Seahawks Face $161M Cap Crisis As Super Bowl MVP Walks—Massive Star Exodus

Seattle’s championship afterglow lasted less than a month. Five weeks after Kenneth Walker III became the first running back in 28 years to capture Super Bowl MVP—rumbling for 135 yards on 27 carries in a 29-13 rout of New England—the Seahawks declined to use their franchise tag, allowing the 24-year-old star to hit unrestricted free agency ahead of the March 11 deadline. The decision clears Walker to negotiate with the rest of the league beginning March 9, and it signals the start of what could be the most dramatic roster teardown ever endured by a defending champion.

Walker’s exit is only the headline. Seattle now confronts a perfect storm of expiring contracts and record-setting extension demands that threaten to strip the Lombardi Trophy winners of their core before the banner is even raised. Wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, fresh off an NFL-best 1,793 receiving yards and AP Offensive Player of the Year honors, is extension-eligible and expected to seek a deal that meets or exceeds Ja’Marr Chase’s four-year, $161 million benchmark. Cornerback Devon Witherspoon, dominant in the Super Bowl, is in line for $30-plus million annually, a figure that would top Sauce Gardner’s market-high cornerback contract. Combined, those two extensions alone would commit roughly $70 million in new money per season.

The arithmetic is brutal. The 2026 salary cap sits at a record $301.2 million, yet quarterback Sam Darnold’s recently signed three-year pact already consumes about $100 million of that space. Add in projected new deals for edge rusher Boye Mafe (around $18 million per year) and right tackle Abraham Lucas (potentially $20 million-plus), and Seattle’s brain trust must fit more than $120 million in fresh annual commitments under a hard ceiling.

Richard Sherman, the former Seahawks cornerback and current podcast host, summarized the dilemma bluntly: “Money is going to be an issue.” Sherman said Seattle’s internal offer to Walker sits “in the single digits,” while the open market could push the running back’s price to $10 million or higher. The franchise tag would have cost $14.3 million—too steep for a club juggling so many other priorities. Instead, the front office told Walker to test the market and circle back, a gambit that rarely reels elite talent home.

The defensive exodus may be even more jarring. Seattle’s secondary, which did not commit a single turnover during the entire postseason, could lose three of four starters in one week. Josh Jobe, who led the NFL allowing only a 49% completion rate into his coverage (per PFF), Coby Bryant, who closed the regular season with four interceptions, and 6-4 corner Tariq Woolen—projected by Sherman to command $18 million or more annually—are all unrestricted free agents. Retaining the trio could surpass $50 million per year, a price the Seahawks have shown no inclination to meet.

Speedster Rashid Shaheed, acquired at the trade deadline for fourth- and fifth-round picks to provide vertical juice for the playoff push, also hits the open market. The rental produced: Shaheed’s field-stretching ability helped Seattle finish its 10-game winning streak and secure the title. But general manager John Schneider has indicated he will not enter a bidding war to keep him, meaning the Seahawks effectively mortgaged two draft choices for a half-season cameo and a ring.

The ripple effects extend across the depth chart. Six impact starters—Walker, Shaheed, Jobe, Bryant, Woolen and Mafe—are either unrestricted or extension-eligible. It represents the largest single-offseason talent drain for a reigning champion in recent memory. Seattle’s brass understood the risk; Schneider admitted the day after the Super Bowl that Walker’s future “will play out in two weeks.” Two weeks have become one, and the clock now shows five days until the legal negotiating window opens.

Championships raise market value for every player in the locker room, yet the salary cap offers no loyalty bonus. The Seahawks, who held New England scoreless through three quarters in February, must now decide which heroes they can afford and which ones they will watch sign elsewhere. Kansas City, cited by Sherman as “desperate for a game-changing running back,” looms as a logical suitor for Walker, while suitors with cap space will line up for Woolen, Jobe and Bryant.

Seattle went 14-3, authored history on both sides of the ball, and delivered the city its first title since the 2013 season. The bill has arrived. With a March 11 deadline and a $161 million extension for Smith-Njigba hanging overhead, the franchise faces an unforgiving choice: mortgage the future to keep the band together, or begin an unprecedented fire sale just weeks after the confetti fell.