Ditching Ahkello Witherspoon, Seahawks Keep Swinging and Missing on Veteran Cornerbacks

Fizzling out in the preseason and plummeting down the depth chart, Seattle traded Witherspoon to Pittsburgh, making him another cautionary tale about why the team should avoid signing veteran cornerbacks in free agency.

Heading towards a new NFL league year back in March, the Seahawks were dealing with one of the worst salary cap situations in the league and had more than 20 players scheduled to become unrestricted free agents.

Having less than $2 million in cap space available with a reduced $182.5 cap ceiling resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, general manager John Schneider faced a stiff test in regard to trying to retain most of Seattle's talented free agents. Among those hitting the market, cornerback Shaquill Griffin may have presented the most difficult decision for the front office.

When free agency kicked off, Schneider made every attempt to re-sign Griffin, continuing to negotiate with the 2019 Pro Bowler up until the final minute. But ultimately, an offer from the Jaguars proved to be too rich for the Seahawks to match and the corner bolted for his home state to sign a three-year, $40 million deal, creating a huge void in the secondary.

With Griffin priced out of Seattle, Schneider shifted his attention to more affordable alternatives to replace him at left cornerback, promptly signing Ahkello Witherspoon to a one-year, $4 million contract with a $2.5 million bonus.

Formerly starring at Colorado, the 6-foot-3 Witherspoon had been on the Seahawks' radar since the pre-draft process in 2017. Possessing the size, length, and athletic traits the team has preferred at cornerback, he was brought in for a visit and they had him on their big board as a potential day two target, so their interest in him as a free agent didn't come as a surprise.

Unfortunately, Witherspoon didn't pan out as Seattle anticipated and the team cut ties with him before ever playing in a regular season game, unexpectedly dealing him to Pittsburgh on Friday for a 2023 fifth-round draft choice.

Why did the Seahawks choose to move on from Witherspoon so quickly? Despite opening training camp with a strong start and emerging as an early front-runner to take over in Griffin's stead, he failed to impress during the preseason, allowing three receptions on eight targets for 53 yards. Two of those incompletions were dropped passes by receivers, making those numbers look better than they appear.

Looking back at comments from defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. on August 26, Witherspoon's departure maybe shouldn't be much of a surprise, as he seemed less than enthused about his overall performance.

"Witherspoon is a guy that’s been making plays, he had a really good day yesterday, he’s having a really good camp," Norton said bluntly. "Preseason has been fair."

The writing appeared to be on the wall for Witherspoon earlier this week, as Seattle traded a sixth-round pick to Jacksonville for cornerback Sidney Jones on Monday. Then on Tuesday, D.J. Reed told reporters he had started working at left cornerback this week after being exclusively on the right side in training camp. Meanwhile, coach Pete Carroll continued to rave about Tre Flowers' growth and all but announced him as the starter on the right side Wednesday.

All three of those developments were bad signs for Witherspoon's prospects of starting and given his expensive salary for a reserve, the Seahawks took their opportunity to move him for draft capital while they still could. It was just the latest example of a discouraging trend where Schneider has swung and missed on trying to play it cheap with veteran cornerbacks.

Only one year earlier, Schneider traded a fifth-round pick to Washington for cornerback Quinton Dunbar, who was expected to replace Flowers across from Griffin in the starting lineup. Mired in legal issues throughout the offseason, he wound up playing in just six regular season games due to a knee injury and struggled mightily when he was on the field, allowing a 111.0 passer rating and four touchdowns in coverage.

Back in 2015, following the departure of Byron Maxwell in free agency, Schneider attempted to replace him with a 31-year old Cary Williams. Not surprisingly, that experiment failed too, as he surrendered three touchdowns and allowed opposing quarterbacks to post a 120.6 passer rating targeting him in coverage. After 10 mostly dreadful starts, the Seahawks released him and he was out of the league one year later.

It's far too early to know if the Seahawks made the wrong move not re-signing Griffin, and ultimately, the money wasn't there for the team to extend him while also keeping other key players such as Carlos Dunlap and Chris Carson and extending Jamal Adams. Schneider can't be faulted for not being willing to give the young corner nearly $14 million per year.

In the case of Witherspoon, the decision to trade him does open the door for fourth-round pick Tre Brown to eventually see the field. If the rookie finds his way into the lineup at some point this season and shows promise, then the mishap with Witherspoon will be quickly forgiven.

However, Schneider's track record of replacing quality starters who exceed Seattle's financial means with veteran free agents has been mediocre at best. To save a few million bucks last year, for example, he tried to replace Justin Britt with B.J. Finney at center and that decision was only salvaged by the fact Finney was included in a deal to acquire Dunlap last October.

At the cornerback spot specifically, none of these types of moves have worked out in Schneider's favor at all. Losing out on a fourth-round compensatory pick by signing him in the first place, Witherspoon's early exit offers another cautionary tale illustrating why the organization should avoid signing veterans at the position, at least if they're being viewed as replacements for a starter.

Most importantly, with safety Quandre Diggs and tackle Duane Brown heading towards free agency and the Seahawks not showing any inclination they want to extend their contracts, what happened with Griffin should provide a lesson on why the front office shouldn't be playing with fire by risking the possibility of losing either player next spring.