AUGUST 17: In terms of base value, Williams’ deal checks in at $4MM, per OverTheCap. After signing a two-year, $14MM Dolphins contract (and expressing frustration a year into that deal), the veteran interior O-lineman will attempt to create a better market following his ACL tear.
AUGUST 6: At long last, Connor Williams has landed in Seattle. The veteran offensive lineman has reached an agreement with the Seahawks, per ESPN’s Adam Schefter. It’s a one-year deal that could be worth up to $6MM. The contract contains $3MM in guaranteed money.
The veteran has been connected to the Seahawks for several weeks. The two sides overcame their first hurdle when Williams passed a physical, a notable milestone considering the lineman is only about eight months removed from suffering a torn ACL. The signing stalled when the two sides started negotiating a contract, with Williams asking for more than the Seahawks could offer.
While agent Drew Rosenhaus indicated yesterday that a deal was imminent, Williams added a slight wrinkle to the saga by taking a visit with the Ravens. That may have been the final push the Seahawks needed, as the two sides agreed to a deal less than 24 hours after Williams’ reported trip to Baltimore.
There was recent uncertainty surrounding Seattle’s center depth, with the likes of Nick Harris and Olusegun Oluwatimi struggling to take hold of the opportunity. The Seahawks seemed to signal an impending move yesterday, when they moved on from Michael Novitsky.
Williams will now slide atop the depth chart…when he’s ready to take the field. The veteran tore his ACL in December, although Rosenhaus expressed optimism that Williams will be available for Week 1. The injury came at the worst possible time for the impending free agent, as he would have been among the top linemen on the market.
After spending his first four season as a starting guard in Dallas, Williams inked a two-year deal with Miami in 2022. He ended up starting all 17 games at center that season, with Pro Football Focus grading him as the fourth-best player at his position. Williams finished 2023 in the number-two spot, and the veteran previously graded as a top-15 guard during his time with the Cowboys.
With Seattle lacking depth in the middle of their offensive line and Williams hoping to reset his value, this pairing seemed like a perfect match. After a few weeks of uncertainty, the deal has finally come to fruition.
Welcome to the Hawks!
Obviously that story yesterday was way off. I thought he was looking for like 11-15 million. 6-That’s what I would have paid coming off of an injury. Nice signing. Not much to pay for 1 year of an ALL Pro C and you can let him heal up right.
Since when is Connor Williams an all-pro center? Good player, but let’s not go crazy.
No, not all All-Pro, but being top five per PFF puts Williams in that range. It’s conceivable, but I don’t think that it will happen coming off an injury in a new system this year. I’d put a few other centers up there-Humphrey, Ragnow, Linderbaum, Kelly, maybe Andrews-so the competition could be stiff to overcome. But I could see a healed Williams earning that designation, certainly, if he carries his Miami momentum. I wouldn’t predict it, but I woukdn’t be surprised. He has the takent.
Traditionally, though, linemen haven’t exactly done well in Seattle ratings-wise in this regime. Their last All-Pro lineman was Max Unger in 2012 (I always found him to be an underrated center-I feel like he maybe spoiled Carroll a little bit in his expectations for linemen afterward). It’s a new system this year, so maybe that could change, but traditionally playing on the line in Seattle seems like it’s been harder than other teams.
I think Miami has made linemen look better too, between McDaniel’s system and Tua getting the ball out faster than any QB in football. I also don’t think Robert Hunt is a top tier guard. Again, I like Williams and love this signing for Seattle, but I’m not THAT sold.
That’s fair-and I agree to an extent about Hunt. I mean, I still like Williams, but that’s fair. That system has done that since the Broncos days under the elder Shanahan. I don’t think that Hunt’s a bad guard, but I don’t find him very irreplaceable. I don’t think that he’s worth that contract, but he did perform well, as you said, in that system. So, it’s a fair concern.
At least in Williams’ case he has a level of history in Dallas to support his being, at minimum, a competent player in another system. Williams had a slow start, but I still don’t know why the Cowboys didn’t want him. He wasn’t that expensive at the time.
I think that’s fair all around. I know a lot of Cowboys fans thought he wasn’t very good at all. A tricky thing these days is that a lot of linemen don’t really hit their stride until the end of their rookie deals, which creates the dilemma of “Would this be foolishly paying a guy who’s mostly stunk in his career or is this paying for the prime this guy is finally entering?” Williams seems to be a case of the latter that a lot of Cowboys fans would tell you was the former.
Agreed, very much so.
Great signing by the Hawks. They’re going to be sneaky good this year I believe. I really wanted the Bears to sign Williams but he’s been linked to Seattle for a while now.
6 mill with only 3 guaranteed. For some reason I thought he’d be way more expensive to sign. I really don’t understand why Poles wasn’t in on this. Especially with all the current questions marks with the health of their starting O-line.
That’s quite a reduced price considering he was making $7M per with the Dolphins. Average ACL return is 9-12 months, so I’m betting that Seattle puts him on PUP to start the season.