Seahawks veterans pick up guarantees for being on roster

The 2019 NFL season started on Thursday when the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Bears entertained fans to the tune of a 10-3 slugfest that many attributed to rust from the quarterbacks not playing in the preseason. Whether or not that was the case is anyone’s guess, however, now that Sunday has arrived, most of the rest of the league is set to open the season, and that includes the Seattle Seahawks.

The Hawks are hoping to continue the hot streak the team started in the back half of 2018 when it won six of its final eight games, and then continued winning at that clip by going 3-1 in the preseason. The opponent Sunday, the Cincinnati Bengals, represent about as favorable a matchup as the team could hope for as it looks to open the season with a defensive line that could be rusty after having not taken part in the preseason. Not only are Seattle fans excited to see Ziggy Ansah take the field for the team for the first time since he signed with Seattle in May, it could also be the first time teams might get to see Mike Iupati and Jadeveon Clowney in Seahawks uniforms as well.

What is important for all of the veteran members of the team with at least four accrued seasons is that by virtue of having been on the roster at 4 pm on Saturday, their 2019 base salary is now fully guaranteed under Article 30 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. That part of the CBA covers termination pay, which is where any veteran with at least four accrued seasons has the ability, one time during their career, to receiver their entire base salary if they are cut after having been on the Week 1 roster.

For the Seahawks, the players who fall into this category and now have their base salary guaranteed are (Author’s note: Several players, such as Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner have their full salary guaranteed under the terms of their contract, but I have included those players anyway):

• Russell Wilson,
• Bobby Wagner,
• Duane Brown,
• Jadeveon Clowney,
• Justin Britt,
• Ziggy Ansah,
• K.J. Wright,
• Bradley McDougald,
• Mychal Kendricks,
• Mike Iupati,
• Jason Myers,
• Al Woods,
• D.J. Fluker,
• Jaron Brown,
• Nick Bellore,
• Neiko Thorpe and
• Geno Smith

Things are setting up for the Seahawks to be a competitive team with an offense that has the potential to be carried deep into the postseason by Wilson and his right arm.

And now is the time for the real games to begin, and for Wilson to show how much his game has changed and developed after a second offseason of work with Brian Schottenheimer.