So long, Bruce. Seahawks linebacker/pass rusher Bruce Irvin will sign with Ken Norton Jr. and the Raiders as soon as the league year opens tomorrow at 1:00 pm PT, says both Adam Schefter and Ian Rapoport.
This is not a surprise -- Seattle has been expecting to say goodbye to Irvin for some time, and while they likely made a stab at keeping him as a Seahawk, it was going to be hard to pay yet another linebacker top dollar. Seattle already has Bobby Wagner and K.J. Wright locked up long-term.
"I loved Byron (Maxwell), you guys, I'm sure you get tired of me talking about it but it really, truly is a big puzzle that we have to work through," said John Schneider at the Combine when asked about Irvin and free agency. "I have met with Bruce individually, and he knows how we feel about him as an organization, and he knows that we are either going to be able to make it work, or give him a big hug and congratulate him.
"That's just the way this league is right now," said Schneider. "There's no question it's built on parity and more players you acquire the more players you are going to lose at a certain point. We would love to have all of our guys back, unfortunately we are not going to be able to have all of them back based on what the landscape looks like in the draft and free agency.''
Irvin joins Malcolm Smith on that Raider defense, and on nickel downs, he'll likely rush opposite of Khalil Mack. If they're able to re-sign Aldon Smith, it could be a pretty interesting group. Best of luck to Irvin in Oakland, and now Seattle must figure out what they're going to do at both the SAM linebacker spot and the nickel weakside pass rusher spot. They've been grooming Kevin Pierre-Louis and Cassius Marsh for those roles, and Frank Clark could find himself getting more snaps as an end as well.