RENTON - Devon Witherspoon is doing everything the Seahawks could ask of him in training camp. The contract, though, is still waiting.
Seattle entered Thursday’s seventh day and fifth practice of camp without the new extension many around the organization expected to be in place by now for the three-time Pro Bowl cornerback. The Seahawks usually lock up their foundational players early in camp, especially when those players are heading into the final season of a contract. Witherspoon is in the last year of the four-year rookie deal he signed after Seattle made him the fifth pick in the 2023 draft.
The team already exercised his fifth-year option this spring, which gives Seattle control of Witherspoon in 2027 for $21.16 million, fully guaranteed. General manager John Schneider has used that option as a bridge before, buying time to work out longer, richer extensions for core players. He did it with left tackle Charles Cross last year, then repeated the move this spring with Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the first-round pick Seattle took after Witherspoon in 2023.
Those two deals represented a combined $273 million investment in players the Seahawks want to build around. Witherspoon fits that same category as a young defensive centerpiece for Mike Macdonald’s unit.
So why hasn’t it happened yet?
Part of the answer is the cornerback market, which keeps moving. Last week, Patriots owner Robert Kraft said New England had offered Christian Gonzalez - drafted 12 spots behind Witherspoon in 2023 - the richest deal in league history for the position. That number would top $31 million per year, more than the four-year, $124 million contract the Rams gave Trent McDuffie after trading with Kansas City to land the former Washington Huskies standout this offseason.
Then came another reset. Cleveland re-signed Denzel Ward to a two-year, $62.2 million extension, making the five-time Pro Bowl corner the highest-paid player at the position. Ward is 29, which makes him four years older than Witherspoon, and his deal now gives Witherspoon’s camp and Gonzalez’s camp a fresh target.
There’s another wrinkle here, too: Witherspoon and Gonzalez share the same agents, Reggie Johnson and Tory Dandy of Creative Artists Agency Football in Los Angeles. That means the same group is negotiating both deals at once, with a clear view of what New England is offering Gonzalez and what Seattle is offering Witherspoon. That overlap could be helping drive the price up, and it may also be slowing everything down.
None of that has changed what Witherspoon looks like on the field.
He has been fully involved in every drill and scrimmage in camp, still talking, still chirping, still playing like the Seahawks’ loudest presence. He’s running the length of the field to celebrate with teammates after interceptions and making himself impossible to miss.
He’s also already become a favorite of the NFL Films crews filming Hard Knocks, with the first episode set to air Tuesday on HBO. The cameras and microphones keep finding him, even when he’s just tying his shoes, and he looks ready for a national spotlight once the series starts next week.
Gonzalez is practicing fully in New England as well. No holdouts. No hold-ins.
Macdonald, unsurprisingly, likes what he’s seeing from Witherspoon.
“I’m really impressed by him, honestly,” Macdonald said after Witherspoon’s latest full-go practice Thursday, Seattle’s first padded session of camp. “It’s just one of those things where it’s something that you’re not used to dealing with as a player, you know?
“To be able to take that, whatever’s going on in that front, and compartmentalize that shows you his maturity and his commitment to the team. And, really, his own personal development, too, how much he loves football and how much he wants to be out here and try to get better.
“You really respect his approach so far. It’s been great.”
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