With the new league year approaching, teams on currently on pace to be over the 2025 salary cap have work to do on the cost-cutting front. The Seahawks are among them, and they have manufactured some breathing room through simple means. 
Seattle has restructured defensive lineman Leonard Williams‘ contract, as detailed by Over the Cap’s Jason Fitzgerald. The team converted $18.75MM in base salary into a bonus while adding two void years to the pact. As a result, Williams’ 2025 cap charge has been lowered from $29.1MM to $14.06MM.
The Seahawks pulled off a midseason trade for Williams in 2023, and he had a strong 10-game run to close out the campaign with his new team. That resulted in a three-year, $64.5MM deal being worked out last offseason to keep him in the Emerald City. The former Jet and Giant delivered a strong season in 2024, racking up 11 sacks and 16 tackles for loss en route to the second Pro Bowl nod of his career.
Given his production, Williams represented a logical candidate for such a financial move aimed at creating immediate cap space. The downside to this reworking, of course, is the effect it will have next offseason. Williams is now set to carry a 2026 cap hit of $29.64MM, something which could lead the team down the restructure path once again or lend itself to an extension. A decision on that front will be informed by the 30-year-old’s level of play on a defensive line which also includes veteran Dre’Mont Jones and 2024 first-rounder Byron Murphy.
While this Williams move helps Seattle’s immediate financial outlook, the team is still projected to be more than $13MM over the cap for 2025. More maneuvering will therefore be needed, especially once the official cap ceiling for next season is unveiled.
I had actually forgotten he was still in the league.
I guess you missed his 50+ yard pick 6? “Rumbling, Stumbling….” Lol
50+? That was a 90-yard pick-six! Get this man an ambulance!
Must not of have watched a Hawks game. He was definitely known to the other team he was one of our best D players on the team.
He should have been all pro.
I’m just here for the Bruce Gradkowski article
As a Seahawk fan, I believe John Schneider is bad at managing the cap.
Based on what? They have no albatross contracts, huge cap space starting in 2026, and can easily create $50M+ this offseason. Seems pretty good to me.
Based on the fact that we have no superstars that require big money, yet we have no cap room to fix holes. Who cares about cap room in the future, by the time we get there, Schneider will have kicked some can down the road to the point we won’t have much free space. I’m actually a bit shocked people haven’t noticed the pattern yet. Every year we have dead money from bad contracts. Whether it’s Diggs, Adams, or soon to be Lockett, Jones, Nwosu.
The only reason the Hawks had to extend Williams was to create cap room, which is just reducing future cap room to fund today.
“They can easily create $50+M this offseason”
Yeah, I read the same article. They could certainly remove $50M in bad contracts from this roster. Doesn’t that support my opinion that he’s bad at the cap though? He can create money to spend if he trades his QB and cuts the bad contracts. Haha!
Well as a Seahawks fan you clearly don’t pay much attention to the cap then.
The easiest and most logical way to create cap space is going to be releasing Tyler Lockett.