REACTION: #Seahawks Rookies Sign Contracts – Nick Emmanwori & Elijah Arroyo| #SeattleSports

REACTION: #Seahawks Rookies Sign Contracts – Nick Emmanwori & Elijah Arroyo| #SeattleSports

And so, um, the guys are signed, right? We were worried about Nicki Mor. We’re worried about a Royal. We knew it would get done, but the questions were when is it going to get done? How much they going to get guaranteed? So, the details are out. Imari gets a four-year deal, 11.8 guaranteed. You got a Royal with a four what, a 6.8 million guaranteed, $8 million overall over four years. So, they’re good. They’re good to go. But the negotiations, man, it’s uh it’s tough. That’s why when guys don’t have agents and they’re doing it themselves, um, you got to be immensely tough. I think of a guy like Bobby Wagner. I think Sherm represented himself, too. Uh, they’re going to say the negatives about you to your face, like, “Look, Sherm, them hips ain’t flipping the way they used to. Look, Bobby, you’re not getting downhill the way you used to.” And they use that stuff against you when it comes to negotiations. And I think John is comfortable with that as well. He’s been doing this for what, 15 years now. He’s been the GM. Um, so the deal got done. What are your initial thoughts with that? I think it is interesting to see the Seahawks do something that is so starkly different than really any contract that they’ve ever done with anybody. Uh and is how much in in guarantees that they are are giving these guys whereas Eman Wor is fully guaranteed like the number that you see even worry sign for that’s what he’s making over the course of this contract. uh Aoyo making a really high percentage of his salary in terms of guarantees, which is not something that they have done really with anybody. It’s always been, yeah, you get a lot of guarantees upfront, but we’re not going to have the later years of your contract potentially hurt us financially. Now, what even worry is making and what a Royo is making in terms of the the total of their deal and and really on an average annual value is is so small compared to the rest of the salary cap to where this isn’t going to hurt the Seahawks I think in any way if either of those guys have have problems and and don’t play out the duration of their contract, which hopefully, you know, fingers crossed that these guys are have great careers and and they’re upstanding Seahawks and whatnot Uh that’s the obvious hope in all this. Um but I do kind of wonder like what’s the ramifications for future contract negotiations with the Seahawks, especially a team that as we talked about, was it yesterday or the day before? All these class of 2022 guys that are up for new deals or or could negotiate now because you’re entering the final season of your rookie contract. Like that’s going to have an impact on maybe what those guys ask for too. This is um this is a change that’s happening in the NFL and we see changes all the time, right? Changes in rules, philosophies. I remember you used to be able to tackle the quarterback low, then Tom Brady tears his ACL and they get rid of that. You used to be able to horse collar until a couple guys blow out their ACL’s consistently and you can’t do that. Like this is just what happens in the NFL. Um and I am all for it, but how does this affect business going forward? I think you have to change your business plan and business model just a little bit. I don’t think you have to go crazy and now every year your your high pick in the second round is guaranteed a contract. But now when you get into those situations, they’re going to use that as leverage. Look, this is what you paid him last year. He’s in the same spot. Why isn’t my guy getting a fully guaranteed contract? It’s um this is going to be a common practice. I think I think um the early second rounders are going to blend in with the first rounders. And but we’ve heard that too, man. We’ve had experts on this show all the time and they always say when it comes to evaluating players after the 15th pick, they kind of all blend in. And then you get into the third round, the third round mix with the fourth, the fourth mix with the fifth. Um, it’s just the way it goes. The most important thing is that he’s here. He’s signed. He’s going to be focused. Doesn’t doesn’t worry about negotiating. You can just play some football now. And and as an athlete, just being able to play football. No more classes, no more dealing with your agent, working about talking about money. you’re a football player now. You can lock it in and it’s it’s a great feeling. I did it