K.J Wright Won’t Rejoin Seahawks On Discount Deal
Weakside linebacker K.J Wright says the Seattle Seahawks have ‘got to get busy’ in order to bring him back.
The Seahawks’ longest serving player is set to become an unrestricted free agent next month. K.J Wright, in a Monday night CBS interview, put some pretty huge pressure on the organization to give him a pay rise.
The Seahawks drafted K.J Wright in the fourth round 2011 and since then it has been able to sign him to discount deals. He made $6.75 million per season on a 2014 extension and $7.75 million APY after returning in free agency in 2014.
He is in a strong negotiating position. The 31 year old is playing some of his best football despite a serious injury in 2018. Last season, he was the only player to hit double digits in tackles for loss (11) and passes defensed (10). Wright is third on the Seahawks’ all time tackles list.
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“I do way too much on the football field to take a discount,” said Wright
“It makes absolutely no sense. If you want to win all these championships and look good on Sundays, you’ve got to compensate your guys that are making plays. … I have a family and I’m trying to set up long, long-term success for my family.”
Where this is problematic for Seattle is the salary cap crunch they find themselves in. The franchise is around $5 – $8 million below the projected $180.5 million cap for this year. Bringing Wright back to finish his career with the team who drafted him won’t be as simple as it sounds.
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“That would just be a beautiful story, if I could just ride it all out with the Seahawks,” Wright said.
“That’s some legendary-type stuff. And like I said before I left, I believe it would be a great investment for Seattle to keep me because as you’ve seen, since I’ve been here, we’ve been nothing but awesome — always making it to the playoffs, winning our division, so they know how much I want to be here. But at the end of the day, I get it. [Because of the salary cap], they’ve got to clear some space to make things happen, so they’ve got to get busy.”
