By Bob Condotta / The Seattle Times
A few hours after the Seattle Seahawks agreed to trade quarterback Russell Wilson, they then decided to move on from the quarterback of the team’s defense the last 10 years — middle linebacker Bobby Wagner.
ESPN was the first to report that the Seahawks will release Wagner in what is a salary-cap-saving move — cutting Wagner will save Seattle $16.6 million against the cap. The NFL Network also reported Seattle will release Wagner. The Seattle Times learned that the team is expected to announce the move officially on Wednesday.
Trading Wilson and releasing Wagner within roughly eight hours means the Seahawks now have no players left who have been with the team continuously who were part of the squad that won Super Bowl XLVIII (defensive end Benson Mayowa, who played in two games as a rookie that year, returned in 2020 and remains under contract).
The potential savings and the fact there was no remaining guaranteed money in Wagner’s contract led to conjecture that the team would move on from Wagner.
Before what turned out to be his final home game with Seattle last December against Chicago, Wagner said he knew there was a chance he might be released.
“You think about it,” Wagner, 31, said then. “You think about what the next year looks like, and just, period, what the future holds because this was a season that I don’t think we all planned for. We didn’t plan for the season to go this way (a 7-10 record). And so obviously there’s going to be some changes.
“And whether or not I’m part of those changes, I don’t know. But all I can control is these last two games. And you know, figure it out from there, whatever the team thinks is the best thing to do moving forward. We’ll see how that plays out.”
Wagner then suffered a knee injury on the first play against Chicago and did not play in the season finale against Arizona.
Before that game, he was asked if he would be willing to take a lesser deal to stay with Seattle and he indicated he would not. Having said “I’m just going to go into my businessman mentality and work some stuff out,” Wagner was asked if that meant he’d be willing to redo his deal.
“I didn’t say that,” Wagner said. “I did not say that. I did not say that. I said I’m a businessman.”
It’s unclear if the Seahawks approached Wagner about redoing his contract.
General manager John Schneider was somewhat ominous about Wagner’s future when asked about it at the NFL combine last week in Indianapolis, saying “We learn a lot this week when we meet with everybody’s agents and we will come around next week and kind of reset, like kind of recalibrate where we are at, what does that look (like),” Schneider said. “… Obviously got to evaluate every position. He’s an amazing player.”
Cody Barton filled in for Wagner the final two games of last season and could be an option to take his place in 2022 alongside Jordyn Brooks in the middle of a defense that is expected to go with more 3-4 looks under new defensive coordinator Clint Hurtt.
But the Seahawks could also now use one of what are now three picks in the first 41 of the 2022 draft to fill the middle linebacker spot, as well.
Wagner was famously taken with a pick ahead of Wilson in Seattle’s 2012 draft, which may be the best in team history, at No. 47 overall.
Like Wilson, Wagner became an immediate starter and standout.
Wagner had 104 or more tackles in all 10 seasons as a Seahawk and finishes with 1,381 for his career, a franchise record.
A five-time team captain, Wagner was also selected to eight Pro Bowls and to the first team All-Pro team six times most in franchise history and two more than the next player on the list — left tackle Walter Jones.
Wagner again made the Pro Bowl and was a second-team All-Pro pick in 2021 when he set a career-high with 170 tackles before spraining his knee against the Bears — the injury was expected to heal without surgery and is not considered to be a factor in his release. That number was a franchise single-season record until it was surpassed by Brooks in the final game of the year — Brooks finished with 184.
Wagner served as his own agent when he negotiated a three-year contract extension with Seattle in 2019 that paid him an average of $18 million per year, at the time the most ever for an inside linebacker (it has since been surpassed by Darius Leonard of the Colts and Fred Warner of the 49ers).
Wagner is still listed as his own agent and will now have to search for a new team if he wants to continue to play, as he said last December that he will.
“I don’t see myself stopping playing,” he said last December. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of room to grow as a player, to grow as a leader. I feel like there’s a lot of new technology that’s going to let me play a little bit longer, so I’m excited to dive into that stuff and we’ll see how it works out.”
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