for two years here and then couple years in Canada and when you’re just focusing on football, um things get a lot more simple. It’s freeing for sure. Yeah. I I just think that this Seahawks team and how much they have been relying upon young players over the last probably like four seasons or so, starting with that class of 2022. um getting these guys in as as quickly as they could considering the circumstances I think is only going to be beneficial because whether it was like maybe heading into that 2022 season and the Seahawks hadn’t had a lot of draft success before then. I I wonder if there was maybe something that that changed and I think it was Pete Carol who had a hesitance to play young players uh where or hesitancy to play young players and then maybe just based off of maybe a philosophy or maybe at the insistence of of John Schneider or somebody like that it’s like well young players are what built the first dynasty here in Seattle. That’s what built the the Legion of Boom team is guys on their rookie deals getting starts, playing above their contracts, and that allowed them to build out the roster around them and allow for them to assign so many guys to extensions. It It’s kind of like, well, why did we get away from that? Why did we get away from all all these rookies? And maybe it was just kind of like a lack of talent from the rookie classes that were prior to 2022, but um you look at at the talent brought in here in 2025 with Zable, even worry, Aoyo, uh those three guys taken in the first 50some picks. Like I would imagine all three of them are going to see uh significant playing time this year. Uh I know Milro was a third round pick, so he’s probably not going to end up seeing a ton of playing time. maybe a few plays here or there, but like you you drafted guys who you expect to contribute. So, good on the Seahawks to maybe acquies a little bit and say, “Okay, we’ll make these these sacrifices in how we normally do business.” Um, because we expect a lot from you. Now, in those expectations, these players got to now live up to that contract for sure. Like your first three picks are going to play. Gray Zable going to start. Nicki Mori going to play. Elijah Reel going to play. After that, you have Jaylen Milro. He’ll sit. We’ll see him a little bit. Uh Riley Mills is coming off a uh a surgery, right? I think um he has to get healthy, but he should be fine. Like your your first four, we did a a deal yesterday or the day before where we looked at the first few picks in every draft in the last what three or four and they’ve hit 2024. Murphy, Haynes, Knight, AJ Barner, uh, Pritchette, LaMa, DJ James, Michael Gerald, we’ve seen all of them at some point. DJ James didn’t make it out of camp in 2023. Devin Weatherspoon, JSN, Derk Hall, Zack Sharing, Anthony Bradford, Cam Young, I think has moved on, right? Uh, Mike Morris, Olu, Jared Reed, Kenny McInt, a lot of these guys for a while. And then the 2022 draft, which is a hit after hit after hit after hit. So, if they could um if they could get three of these guys to hit and sprinkle in some extras, we know that Robbie, the fullback, is going to play as well. We’ll see what Damian Martinez looks like. This could be a success. But priority number one, get the top three signed cuz those dudes are going to play and they did exactly that. And I’m happy that they were able to adjust a bit and weren’t just hard-headed. You know, sometimes GMs, owners can just just be hard-headed and don’t want to make a move. Maybe they got outside their comfort zone and that’s where you grow. I think so. And uh hopefully this allows for maybe more harmonious contract discussions going forward. I we’ll see because like we talked about there’s a lot of guys up for extensions. I know Brady Henderson has a piece on ESPN.com right now looking at what might an extension for Kobe Bryant would be. Um we talked about that too a couple days ago. Um, so it’s it’s going to be I I don’t think this is the end of of what we have seen from from all these class of of 25 negotiations with the second rounders. I think this is just going to uh continue to have impacts elsewhere. You look on this roster. All right, let’s get it. The guys are signed going into camp.

Hosts Michael Bumpus & Curtis Rogers react to the news of the Seattle Seahawks signing 2nd round picks Elijah Arroyo and Nick Emmanwori to fully guaranteed contracts.

FULL STORY 📰: https://sports.mynorthwest.com/nfl/seattle-seahawks/seattle-seahawks-wrap-up-draft-class-by-signing-te-elijah-arroyo/1817046

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