Re-upping on Uchenna: Seahawks sign Nwosu to three-year extension
By Charles Hamaker
Seattle, WA – With training camp for the upcoming season approaching, general manager John Schneider and the Seattle Seahawks extended pass rusher Uchenna Nwosu ahead of the linebacker becoming a free agent after this year. The 26-year-old Nwosu was a big factor in the front seven for Seattle, an area that the Seahawks have been trying to improve for the last few years and will now factor into a hopeful turnaround on the defensive end for the team after mix results last season. While the money that Nwosu will make factors into why he decided to sign an extension with Seattle, head coach Pete Carroll played an even bigger part.
Carroll’s chemistry creation
The 2021 season, where the Seahawks went 7-10 and missed the playoffs for the first time in three years to that point, had fans and critics alike saying that the team needed to move on from head coach Pete Carroll and look in a different direction. With Bobby Wagner released and star quarterback Russell Wilson traded to Denver, again critics doubled down on saying that Seattle and its front office needed to hit the factory reset button and move on. Once it became apparent that wasn’t going to happen, the narrative switched to just how bad the team would be during the 2022-23 season as Geno Smith was named the starter and the roster largely looked like a basement dweller. Carroll didn’t change who he was, not caring for the outside noise, and had his team’s shock expectations and while only finishing the year with a 9-8 record, Seattle burst onto the scene. With plenty of young talent (headlined by a potential all-time draft class) and the necessary veteran leadership, Carroll looks to be building something like 2012-13.
His continued success as a head coach, and youth approach as noted by Quandre Diggs sharing a story about how Carroll ran through a whiteboard twice ahead of the team's week one win over Denver, has left a mark on Nwosu. Under Anthony Lynn and Brandon Staley in his first four years in the NFL, Nwosu saw gradual improvement year by year but was largely “underrated” and didn’t necessarily click on all cylinders. When he was signed by the Seahawks in the offseason ahead of the 2022-23 season, it was looked at as a steal of a move and boy was it. Given his somewhat untapped nature and Carroll’s ability to rally the troops, what we saw on the field with Nwosu, let alone the team, was all in motion.
“I’ve just learned that he’s special. He’s different. He has that juice, that energy, that positivity. Every day, no matter win, loss, rain, sunshine, doesn’t matter, he’s the same guy. That’s what you appreciate as a player, when you got the same guy constantly showing up every day to work, you can’t expect nothing different... You know he’s not going to flip out on you and he’s going to be the same guy who he is. It’s good for the team because he knows how to bring everybody closer together and he just knows how to spread his positivity and energy.”
Deal details
With Nwosu’s deal set to expire after the upcoming 2023-24 season, Seattle made the decision to reward the pass rusher and ensure that he plays his “prime” years in a Seahawks jersey. With this new deal, Nwosu will remain in Seattle, tearing things up at Lumen Field, through the 2026 season before he becomes a free agent at the end of 2027. The basic numbers are three-years, $59M with his average salary sitting at $19,666,667. Nwosu will be getting $32M in guaranteed money, which is a nice payday for him considering that his career is still relatively young and he hasn’t signed a deal yet in his career.
Uchenna’s impact
As mentioned, with the Chargers, Nwosu was really more of a player that was slowly building his impact over time and trying to grow as an edge player for a Chargers defense that had plenty of talent in those areas. Since signing his initial deal with the Seahawks, Nwosu helped to add some juice to a Seattle pass rush that has been an area of weakness for the past few years. Two relatively unproven commodities heading into this past season, Nwosu and Darrell Taylor led the Seahawks in Seahawks as they tied with 9.5. While sacks tend to be the big number when it comes to pass rushing, Nwosu made his impact in many different ways when it came to disrupting the opposing offense.
While his numbers don’t stack up with the top edge rushers in the league, it’s important to see where Nwosu stacks up amongst some of the best in the leading in terms of getting to the quarterback and disrupting opposing offenses. In terms of tackles for loss, Nwosu has better numbers than Quinnen Williams, Brandon Graham, DeForest Buckner, his three forced fumbles were tied with Micah Parsons, his 28 quarterback hits were better than Parsons and Myles Garrett. The Seahawks defense benefitted tremendously from Nwosu’s defensive play and the way he crashed into defenses, and with this new contract, Seattle is hoping that he only takes his game to the next level.
“He has much more obvious leadership through his play, effort, work habits, and just the person that he is. It’s not what he says, it’s what he does. He has been an obvious leader and a real tough guy in all situations. The guys love him, and they respect the heck out of him.”
An area that Nwosu and the Seahawks are looking to improve upon this upcoming season is stopping the run, which is part of his job description. Seattle sat around the bottle of the league when it came to stopping the run, sitting at 30th of 32 teams in terms of rushing yards allowed per game. While he was allowed to essentially “freelance” on the defensive end with how he rushed the passer, that had some negatives towards the teams run defense. Though, it needs to be said that Nwosu alone being able to freelance wasn’t the reason why this Seattle run defense was poor, but rather perhaps the overall scheme that the Seahawks defense had in place last season.
“He’s a ballplayer, so the thing that I’ve tried to do with him as soon as we started to realize that was to free him up. Take the liberties; ‘you have the liberties to go.’ That’s not everybody that we’ve coached like that. Some guys you do. Some guys you don’t.”
What’s next?
With this deal getting done on Monday night, July 24th, the Seahawks get a big deal done with a player in their 20s right before training camp, something that John Schneider and this front office have been doing for years. Training camp kicks off on Wednesday, July 26th, as Seattle gears up for what hopefully will be an even bigger success and leap forward after the Seahawks took the NFL by storm last season. With most to all the roster back in place, a few notable free agent additions, and another seemingly impressive draft class, Seattle should be all lined up to contend for the NFC West crown and a deep playoff run, something that they haven’t been able to do since the 2014 season.