Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett is unhappy with his current contract and he may take drastic measures to get his message across to team management. In a phone conversation with Steve Wyche of NFL.com, Bennett indicated that it’s “definitely possible” that he’ll hold out from training camp.
Bennett, of course, would incur hefty fines if he were to skip out on Seattle’s training camp. At present, the 29-year-old is slated to continue on the four-year, $28.5MM contract ($16MM guaranteed) he signed in 2014. Frankly, it’s hard to argue that Bennett isn’t underpaid. He stands as one of the very best 4-3 defensive ends in the league, but his $7.125MM annual salary places him just 13th at his position. Over the weekend, PFR’s Dallas Robinson opined that Bennett shouldn’t have re-signed with the Seahawks if he was dissatisfied with the deal being offered to him.
As the No. 1 free agent of 2014, PFR’s Luke Adams estimated that Bennett could net as much as $9-10MM annually. That might have been near the upper limit of what Bennett could have earned, but we’ll never know the real answer to that since the defensive end never hit the open market. On March 10th, Bennett re-upped with the Seahawks on the very deal that he is frustrated with today.
After the 2013 season, Bennett graded out as the league’s fifth-best 4-3 defensive end, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). This past year, he moved even further up the list to No. 2 (link, subscription required), behind Miami’s Cameron Wake, while registering 26 tackles and seven sacks.
Do you think Bennett deserves a new deal, or should he play out the contract he already has? Let us know in the comment section below.