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Seattle Seahawks did the obvious by paying Bobby Wagner

By Kevin Parvizi

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After locking up Russell Wilson to a deal that made him the second highest-paid quarterback in the NFL (just $100,000 off of Aaron Rodgers per year), the Seattle Seahawks turned their attention to extending star middle linebacker Bobby Wagner, who some argue is the best player at the position. While I’m waiting for Carolina Panthers MLB Luke Kuechly to make the most money of any inside linebacker, Wagner has already set the bar by agreeing to a four-year, $43 million deal from Seattle, as per the NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

This means that with $10.75 million per year and $22 million in guarantees, Wagner will make more money per year and has more total guarantees on his deal than any other inside linebacker in NFL history. His goal all along was to make $10 million per year, which would have deservingly made him more money than Pittsburgh Steelers veteran Lawrence Timmons, and he’s unsurprisingly topped that.

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Had Wagner made it to the open market, he would have probably cleared more than $11 million per year. Even if that weren’t the case, he would make even more than $22 million in guaranteed money, as free-agent bidding wars often lead to more guaranteed money being thrown around as a way of making up for the “ceiling” that a contract’s total value can oftentimes bring.

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Since the deal has been called an “extension”, it looks like the Seahawks, as with Wilson, will get Wagner for one last bargain year, as they are set to pay him just under $1 million in 2015. It still hasn’t been clarified how the contract will break down, so we’ll have to wait for those key and often underrated details.

In any case, the Seahawks did what they had to do, since they absolutely had to lock Wagner up at some point. They could have used the franchise tag on him if things got desperate in 2016, but at some point, a long-term deal had to be done. Yes, the Seahawks have K.J. Wright on the weak-side and Kevin Pierre-Louis as a promising backup, but Wagner is their best run defender, their quarterback on defense, and will only increase in importance once Bruce Irvin leaves.

We can continue to crack jokes at Tony Dungy for inexplicably giving Wagner an MVP vote instead of Rodgers, but the fact that the Seahawks MLB played so well last year that he even earned that type of a vote speaks volumes to how much he means to this defense. As ESPN’s Adam Schefter noted, no Seahawk has come close to matching his tackle numbers.

Tackles can be an overrated stat, but since Wagner had the fifth-best Run Stop% among inside linebackers last year, according to Pro Football Focus, it’s safe to say that he isn’t racking up garbage tackles at the heart of the Seahawks defense. Due to Brandon Mebane‘s injury last year and Tony McDaniel‘s uncharacteristic struggles, his work against the run was all the more important.

That said, you don’t make $22 million in guarantees and become easily the highest-paid player at the ILB position on run defense alone, and Wagner is as well-rounded as they come at the position. Not only have his tackle counts (141, 120, and 104, respectively) been excellent in each of his three seasons in the league, but he’s also racked up 9.5 sacks, five picks, and 13 passes defended since entering the league from Utah State. Wagner’s ability to blitz and make plays on the ball cannot be underrated, and his instincts, range, closing speed, and tackling ability all combine to make him a special player.

Feb 1, 2015; Glendale, AZ, USA; Seattle Seahawks linebacker Bobby Wagner (54) celebrates after an interception against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl XLIX at University of Phoenix Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Richard Sherman and Earl Thomas are widely recognized as the two best and most important defensive players on the Seattle Seahawks, and I also subscribe to this line of thinking.

But when you field one of the best defenses in NFL history and have perennial Super Bowl aspirations, you want a superstar at each level of the defense.

Along with defensive end Michael Bennett, Wagner- who is, by my estimation, the team’s third-most important defender- is one of those superstars, and it would have been extremely difficult to replace his hard work up the middle after 2015 or 2016 (if franchised), had they not extended him.

We’ll wait for more details of the deal, but, for now, it’s clear that the Seahawks did what they had to do. It was obvious that they needed to keep Wagner in Seattle for a long time, and paying him market value was exactly what needed to be done in order to make that happen.

At 25, Wagner is locked in as the ‘Hawks starting MLB for his best years, and, like Wilson, he’ll also have a chance at making a second big contract down the road.

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