks, the Seahawks will rely on young players to make jumps in 2019 to supplement their stars.
"I think Delano (Hill) stands out right away," Schneider responded when asked who would make a leap this season. "We'll get (Will) Dissly back, he was doing a great job for us. ... Obviously, Tedric (Thompson) will take another step, Tre Flowers. Rasheem Green, I look for good things for him. He had one of those typical rookie years, same thing with (Rashaad) Penny. Penny had never ever been hurt before, he had the highest medical grade we can give people, right? Then he came in and was like, 'what? what is this?' So he was like figuring out how to deal with his injuries. There's just a number of guys that we're really excited about. David Moore, obviously. I think it's a pretty cool group."
A pretty cool group that Schneider needs to improve this season after his calculated approach to free agency.
