The Seahawks are trying to trade one of their most high-profile players, according to ESPN
Since the Seattle Seahawks were eliminated from playoff contention on the final day of the regular season, defensive end Michael Bennett has been of the belief he will not be returning to the team next season.
On Thursday, Seattle head coach Pete Carroll was asked about Bennett’s status for the coming season, and he would not confirm Bennett would be returning.
So perhaps it wasn’t a big surprise when ESPN reported later in the day that the team is trying to work out a trade for the three-time Pro Bowler.
ESPN.com’s Brady Henderson cited a league source as saying the team has been shopping Bennett.
Bennett is under contract through 2020. He renegotiated his deal with the team in 2016 and landed $17.5 million in guaranteed money.
His base salary this season is just $1.65 million, but because of the signing bonuses, his cap hit is $7.4 million.
By trading or releasing him before June 1, Seattle would save $2.2 million against its salary cap. But trading or releasing after this season would save the organization $5.2 million for the 2019 season.
Another reason the team will have to decide Bennett’s fate soon is the fact that he is due a $3 million bonus if he is still on the team’s roster by March 18.
So while it may seem odd from a financial standpoint to trade Bennett now, Seattle doesn’t have picks in the second or third rounds of the upcoming NFL draft. Those picks were used to acquire defensive tackle Sheldon Richardson from the Jets and left tackle Duane Brown from Houston. Some analysts believe Bennett could be traded with the hope of recouping at least one of those picks.
But trading Bennett would leave the Seahawks weaker on the defensive line. Bennett was very productive last season, recording 8.5 sacks. He has 23.5 sacks over the past three seasons.
Bennett expressed doubts about his future following the Seahawks’ final game, telling the Tacoma News Tribune that he “probably won’t be back” for another season with the team.
“The future is not in my hands; it’s always in the organization’s hand, what happens to you as a player,” Bennett said in January. “You just deal with it, cope with whatever the team decides and you just go with it, whether you come back, whether they rebuild the team, whether you’re starting — you just deal with it.
“Just seems like it’s a young man’s game. I can see them going younger, with younger players. That’s part of the game. Especially when you lose, there’s always changes. … Like I said, it’s a young man’s game. We lost a lot of players, and we’ve seen some of those great players, when those young people got in the game they had to be prepared. So I could see trying to get those guys going and seeing what happens.”
Asked about Bennett’s status with the team Thursday morning at the NFL scouting combine, Carroll said, “I haven’t talked to Mike in awhile now. But it’s just this time of year, conversations going in all directions.”
But he also said he expects this offseason to be unlike any other he’s had during his time with the team, suggesting major changes to the roster are likely.
“I think the opportunity for it to be an altering moment for us is there,” Carroll said. “But every offseason we approach it the same way: to compete as hard as we can to figure out the best ways to put our guys in the right positions, to do the right things, to make the right choices, to stay abreast at what’s going on in the league.”
“And sometimes you’ve got to make some tough calls to get that done and put it in the right order. I really feel confident that we’ve done that. But there is a lot of work here, a lot of stuff to get better on before we figure all that out.”
Bennett is known for more than just his productivity on the field. He began sitting during the national anthem during the 2017 preseason and continued to do so most of the season, but relented for a game played two days prior to Veterans Day.
In August, he was detained briefly by Las Vegas police officers outside a casino after police responded to a call about possible shots being fired. Bennett accused the police of racism, saying he was targeted simply because he was a “black man in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
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