Gregg Bell
The News Tribune
RENTON — The Seahawks’ lone off day of the week is Tuesday.
But they were still working—the Bruce Irvin angle.
The former Super Bowl outside linebacker for Seattle got waived Monday afternoon by the Oakland Raiders, according to the NFL’s official transactions. That started a 24-hour waiver period in which each team has a chance to put in a claim for Irvin, in reverse order of current league standings.
Putting in a claim for Irvin would obligate the claiming team to pay the prorated amount left on Irvin’s $8 million guaranteed salary for this season, $4 million with eight games remaining in this season. That’s a steep cost for a 31-year-old linebacker, even at the expensive and coveted position of edge rusher.
More likely, Irvin will go unclaimed past the end of his waiver period Tuesday afternoon. That would make him a free agent. Any team could then sign him at their cost. The Raiders would owe Irvin that remaining $4 million, on top of the money from any new deal Irvin would get from another team for the rest of this season.
Irvin had three sacks in eight games for the floundering Raiders, who barely played him the last couple weeks. They are cleaning their house for the future.
The Seahawks need depth in pass rushing beyond end Frank Clark, who have 7 1/2 of the team’s 21 sacks through eight games. Seattle is tied for 19th in the league in sacks this season.
Irvin fits the Seahawks more than just pragmatically in the defense. Their bond remains personal.
The Seahawks took Irvin in the first round of the 2012 out of West Virginia. The rest of the league saw that as a reach, because most saw Irvin as a one-skill player: go get the quarterback off the edge.
The Seahawks, coach Pete Carroll and linebackers coach Ken Norton Jr. saw Irvin as more in 2012: as an every-down linebacker. That’s what they turned Irvin into, on the strongside of their 4-3 defense next to rookie middle man Bobby Wagner and second-year weakside linebacker K.J. Wright. Those three became the center line of the NFL’s best defense. Irvin became a Super Bowl champion who has earned $36 million in his seven seasons, the first four with Seattle.
Irvin has thanked the Seahawks, Carroll and Norton publicly for saving his life. In 2015 while he was still with Seattle, one month before he played in his second consecutive Super Bowl for the Seahawks, Irvin said he was supposed to be “dead or in jail” after a rough start to his life in the Atlanta area.
Last month before the Seahawks played Irvin’s Raiders at Wembley Stadium in London, Irvin spent a long time on the field during pregame warmups talking to Norton.
In 2016, his first season with Oakland after signing a four-year, $27.7 million contract with the Raiders in free agency, Irvin said Norton is like “father figure” to him. He’s said Norton molded him into becoming a man while they were with the Seahawks from 2012-15.
Norton was Irvin’s defensive coordinator with the Raiders from 2015 through last season. Norton became Seattle’s defensive coordinator in January.
The one factor against Seattle in the team signing back Irvin after he clears waivers as expected: At age 31, Irvin may want to maximize his chance to win a Super Bowl right now.
The Seahawks are 4-4 and three games behind the Rams, whom they play on Sunday, in the NFC West. They and Atlanta are two games behind Carolina (6-2) and 1 1/2 games behind Minnesota (5-3-1) in the race for the conference’s wild-card playoff berths.
Falcons head coach Dan Quinn knows Irvin well. The two have a mutual friendship and respect from Quinn’s two seasons as Irvin’s defensive coordinator with the Seahawks, their 2013 and ‘14 Super Bowl years.
The New England Patriots have made it a recent mid-season habit to sign veteran defensive players for the rest of the year, to aid their annual push back toward another Super Bowl. At 7-2 with another comfortable lead atop the AFC East, the Patriots would give Irvin the best chance among these teams to win a ring this season. Then Irvin could go shopping in free agency in March for a longer deal at his price.
It will also likely come down to which of the above teams, or someone else, offers Irvin the most above the roughly $500,000 prorated veteran minimum for the rest of this season. The Seahawks have about $4.8 million in salary cap space for this year, according to overthecap.com.
Twice on Monday, Carroll was asked about the possibility of bringing Irvin back to Seattle. He didn’t dismiss the possibility either time.
First was on his weekly day-after-game radio show with Seattle’s KIRO AM.
“We’re always watching the release wire and seeing what happens,” Carroll said. “Nothing specific about this one yet.”
Carroll told 710 AM that Irvin is “a great kid. Always loved Bruce.”
Monday afternoon I asked the coach during his press conference at team headquarters how interested the Seahawks are in Irvin now that the Raiders had officially waived him.
“I’m not commenting on that right now, if you don’t mind,” Carroll said. “Just wait and see what happens. He’s got waivers and all kinds of things going on.
“We’ll see what happens.”
