ORLANDO, Fl. – After sending a pricy package including a 2024 second-round pick to the New York Giants to acquire defensive tackle Leonard Williams back in October, the Seattle Seahawks put on a full court press to re-sign the veteran defender leading up to the start of free agency on March 15.

But as general manager John Schneider reiterated at the NFL annual meetings on Tuesday, though Seattle did check off its “biggest priority” striking a three-year contract with Williams worth $64.5 million to keep him in the fold through the 2026 season, the deal may have came with a cost beyond $20 million per year. Since negotiations carried into the league’s legal tampering period and linebackers flew off the free agent shelves quicker than anticipated, the front office couldn’t make an aggressive offer to Jordyn Brooks before Miami swooped in to sign him to a three-year contract.

Making Brooks’ departure sting a bit more at the time, the Seahawks also watched future Hall of Fame linebacker Bobby Wagner leave to join the Commanders and reunite with former defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, who took over as the franchise’s new head coach in February. In the days after the two former starters left for greener pastures, Schneider was able to replace them by signing ex-Dolphins starter Jerome Baker and Bills reserve Tyrel Dodson to one-year deals.

From the moment he arrived in a midseason trade, re-signing Leonard Williams was the Seattle Seahawks top offseason priority.

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“We just couldn’t move,” Schneider said. “But that being said, we’re really happy for Jordan, happy for Bobby. That’s awesome for those guys. Baker and Dodson are guys that we wanted. It was just a matter of when. The linebackers went in free agency faster than they have in the past. So I don’t want to say we weren’t ready for it, but it just got moved up, the timing of it. But Jordan’s a younger guy, and so Miami was ready to go, and we love him. We just weren’t there yet because we’re still working on Leonard.”

Mere weeks after opening up more than $40 million in cap room by releasing veteran safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams as well as tight end Will Dissly, fans may scoff at the notion that Schneider and Seattle’s front office couldn’t negotiate contracts with Williams and Brooks at the same time. After all, they knew for months that both players would be unrestricted free agents, providing ample time to try to potentially reach an agreement before either hit the market.

But in Schneider’s defense, this hasn’t been a typical offseason for the esteemed executive. After the Seahawks decided to part ways with long-time coach Pete Carroll, he embarked on a lengthy search pursuing a replacement, eventually hiring former Ravens defensive coordinator Mike Macdonald on January 31. For several weeks after, he had active involvement in helping Macdonald build his first coaching staff, most specifically having a major voice in the decision to hire coordinators Ryan Grubb and Aden Durde.

Due to the prolonged coaching search coupled with additional time procuring a staff, Schneider acknowledged at the NFL combine in late February that he hadn’t had time to shift focus to negotiations with Seattle’s own free agents yet. Those discussions began in earnest after the ever-so-important week in Indianapolis, but it’s safe to say under normal circumstances that talks would have been further along at that stage with just two weeks before free agency kicked off.

As Schneider admitted on Tuesday, the Seahawks weren’t in a position where they could put multiple big money offers on the table at the same time either. With Williams still unsigned and both sides trying to hash out a deal as the matter of greatest importance, their salary cap picture remained unclear and they needed to be cognizant of their finances for other moves that needed to be made, making it impossible to also have a deal worth more than $10 million per year for Brooks.

“You can’t have all these different offers out,” Schneider explained. “We were talking about this in the meetings yesterday, and then all of a sudden they all just take them. And you’re like, ‘Oh sh–.’ All of a sudden you’re over the cap. You know what I mean? You have to prioritize them.”

In a perfect scenario, Seattle would have locked up Williams a bit faster, providing an opportunity for Schneider to transition into negotiations with Brooks while having a clear idea on the team’s financial situation and possibly match Miami’s offer if able to. But free agency always operates with fluidity and unpredictability, and unfortunately, the time line didn’t match up to have a chance at inking both deals.

Luckily for Schneider and the Seahawks, however, they didn’t exit the free agent period empty handed at linebacker either. As he mentioned multiple times on Tuesday, the organization had Baker and Dodson on their short list, viewing both players as quality fits to excel in Macdonald’s scheme that requires linebackers to be effective in coverage and efficient as blitzers, and quickly pivoted towards signing them after Williams re-signed and Brooks and Wagner left.

A dynamic blitzer from the middle, Jerome Baker should be an excellent fit in Mike Macdonald’s aggressive defense in Seattle.

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In six seasons with the Dolphins, Baker eclipsed 100 tackles three times and racked up 22.5 sacks and nearly 50 quarterback hits, stacking up against the best of the best at his position as a pass rusher. Additionally, he totaled five interceptions, including returning one for six points against the Eagles last season, demonstrating the athleticism and fluidity dropping into coverage that Macdonald covets at the position.

As for Dodson, he joins the Seahawks offering far less regular season experience with only 15 starts on his resume in five NFL seasons, making him a bit more of an unknown with a limited sample size to evaluate. But the 237-pound defender shined in 10 starts replacing injured starter Matt Milano last season, posting a career-high 74 tackles along with 2.5 sacks, eight tackles for loss, and an impressive 26.8 percent pressure rate as a blitzer.

Though it may not have been Plan A when the offseason began with Brooks fleeing the nest, Seattle took care of the most important business on the agenda by securing Williams, who lived up to the hype after coming over from New York despite his new team stumbling down the stretch and missing the playoffs. In 10 games, he tallied four sacks, 11 quarterback hits, nine tackles for loss, and 32 pressures, proving to be the disruptive force Schneider thought he would be when he signed off on the trade.

Enjoying his new surroundings, Williams made it clear late in the season that he had interest in re-signing with the Seahawks. Even after Carroll’s surprising exit, Macdonald and his new staff went into recruiting mode and sold the veteran on their vision for the franchise, getting him to buy back in with ease and speeding up negotiations enough that Schneider and the front office could get a deal done in a timely manner.

Time will tell whether or not missing out on re-signing Brooks will come back to bite the Seahawks, but Schneider understands things could have been far worse if discussions with Williams stalled and further delayed an agreement. Grateful the two sides knocked the deal out as quickly as they did, they were able to shift focus to other areas of need, including landing a pair of quality linebackers in Baker and Dodson who could be potential long-term building blocks for Macdonald’s defense.

“That was a big deal for us. And I’m glad we got it done as soon as we did because it could have lasted longer and that would’ve held us up from doing other things. And it did to a certain extent with some of our own guys, but he was the priority.”