The Seattle Seahawks have long skimped on the offensive line, drafting and developing young trench players before letting them move on to greener fields, and larger paychecks, with other franchises.
From
James Carpenter, Russel Okung and J.R. Sweezy from the Super Bowl seasons to Mark Glowinski, Ethan Pocic, George Fant and Damien Lewis during the post-greatness years of the Pete Carroll era, a competent offensive line could have been assembled from former Seahawks plying their trade for other franchises.
That, however, appears to have changed recently, with John Schneider and the Seahawks front office extending both tackles selected in the 2022 NFL Draft in recent months. First it was Abe Lucas, who signed a three-year, $46M contract extension on the eve of the 2025 season, with left tackle Charles Cross inking a four year contract extension just after the conclusion of the year.
Now the details of the Cross extension are known, and those details shine a bright light on the continued evolution of the Seattle front office as old norms and standards give way as the franchise continues to evolve its operations.
Specifically, since hiring Joey Laine, who had spent time with both the Green Bay Packers and New Orleans Saints during his career, the Seahawks have increased their use of more complex contractual structures, including void years and option bonuses compared to the contracts handed out earlier in Schneider’s tenure.
With that said, the operating norms of the Seattle front office is not what fans are here to read about, so here are the details of how much the Seahawks are paying Charles Cross and how his contract will count against the salary cap in the coming years. Without wasting any further time, here are the basics of the contract:
- $25M signing bonus
- $15M fully guaranteed option bonus
- $1.69M fully guaranteed 2026 base salary
- $350k fully guaranteed 2026 workout bonus
- $1.02M fully guaranteed per game roster bonuses for 2026 ($60k per game)
- $350k workout bonus each year 2027-2030
- $1.02M in per game roster bonuses for each season 2027-2030 ($60k per game)
- $13.63M 2027 base salary (guaranteed for injury at signing, vesting to fully guaranteed 5 days after the Super Bowl)
- $8M option bonus due in March 2028
- $10.13M 2028 base salary
- $17.63M 2029 base salary
- $24.03M 2030 base salary
That is a whole lot of numbers, and the cap impact will not be immediately clear for most. Thus, breaking the cap impact out by season yields the following:
2026: $10.88M ($1.69M base salary + $5M signing bonus proration + $3M 2026 option bonus proration + $1.02M in per game roster bonuses + $350k workout bonus)
2027: $23M ($13.63M base salary + $5M signing bonus proration + $3M 2026 option bonus proration + $1.02M in per game roster bonuses + $350k workout bonus)
2028: $21.1M ($10.13M base salary + $5M signing bonus proration + $3M 2026 option bonus proration + $1.6M 2028 option bonus proration + $1.02M in per game roster bonuses + $350k workout bonus)
2029: $28.6M ($17.63M base salary + $5M signing bonus proration + $3M 2026 option bonus proration + $1.6M 2028 option bonus proration + $1.02M in per game roster bonuses + $350k workout bonus)
2030: $35M ($24.03M base salary + $5M signing bonus proration + $3M 2026 option bonus proration + $1.6M 2028 option bonus proration + $1.02M in per game roster bonuses + $350k workout bonus)
The contract includes two void years, which allow for the proration of the 2028 option bonus over five years instead of three, saving just over $1M per year of cap space in 2028, 2029 and 2030 by pushing $3.2M of cap hits into 2031 after the expiration of the contract.
The size of the cap hits in the latter years of the contract may have some fans worried that the contract is an overpay, but between the salary cap continuing to increase amid continued increasing popularity and the fact that the rookie wage scale has the majority of players in the league locked into low-cost contracts, those cap hits will likely prove to be huge bargains relative to market rate by the time Cross’ contract reaches its end.
