Leonard Williams megadeal named worst contract for Seahawks in 2024

One could be forgiven for thinking that the Seahawks were a contender at midseason last year. Heading into Halloween their record was 5-2, including wins over Detroit and a very tough Cleveland team and an almost-had-em loss on the road against Cincinnati. The front office certainly thought they were ready to make a deep playoff run, so Pete Carroll engineered one of the more aggressive mi-season trades Seattle ever did during his time.

Looking to bolster their interior defensive line, the Seahawks sent two draft picks to the Giants in exchange for star defensive lineman Leonard Williams . The trade turned sour pretty quickly, as the team lost five of their next six games, including a just-barely-victory at home over the atrocious Commanders. You really can't blame Williams for their issues though, as he was arguably their best defender during that stretch that sank their season.

Heading into 2024 the team had a tough decision to make - should they re-sign Williams and try to rebuild their defense around him, or let him walk and write off those picks as a sunk cost? In the end they decided to pay Big Cat, signing him to a three-year deal worth over $21 million per season.

Williams may be their most-important defensive piece outside of cornerback Devon Witherspoon , but it's ok not to be in love with his contract. In fact, one analyst says it's the worst deal on Seattle's books right now. That includes Dallas Robinson at Pro Football Network . Here's what he wrote about Williams' contract:

"While Leonard Williams is an outstanding run defender, he’s not a dominant pass rusher. He’s also entering his age-30 campaign. However, the Seahawks still gave Williams $21.5 million annually, just $1 million per year shy of Giants DT Dexter Lawrence, who’s a far superior interior presence."

Fair enough. It's probably worth mentioning that Lawrence is radically underpaid now that he's the top interior lineman in the league in the absence of Aaron Donald. That's a story for another day, though.

As for Williams, it's not unreasonable to want that $60+ million to have gone to younger players, but in the end they'd likely have to make another massive investment in their iDL unit anyway and the odds that any non-first-round-pick they get will be as good as Williams are pretty slim. We think Williams is worth the money. It's just the price of business for a solid interior defender these days and it's only going to keep going up.