The Seattle Seahawks are currently negotiating with cornerback Devon Witherspoon on a new multi-year extension, but that process likely got a bit more expensive thanks to the Cleveland Browns. On Tuesday afternoon, news broke that the Browns gave their star cornerback Denzel Ward a brand new extension to make him the highest paid cornerback in NFL history... again.
Ward signed a two-year extension worth up to $62.2 million dollars, with $52.3 million of it fully guaranteed. His new deal will make him the highest paid cornerback in the league with an average yearly salary of $31.1, narrowly edging out Rams cornerback Trent McDuffie's salary of $31 million a year. As I mentioned earlier, this is now the second time Ward has received a record-setting
contract to be the highest paid corner in NFL history, as his five-year, $100 million dollar extension he signed in 2022 helped him set that mark before.
Why am I bringing any of this up? This is Seahawks Wire, not Browns Wire, right? No need to check the URL, my friend. This is pertinent information because this is likely to directly affect how the Seahawks are conducting business with their super star cornerback Devon Witherspoon. Right now, Seattle is hard at work to lock up their former first round pick and cornerstone of their secondary for the foreseeable future. It is a contract that iswidely expected to "reset" the cornerback market, per Albert Breer. Right now, the question isn't "will Witherspoon be the highest paid?" but rather "how high will he set the new bar?"
Well, the bar is currently set at $31.1 million, which means whatever number the Seahawks were aiming for, it likely just got a little higher thanks to Ward's new deal. Yes, a deal for Witherspoon making $31.2 million would in fact cross that bar by a pure dollars and cents value. But no one talks about "resetting" the market with the idea of just barely beating the guy at the top.
This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: The price tag for Seahawks CB Devon Witherspoon just went up
