How 5th-year options on Smith-Njigba, Witherspoon set up Seahawks for long term
· Yahoo Sports
The Seahawks are going to have their two best, young players for a while.
What looks like a shorter-term move for 2027 appears to be the Super Bowl champions’ idea to secure them long beyond that.
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The Seahawks announced Friday night they are using their fifth-year contract options for 2027 on All-Pro wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the NFL offensive player of the year this past season, and on three-time Pro Bowl cornerback Devon Witherspoon. They were Seattle’s first-round choices in the 2023 draft. The moves keep Smith-Njigba and Witherspoon from possibly entering free agency following the final years of their rookie contracts, the 2026 season.
The moves do not prevent the Seahawks from extending both of them with long-term extensions for 2028 and beyond.
In fact, it may prove to further the chances for that.
The league’s collective bargaining agreement provides teams the chance to keep first-round picks for one extra season beyond the standard four-year contracts each draft choice in any round one through seven gets every year. The cost of that fifth-year option is a guaranteed, one-year deal. It’s at an average of the top salaries at each position — with value tiers that factor exemplary performance (Pro Bowl selections) and playing time over the first three seasons of an NFL career.
Because he has been originally voted into at least two Pro Bowls, Witherspoon gets a top-tier value for his fifth-year option. That for cornerbacks in 2027 is $21.16 million guranteed for the one season.
Smith-Njigba made his second Pro Bowl this season. His first selection, for the 2024 season, came as an injury replacement.
So he gets a tier-two value for his fifth-year option. That for wide receivers in 2027 will be a guaranteed $23.85 million.
At the very least, Witherspoon and Smith-Njigba are having a swell weekend. They just got assured to earn in 2027 nearly 20 and 10 times what their base salaries for 2026 are to be ($1.15 million and $2.72 million).
But there’s more to this.
Seahawks gain time
The last time Seahawks general manager John Schneider used a fifth-year option on a first-round pick was the most recent time he could have.
Last offseason, in the spring of 2025, Charles Cross was about to enter the final year of his rookie contract. Seattle selected him in the first round of the 2022 draft.
When Schneider was contemplating whether to pick up Cross’ fifth-year option for 2026, The News Tribune asked the GM at the 2025 NFL scouting combine in Indianapolis if doing so would be in order to buy time to agreed to a long-term extension instead, at a more team-friendly salary-cap charge than the option number.
Schneider smiled and nodded affirmatively.
That’s exactly what Seattle’s GM did a few weeks later.
The Seahawks exercised Cross’ fifth-year option last spring. It had a 2026 value for left tackles of a guaranteed $17.56 million. All of that would have counted against Seattle’s salary cap for this year.
Knowing Cross and his agent couldn’t negotiate a new deal with any leverage of possibly testing free agency instead of re-signing, Schneider bought the team months to deal with Cross — on the team’s terms.
In January, as the Seahawks began their playoff push to Super Bowl 60, Schneider and Cross agreed on a four-year extension. It’s worth up to $104.4 million. Cross got $75 million guaranteed, instead of the $17.56 million guaranteed on the fifth-year option.
Big win for Cross.
And big win for the Seahawks.
They got a new salary-cap charge on Cross for 2026 at the team’s preferred rate of $10.88 million. That is nearly $7 million less for this year than it would have been with the option at the league rate. They also got their key left tackle, the blind-side protector of Pro Bowl quarterback Sam Darnold, under contract through 2030.
Schneider has now set up the Seahawks to do the same with Witherpsoon and Smith-Njigba, at two of the sport’s most important and most expensive positions. Each will command extensions with average annual values at the top of their positions, perhaps $30 million annually for Witherspoon and $40 million per year with Smith-Njigba.
But by buying themselves time with the fifth-year options to do extensions with each, the Seahawks can now get multiyear deals done to spread out signing-bonus money across the life of the new contracts, creating better cap charges for 2027 than $21 million and $24 million.