End of an era: Seahawks releasing Bobby Wagner

This chapter of Seattle Seahawks football as we know it is over.

Bobby Wagner, the future Hall of Fame linebacker and the last remaining defensive member of the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl winning team of 2013, is going to be released from his contract, saving north of $16 million in cap space.

While the Russell Wilson trade caught us all by surprise, this news was always a distinct possibility. Wagner was approaching the final year of his contract and was one of the most obvious potential cap casualties, but March 8th nevertheless goes down as one of the saddest days in Seahawks franchise history.

Wilson and Wagner were taken in the same, franchise-changing 2012 Draft class and were fittingly the only players from that year’s roster who remained on the 2021 Seahawks squad.

I don’t know what else to say. Wagner is an 8x All-Pro selection, 2x leader in tackles (neither of them the 2021 season, in which he amassed 170 tackles), a member of the 2010s All-Decade Team, and quite simply one of the greatest Seahawks ever and one of the great linebackers of his generation. The Legion of Boom got much of the praise and notoriety, but Bobby Wagner’s importance through the years cannot be overstated.

There is no “running it back” with the Seahawks if two of the most iconic players are departing on the same day. The players from Seattle’s greatest seasons have all departed, and only Pete Carroll and John Schneider remain. They’ll be the ones in charge of another rebuild.

Thanks for everything, Bobby. And thanks for everything, Russ. We’ll have tributes to them later in the week.