Now that roster cuts are complete and 53-man rosters are settled, we have a clearer picture of how NFL teams are using their salary caps.
This awesome graph by Sebastian Carl (using the latest available data from OverTheCap.com) shows the percentage breakdown for contract classes, as well as available cap space and dead money. The bad news is the Seahawks rank very high in dead money thanks to high-profile departures like DK Metcalf, Geno Smith, Dre’Mont Jones, and Tyler Lockett. The good news? They
have more available cap space than most, and that’s because no team has a greater portion of their cap space allocated to rookie deals than Seattle.
As Carl notes, “rookie contracts will account for 18.4% of the salary cap in 2025.” The Seahawks are almost exactly 10 percentage points higher than the average. They also don’t have any “elite figure” contracts on the books, meaning they have no players who have a top 32 cap number. Their “high figure” contracts, which are between 33rd-160th, consist of Leonard Williams, Sam Darnold, and Uchenna Nwosu.
A whopping 41 of the Seahawks’ 53 players are on rookie contracts (which would include existing rookie contracts and anyone on three or fewer accrued seasons). The non-rookie contracts are the aforementioned Williams, Darnold, and Nwosu, as well as Ernest Jones IV, Demarcus Lawrence, Jarran Reed, Julian Love, Michael Dickson, Jason Myers, Erik Saubert, Josh Jones, and Drew Lock.
Of course, the contracts of Cross, Abe Lucas, Riq Woolen, Devon Witherspoon, and Jaxon Smith-Njigba could look a lot different/more expensive come 2026, but the main point is the 2025 Seahawks are a team with a cap texture that is much changed from this same time a year ago. They were middling in cap allocated to rookie contracts, near the bottom in cap space, and near the top in “elite figure” earners thanks to Smith and Metcalf, not to mention the Lockett and Jones “high figure” contracts. The combined “middle and low figure” deals given to the likes of Tyrel Dodson, Jerome Baker, Noah Fant, Rayshawn Jenkins, Connor Williams, and Pharaoh Brown have also been drastically reduced.
I imagine many Seahawks fans consider this a welcome shift in cap allocation under John Schneider, especially with all of the young talent currently on the roster.
