Bobby Wagner optimistic ‘I’ll be back’ to Seahawks in 2022, his knee’s fine thanks to yoga

SEATTLE — A week after saying he was pondering his and his team’s future following this losing season, Bobby Wagner said he is optimistic he will be back with the Seahawks in 2022.

“In my mind, I don’t feel like this is my last time. I don’t feel like this is my last time putting on a Seahawks uniform. I don’t feel it’s my last time doing that,” the All-Pro linebacker and team captain said Wednesday before Seattle (6-10) finishes its first losing season since 2011 at Arizona (10-5) Sunday.

Wagner sprained his knee last weekend trying to change directions on a screen pass on the first play of the Seahawks’ win over Detroit. He did not return to the game.

Coach Pete Carroll said the team is taking a wait-and-see approach to whether Wagner plays against the Cardinals. But Wagner says he’s playing.

“I’m good. Ain’t got to worry about nothin’,” Wagner said. “It’s not serious.

“I’m grateful that I do yoga. Just learned that I can do the splits if I want to.”

He stayed out of the game and in the locker room at the direction of the Seahawks medical staff while Cody Barton played for him over the final 62 plays.

Wagner turns 32 this summer. He has one season after this one remaining on the $54 million, three-year contract extension he negotiated with the team, without an agent.

The pure dollars of the matter: Wagner’s scheduled charge against the Seahawks’ 2022 salary cap is $20.35 million. Only 2012 draft classmate Russell Wilson’s, at $37 million, is a higher charge among the players under contract for next year.

The Seahawks could save $16.6 million against the 2022 salary cap if they released Wagner before June 1 — though that of course would mean they won’t have Bobby Wagner in the middle of their defense anymore.

“I understand there is a business side to this, but there’s a lot of optimism on my end I’ll be back. So, I’m not worried about it,” he said.

“Obviously, I can’t control everything. I can only control my part, and my part on this is I feel like, I love this city. I love this team. I love the Seahawks. And so I always wanted to be part of a franchise’s good times and bad times, and every time. And so this is a team I would love to be able to be a part of for a very, very long time.

“So on my end, that’s where I’m at, that I’m a Seahawk until they tell me I’m not. That’s my mindset. “So, to me, I don’t see it as that was my last game (in Seattle last weekend), or this next game could be my last game.”

Even if he does not play against the Cardinals Sunday, what gives him such confidence he’ll be back in the middle of Seattle’s defense for an 11th consecutive season?

“I’d like to say I’m a pretty good businessman,” he deadpanned. “And I would like to say I have a lot of respect here.

“So I’m just going to go into my businessman mentality and work some stuff out.”

Perhaps more likely than cutting their franchise cornerstone along with Wilson, Carroll and general manager John Schneider might ask Wagner to restructure the final year of his deal. That would save cap space Seattle could then use to seek improvements the team needs.

In the last year or so, the Seahawks have used a new-for-them tack to create better salary-cap numbers for expensive contracts: void years added to the end of expiring contracts in exchange for veteran players getting more immediate guaranteed money up front.

But the need for Wagner to restructure his contract might not prove to be all that pressing. The Seahawks have more cap space for 2022 than they’ve had in many years, an estimated $55.98 million based on a projected cap rising to $208.2 million next year, according to overthecap.com.

Wednesday, Wagner made it clear he wasn’t amenable to give money back to the Seahawks in a restructured contract for 2022.

“I didn’t say that,” he said, flatly.

“I said I was going to put my businessman cap on. I didn’t say I was going to do all that.”

This story was originally published and written by The News Tribune.

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