In the immediate aftermath of the 2023 NFL Draft, there were fans of the Seattle Seahawks who were certain that general manager John Schneider had erred by drafting Devon Witherspoon fifth overall, while Jalen Carter remained available.
The Philadelphia Eagles would select Carter with the ninth overall pick, and in the three seasons since then the Seahawks and Eagles have each taken home a Lombardi Trophy.
With both Witherspoon and Carter eligible for contract extensions once the 2025 season ended,
there was no shortage of chatter during the offseason regarding the potential of a new contract for both. Rumblings have emerged that the Seahawks offered Witherspoon the opportunity to become the highest paid cornerback in the NFL months ago, but so far the two sides have yet to agree to a deal, while the Eagles and Carter agreed to a four-year deal worth $152M that makes Carter the highest paid interior defensive lineman in NFL history.
Carter inking an extension won’t have an immediate impact on a potential Witherspoon contract, but it is very likely to have an impact on the Seahawks, in particular as the Seattle front office works to negotiate contract extensions with other members of the Seahawks roster.
Most importantly, the extension Carter signed will undoubtedly be cited in negotiations next offseason when 2024 first round pick Byron Murphy is extension eligible. Murphy has yet to garner the same kind of attention and accolades as Carter, in spite of an on-field impact that is universally lauded by experts and analysts. Certainly, being on a West Coast team that plays most of its games in the late slot impacts how many fans and members of the media watch Murphy on a weekly basis compared to a player who is much more likely to be on television screens during the early Sunday game.
Regardless of how much attention is paid to Murphy by fans of and beat writers for other teams, though, any general manager across the league would unquestionably have interest in adding an impactful, young interior defensive lineman given the opportunity. That means Murphy’s ability to disrupt the plans of opponents in both the run and pass make him the exact type of three-down interior defensive lineman general managers dream of, and at whom they would be willing to throw very large amounts of cash should such a player ever hit free agency.
Add in that Murphy won’t turn 24 years of age until the day before the Seahawks kickoff the 2026 season against the New England Patriots in Week 1, the upside potential for the future remains massive. Thus, it’s not a question of if, but rather how much, the Carter extension will impact the negotiations between Murphy and the Seahawks next offseason.
The relevance of this is that prior to Philadelphia making Carter the highest paid interior defensive lineman in league history there were only two players in that position group whose contracts exceeded $28M per year. Those two players were Jeffery Simmons of the Tennessee Titans and Chris Jones of the Kansas City Chiefs, which means the Carter contracts represents a significant reset of the top of the market for the interior defensive line.
Perhaps most importantly, though, the market reset brought about by Carter’s $38M per year extension will likely impact every major contract negotiated by an interior defensive lineman in the coming months, even if those contracts don’t reset the top of the market. Specifically, every young defensive lineman who may not be of Murphy’s caliber or have the same upside potential, who signs a contract extension or free agent contract between now and next offseason where the value was impacted by Carter’s $38M per year extension will add another data point upon which Murphy’s agent can use to strengthen the foundation of arguing for Murphy’s value.
Even more immediately, though, the Seahawks front office could see an impact Carter’s extension as they work to negotiate an extension of their own in the coming days or weeks with Leonard Williams. Williams has been a superstar since coming over from the New York Giants at the trade deadline in 2023, and multiple reports have established that Williams and the team are working towards an extension agreement that would keep him in Seattle past 2026.
Williams is unquestionably in a different category than Carter or Murphy, neither of which has yet to reach their prime. At 32 years of age Williams is in the home stretch of his career, but coming off a second-team All Pro season in 2025 and back to back Pro Bowl selections, the extension Williams signs will certainly not be small, and it will undoubtedly provide another anchor point of supporting evidence towards the value of an extension for defensive linemen across the NFL, including Murphy. Further, any agent negotiating an extension for a high-level defensive lineman is all but certain to cite the recent Carter extension as evidence of a higher market for the position group as a whole, meaning that between now and whenever Murphy and the Seahawks enter contract extension talks, there will be multiple deals where the contract value was impacted by the Carter contract and then in turn used as backing for the arguments as to Murphy’s value.
In short, the Carter extension resets the market for impact defensive linemen, specifically interior defensive linemen, and the Seahawks are set to extend two players to whom that description aptly applies. So, while the Carter extension won’t officially start until 2028, its impact on the league and Seattle in particular, is likely to be felt multiple times over the coming year.
