Julian Love thinks he’s found perfect fit with Seahawks wherever they want to use him

Of the six external free agents the Seahawks signed this offseason, Julian Love might be the most surprising.

Safety, the position where Love started 16 games for the Giants last season, simply didn’t seem a big need with Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams still under contract and carrying the two highest salary-cap hits on the team in 2023. Popular Ryan Neal was tendered as a restricted free agent.

After the initial frenzied wave of free agency passed and the Seahawks saw that Love was still available — and at a price they couldn’t believe with the safety market not developing the way most thought — they pounced, seeing a player and a value too good to pass up.

As Love explained it Thursday during a Zoom session with media who cover the Seahawks, he got a call at 11 p.m. ET that they were interested, got on a plane the next day for a visit and, during a layover in Minneapolis, learned they were going to give him an offer. 

After dinner with some coaches, and a physical and meetings with coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider the following day, Love found himself a member of the Seattle Seahawks, agreeing to a two-year deal worth up to $12 million, with $5.985 million guaranteed.

“It was pretty fast,” Love said. “It all happened fast with Seattle.”

But, Love said, maybe that was serendipitous, too.

“I think my game was meant to be somewhere else,” he said of leaving the Giants. “It was meant to be in Seattle.”

And that, Love indicated, may make up for whatever he might have lost financially.

After becoming a full-time starter at safety in 2022 for the first time in his four-year career, Love and the Giants reportedly began to talk about an extension of his rookie deal at midseason.

According to The Athletic and other outlets, the Giants weren’t close to Love’s asking price of $10 million a year, so he decided to hit free agency.

But as Love put it, the free agent safety market turned out to be a little “funky. … The market was tough for safeties. That’s just the reality. I wouldn’t have expected it. But it was what it was.”

The Athletic reported that Love told the Giants what the Seahawks offered, allowing them to match or better it, but they declined.

The contract still represents a healthy raise from the $1.3 million a year he was making with the Giants on his rookie deal after he was taken in the fourth round out of Notre Dame in 2019.

It also represents a significant investment by the Seahawks of a $3.9 million cap hit in 2023 that balloons to almost $8.1 million in 2024, currently the ninth-highest of the 25 players they have under contract for that season.

All of which, in the moment that the Seahawks signed Love, begged the question of what they planned to do with Love.

The answer is potentially a little bit of everything.

His most immediate role could be serving as a hedge in case Adams doesn’t make it back for the start of the season from the knee injury suffered in September against Denver. 

According to Pro Football Focus, Love played 578 snaps at free safety last season, where Diggs typically lines up. He also played 296 in the box and another 170 in the slot, a versatility that has the Seahawks confident he’d be able to step in at strong safety if needed.

That versatility also means he could be an ideal fit in three-safety packages alongside Diggs and Adams. And in those, he could either line up in the back end — allowing Adams to play in the box, something the team wanted to do with him more last year before he was injured — or play closer to the line.

Love confirmed the Seahawks talked to him about being used prominently in three-safety sets when courting him.

“I think they were excited about having the ability to put three safeties on the field,” Love said. 

Some might have wondered why the Seahawks didn’t just use Neal in that role as they did a year ago. Last week they withdrew their tender on Neal, making him a free agent after signing Love. 

Neal, who would have made just over $2.6 million on his restricted free agent deal, signed a one-year contract Thursday with Tampa Bay for the veteran minimum of just over $1 million.

Love, who just turned 25 last month, is more than two years younger than Neal and has already started 32 NFL games compared to Neal’s 19.

Last season, he also was voted by teammates as a defensive team captain despite not having been a full-time starter — indicative of leadership qualities that attracted the Seahawks.

For much of the second half of last season the Giants entrusted him with wearing the “green dot” helmet, meaning he got the play calls from coaches and relayed them to the rest of the defense.

That’s a role Bobby Wagner held for 10 years with the Seahawks, and Jordyn Brooks did last season before his injury. Love said they “mentioned that is a possibility” that he could handle play-calling duties.

“I’m not sure how it will shake out, but I said I was comfortable doing it,” Love said.

When Love signed, Wagner had yet to return to Seattle. The assumption is Wagner will likely take that role back, at least as long as Brooks is sidelined.

During his Zoom session with media Wednesday, Wagner said roles are still to be sorted out, acknowledging that he knows his responsibilities could be different now.

Love, certainly, sounds open to however the Seahawks want to use him saying “wherever I can make plays is where I’m most comfortable.”

He grew up in Chicago in a sports-loving family, often making the short drive with his dad, Detraiter, to watch Notre Dame games.

His father’s love of the Irish made it a dream come true when the school offered Julian a scholarship. He played primarily cornerback and set a school record with 44 pass breakups despite leaving after his third season.

He laughed Thursday about playing for a coach in Carroll who for years was the coach of Notre Dame’s primary rival, USC.

“He’s very infamous in Notre Dame history,” Love said.

Within minutes of his meeting with Carroll, Love said he was sold on Seattle.

“I saw a great opportunity to join a good team that’s led by a great head coach who just gets it,” he said. “That’s what I was looking for, I was looking for a nice fit. The culture’s great, and I think that fits my style, my brand of football. So yeah, I think Seattle was the perfect fit for me.“