Seahawks notebook: Bennett denies demanding trade to Falcons

Making his first public comments of the offseason, Michael Bennett cleared up a couple of issues related to him.

For starters, the Seahawks defensive end insists he never asked for a trade, which had been reported last month. Secondly, Bennett doesn’t seem to have changed his mind about tight end Jimmy Graham, who this offseason went from being NFC rival to teammate when the Seahawks acquired him in a trade with New Orleans.

During an unscheduled appearance on 710 ESPN Seattle Thursday, Bennett dismissed a report from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that said he wanted a new contract and a trade to Atlanta, where former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn is now the head coach, saying he didn’t know how “a guy from Dallas can make up a story about me.”

“I don’t know what the problem is,” Bennett said. “I’m still trying to figure out what happened.”

Bennett noted it was strange that somebody in Dallas was reporting news on him, and said he was surfing with his kids in Hawaii when that story came out.

“I didn’t ask for a trade,” he said. Bennett also added, “They made rumors about Jesus, they’ll make rumors about anybody.”

Bennett was not, however, specifically asked about his contract in the 710 interview, so not asking for a trade doesn’t necessarily mean he’s happy with everything about his situation. Bennett also appeared KIRO’s FM station and when asked if he was happy with his contract, a four-year deal worth $28.5 million, Bennett said, “I can’t really say that, but I mean, I don’t know anybody that’s happy with the amount of money that they’re making. But that this point, I’m just trying to be a good Seahawk.”

Seahawks general manager John Schneider has repeatedly made it clear the Seahawks don’t want to set a precedent by renegotiating deals until a player is heading into the last year of his contract—it’s why Marshawn Lynch didn’t get a new contract last summer when he held out of training camp—so even if Bennett wants a new deal, he’s not likely going to get one.

As for Bennett’s new teammate, he didn’t exactly back down from the critical words he has said about Graham in the past. After the Seahawks beat the Saints in the playoffs two seasons ago, a game that featured a pregame dustup between Graham and several Seahawks players, Bennett called Graham both “soft” and “overrated.”

Asked about his new teammate Thursday, Bennett said, “I still feel the same way. Just because he’s on my team, I don’t stop feeling that way. Obviously I’m going to be a better teammate to him because he’s on my team. I can’t do the things I was doing to him when we were playing him.”

Bennett added that because the Seahawks play a different style of football than the Saints, Graham will have to adjust to the way Seattle does things.

“When he comes to our team, he’s a part of our team,” Bennett said. “We had a different philosophy than they had with the Saints, so the things he was expected to do with the Saints are going to be different when he comes here. Obviously we’re a running team, so he’s going to have to block and do all those things. I don’t feel as harsh as I did at the time because he’s my teammate now, but at the time he was on the opposite team, a team we played that was pretty good, we battled with them a couple of times, and I didn’t really like that team.”

Preseason schedule

The NFL released its preseason schedule, though the specific dates and game times have not yet been announced. As has been the case since the Seahawks moved to the NFC, they will face AFC West teams as they prepare for the 2015 season, though this year they play all four AFC West teams instead of playing three from that division and one other team, which has been the norm in recent years.

The Seahawks will open preseason play against Denver sometime between Aug. 13-16 vs. Denver, then play at Kansas City between Aug. 20-23. Seattle’s third preseason game, usually the one in which the starters see the most playing time, is a nationally televised game at San Diego on Aug. 29, airing on CBS at 5 p.m. PT. For the 10th straight season, the Seahawks end their preseason against Oakland, hosting the Raiders on Sept. 3rd or 4th.

The league is expected to release the regular season schedule later this month.