The Seahawks won’t pick up their fifth-year option on offensive lineman James Carpenter, the team announced today. The move had been expected, with Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk reporting last week that the team was leaning against exercising the 2015 option.
Carpenter, 25, struggled with injuries during the first two years of his career, but appeared in all 16 of the Seahawks’ regular-season games in 2013, starting 10 of them. The former 25th overall pick also started at left guard for the club in the conference championship and Super Bowl. Still, Carpenter ranked just 65th out of 81 qualified guards, according to Pro Football Focus’ grades (subscription required), and his 2015 option would have been worth $7.438MM, so it’s not a surprise that Seattle was reluctant to exercise it.
As our fifth-year option tracker shows, most of the 2015 options decisions have been made in advance of tonight’s deadline. The only unannounced decision that could plausibly still go either way is the Vikings’ call on Christian Ponder, though Minnesota figures to pass on that option.