Seattle Seahawks: 5 Biggest free agency decisions this offseason
By Samuel Teets
How much to spend
The NFL’s salary cap will rise to $190 million in 2019 (per Newsweek). The cap this year was $177.2 million, so that’s a pretty sizable increase. Because of this and the expiring contracts, Seattle will have a substantial amount of money to spend this offseason. They’ll actually have over $60 million in cap space to fill, which gives them a lot of wiggle room.
Spotrac puts the league’s cap space average for 2019 at $37,665,878. That puts Seattle well above the average along with ten other teams. On the top end of that spectrum is the Indianapolis Colts, who will have close to double the space that Seattle does, with over $120 million to spend.
On the other hand, the Jacksonville Jaguars and Philadelphia Eagles are actually set to be over the cap in 2019. The Eagles, according to Spotrac’s salary cap tracker (assumes team salary cap of $189 million), will be over $13 million over the cap.
The Seahawks have 43 players signed for 2019. That means they have room to add ten more players. With over $60 million in free space, that’s enough room to go in on an impactful free agent. However, the Seahawks tend to just sign backup players to build depth and leave the heavy lifting to the draft.
If they take that route, there should be enough money to make a multitude of minor signings, even past 2019. Signing a big-name free agent would limit the space Seattle has to move in the future.