The Seahawks have several pending free agents, leading some to think that the franchise will have to pick and choose who they sign.
The Seattle Seahawks are in full offseason mode as the Super Bowl champs and begin the climb back to the top of the NFL mountain.
Of course, there are many housekeeping items the franchise has to address in the coming weeks that will seriously affect its ability to defend its title.
With several key players set to be free agents in the coming weeks, the Seahawks must decide who they want to keep, and who they don't.
But let's not get it twisted here, the Seahawks won't be salary-cap poor if they choose to sign all of them.
Granted, it will be tough considering each player's market value has gone up considerably since the Super Bowl win, but the Seahawks, if they choose, can do their best to try to retain everyone.
But it appears that sentiment is lost on ESPN's Bill Barnwell, who thinks that the Seahawks might have to choose between keeping Kenneth Walker or receiver/returner Rashid Shaheed due to their expected salaries.
“I’d like to see Shaheed get a full offseason with an offense to see what he can do, and he adds meaningful value as a returner, which should compensate for the relative lack of receiving work,” Barnwell wrote. “He and Walker might end up in the same financial ballpark, which could create a pick-one-or-the-other scenario for GM John Schneider.”
At the time of writing, if the Seahawks do nothing with restructures or cuts, they will have a little over $61 million in cap space to shop with.
Walker's expected contract per Spotrac.com is a four-year, $36 million deal, paying $9 million APY. As for Shaheed, his expected APY is $14.2 million.
Both are well within Seattle's grasp to sign if they want to.
And that brings us to Barnwell's statement that the Seahawks might have to pick and choose who they want. They won't. If they want both, they can sign both.
It is really as simple as that. Nothing more, nothing less.
So there will be a host of decisions Seattle has to make over the coming months, but the notion that the franchise will be pressed for cap space, and therefore have to choose who they want to retain, couldn't be further from the truth.