The Seattle Seahawks are in danger of losing several of their top players to free agency if they do not figure out their salary cap situation soon. Players need new deals while others need extensions, causing the Seahawks to start prioritizing players before free agency begins in March. According to general manager John Schneider Golden Tate will be the first to get a pay check.
According to Schneider, the Seahawks should be able to re-sign all of their free agents and give them favorable contracts without having to use the franchise tag option on players like Tate, Michael Bennett or kicker Steven Hauschka.
"Where we are right now is trying to keep this thing together as long as we possibly can," Schneider said, via ESPN.com. "I'm not looking forward to the tough decisions ahead us. You're affecting people's lives and people you've become very close with. But in order to be a consistent championship-caliber team, you have to draft well, be able make tough decisions and live with those decisions. We don't want to be a team that cruises in for a year and cruises out."
The Seahawks have already made what they anticipate to be their tough decisions. The team released Sidney Rice and Chris Clemons who were both scheduled to make $9 million next season. With that saved cash, Tate becomes a priority for the Seahawks.
"It's a big priority," Schneider said. "Golden knows where we stand how much we love and how much we want him on this team."
Tate has already expressed his desire to remain in Seattle for as long as he can. Understanding that players like Percy Harvin hurt his status with the team, the wide receiver has already said he would be willing to take a home town discount to stay with the Seahawks for the long-term future. That will be good news for the Seahawks because Bennett has no intentions of accepting less money to stay with the reigning Super Bowl champs.
"There is no such thing as discount. This is not Costco, this is not Walmart - this is real life," Bennett said on NFL Network, via the Seattle Times. "There is no discount really because you go out there and you don't give a discount on effort; you go out there and you give the best effort every day and you fight for your teammates, and you want to be compensated for the way that you perform and the kind of teammate you are."
With the Seahawks not interested in using the franchise tag, Bennett could easily depart to free agency. Most teams would be willing to give the defensive star a large contract to play for them. Schneider stays true to the belief that everything will get sorted out.
