When the Seahawks announced this week that outside linebacker/rush end Uchenna Nwosu was changing his jersey number to 7 to accommodate new receiver Cooper Kupp’s desire to keep his No. 10, it indicated that Nwosu was still in the team’s plans for 2025, despite playing just 12 games the past two seasons due to injury.
Late Wednesday night, the steps the team and Nwosu took to redo his contract and assure he stays with the Seahawks in 2025 were revealed.
Nwosu agreed to a new two-year contract worth up to $19.5 million that includes a $6.99 million pay cut that lowered his cap hit from $21.2 million to $11.8 million, giving the Seahawks an additional $9.4 million in cap space for 2025.
In return for the pay cut, as first reported by OverTheCap.com, Nwosu received $6.98 million in guarantees, consisting of a $4 million signing bonus and a $2.98 million base salary.
Nwosu was due a base salary of $14.48 million for 2025 as part of a three-year contract worth up to $45 million he signed in 2023.
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The bonus also adds $2 million to Nwosu’s cap hit for 2026 to $20.018 million with no guaranteed money.
That means both sides could be back at the negotiating table again a year from now.
But the reworked deal assures Nwosu’s spot on the team in 2025 while giving the Seahawks some cap relief.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider confirmed last month at the NFL scouting combine that the team was negotiating a new deal with Nwosu. At that time, Schneider confirmed the team had pushed back a deadline for Nwosu to receive a $6 million injury guarantee for the 2025 season as part of the negotiations for a new contract.
During an appearance on Seattle Sports 710 on Thursday afternoon, Schneider confirmed Nwosu’s new deal saying, “Thank you to Chenna for doing that and sticking with us.”
Nwosu had 9.5 sacks in his first season as a Seahawk in 2022 after signing as a free agent. That led to a three-year, $45 million extension signed in July 2023.
Nwosu, though, has played just six games each of the past two seasons while battling a succession of injuries.
That included missing the first four games of the 2024 season with a knee injury suffered in the final preseason game. He also missed six games with a torn left quad and also dealt with a wrist injury.
Schneider said Thursday afternoon that Nwosu had surgery after the season (though he did not give specifics) and that Nwosu might have to start training camp on the Physically Unable to Perform list.
“It’s way too early to tell,” Schneider said, “… It’s going to be pretty close.”
Still just 28, Nwosu looms as a big part of the Seahawks’ pass rush and defensive plans if healthy and his new contract helps clarify for the team its needs heading into the draft.
Nwosu wore No. 10 his first three seasons with the Seahawks but is giving that up this year after making a deal with Kupp. No. 7 was his high-school number.
“He’s got a foundation that’s doing some really good stuff here in the community, and it was important for that to be part of this change,” Kupp explained Tuesday. “He was great to work with, and [I was] able to donate to his foundation and make sure that he felt good about that. He mentioned he’s played his best football in No. 10, and it had been important to him, and just his time in Seattle and clearly the community was an important part of this whole thing. So I respect his desires.’’
As of Thursday morning, with the savings of Nwosu calculated as well as adding the contract of receiver Marquez Valdes-Scantling (a $3.95 million cap hit) and Josh Jones ($4 million) the Seahawks had just over $64 million in cap space.
But that was with some big contracts still not accounted for by OTC, including those of Sam Darnold, Kupp and defensive end DeMarcus Lawrence, the three biggest deals the Seahawks agreed to during the free agent signing period.
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