Offensive lineman T.J. Lang, who appeared to be Seattle's top free agent priority, signed instead with the Detroit Lions on Sunday.
The Seahawks’ aggressive pursuit of free agent offensive lineman T.J. Lang ended in disappointment Sunday morning as he signed a three-year deal with the Detroit Lions.
Lang visited Seattle Friday and Saturday after having earlier visited Detroit. He was also still considering returning to Green Bay, where he has played since 2009.
Instead, he decided to play with what is essentially his hometown team as Lang grew up in Royal Oak, Mich., a suburb of Detroit, and attended Eastern Michigan University. Lang’s three-year deal with the Lions is worth $28.5 million overall, according to reports, with $19 million guaranteed.
Lang had tipped off that location and family might be a deciding factor in an interview earlier Sunday morning with the Detroit Free Press, saying: “Right now it’s just, I think the biggest thing is it’s not just me making a decision on where I want to go play, what team I want to play for, what city I want to live in. It’s more for my family. My son is going to be in first grade this year, my daughter’s growing up. It’s trying to narrow down every single scenario and we did a lot of homework.”
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Lang appeared to further confirm the idea that home mattered most — his wife is also from the Detroit area — when he told reporters after signing that “every kid dreams of playing with their hometown team” and talked of Lions’ players of past years whose jerseys he used to own. Indications are that Seattle’s and Detroit’s deals were essentially the same, but with Lang ultimately unable to resist possibly finishing out his career at home —- he will turn 30 on Sept. 27.
Seattle had been thought making an especially hard push for Lang as the Seahawks aimed to both improve and make more experienced an offensive line that struggled last season with no starters by the end of the season who had been in the league for more than three seasons.
Lang was a Pro Bowl guard in 2016 but came with a few injury question marks, which might have led Seattle to think he would be a little more affordable than some of the other elite OLs available. Lang, though, told the Free Press that a hip on which he had surgery in January showed to be fine during physicals with teams.
“That was the biggest reason why I took the visits just because teams wanted to see the hip, teams wanted to see the X-rays, the MRIs, they wanted to see how I was doing up to this point,” Lang said. “And everything I got from everywhere I went, from Green Bay’s doctors to Detroit’s doctors to Seattle’s doctors, everybody was really pumped about it. They’re like, ‘Yep, the hip honestly from where you’re at from six weeks (out of surgery), it looks great.’
Seattle so far has signed just one free agent — offensive lineman Luke Joeckel. Joeckel, who turns 26 in November, played tackle and guard the last for seasons for Jacksonville which makes him the most-experienced current Seahawks offensive lineman, but only by a year (and he is actually younger than center Justin Britt).
It was revealed Sunday that Joeckel’s one-year contract is for $8 million overall with $7 million guaranteed and another $1 million in per-game roster bonuses. The amount of guaranteed money caught some observers by surprise given that Joeckel is coming off of major knee surgery (ACL, MCL) last October, leading many to assume his contract likely included a larger percentage of incentives.
Instead, the deal appears to show Seattle’s commitment to trying to beef up its line this off-season.
But the swing-and-miss on Lang — considered by far the best remaining free agent offensive lineman available, it not the best remaining free agent available at any position — doesn’t leave a ton of options as most of the best OLs were signed quickly in the opening days of free agency.
Maybe the best remaining offensive lineman is former Bronco and New York Jets left tackle Ryan Clady, though he also has an extensive history of recent knee issues and also is now 30 years old.
Seattle also had been earlier linked with guard/center Brian Schwenke of Tennessee, and he remains unsigned, as well.
The loss of Lang could instead mean Seattle will have to focus a little more heavily on the OL in the draft than had been expected it would do if it had been able to get Lang.
But the overall reviews of the draft class coming out of the NFL Combine last week were mixed, and the draft won’t help Seattle accomplish what GM John Schneider had said was the desired goal for the line this off-season of getting more experienced.