Seahawks John Schneider and Pete Carroll believe they already have their 2021 First-round draft pick.

RE-SIGNING PLAYERS WAS A PRIORITY

With minimal draft picks and off season in person workouts policies still not defined the Seahawks went to a strategy of banking on the players they know rather than gamble on  unknown free agent track records.

Q. John, one of the structures it seemed like you took with some of your free agent signings this year was to add void years onto the contracts. What was the thinking on that, and why is that something that you as an organization haven’t really done in the past?

JOHN SCHNEIDER:

 Unique times basically demand unique opportunities and things you have to take advantage of. So with the cap going down, there’s a lot of teams that we’re basically right in the middle of the pack. So there’s a lot of teams that have a ton of cap room, and there’s a lot of teams that are in cap trouble.

I think you saw a lot of those voidable years being added, and we just felt like, if there’s a year to do it, this was the appropriate year.

Q. As a follow-up, is there a danger in that long term?

JOHN SCHNEIDER:

 Sure, you don’t want to — you want to stay as disciplined as you possibly can so you have the flexibility to build your team. This is just our philosophy. This isn’t like every team in the National Football League, but for us, we like to stay as disciplined as we possibly can so that we can have the flexibility to continue to build our team throughout the whole year.

Again, like I said earlier, this doesn’t stop. You want to be in a situation — you want to be able to put yourself in a situation where you can acquire a Duane Brown or a Carlos Dunlap or Diggs or just things that may pop up. This coming summer, we don’t know what’s going to happen June 1st, right? We don’t know what’s going to happen with specific teams, what their cap casualty situation is going to look like.

We just need to be pliable, and this was a way for to us do it, but yes, you don’t want to do too much of it.

PETE CARROLL: In case you guys don’t ask the question — go ahead. I’ll throw it out to them. I think you said something, John, about the guys we retained on the roster. Let’s take a chance to go through a couple of guys.

To get Tyler Lockett to sign into a big deal for the future, this has been a fantastic get. This guy has been such a great player for us. He’s such a great part of our program and all. He and Russ have a chemistry that’s just unmatched. That’s a beautiful thing that we got done.

We went out and acquired Gabe Jackson. It was a really great acquisition for us to bring his experience and his toughness and his leadership into the offensive line.

Getting Ethan back too. If we’re going to get Ethan to come back to center, where he gets his second year to come back and compete to be the No. 1 center, and he’ll be battling with Kyle as well. We’re thrilled about that.

Chris Carson, and to get Chris back for us is such an important factor because we love his style of play. We all have seen what a great football player he is. This was a time where we might not be able to get it done, but tremendous faith in the program on Chris’ part and the ability of John and Matt to get that done, that’s a big deal.

Poona Ford, for sure. Poona has been an emerging star for us up front. To get his deal done, and he’s with us for a while.

Also, getting Carlos Dunlap back, that was a big deal. I know we mentioned it, but it’s worth mentioning again. He was just getting started with us. He loves being here. He loves being part of the program. He’s got a big spirit, big somersault after his sacks that we all look forward to. Can’t wait for the 12s to see that in person.

Benson Mayowa too. Benson brings experience and flexibility. Outside edge rushing. He can play outside backer and that position for us. All of those moves have been really important to us, and we’re really excited about it.

Again, Cedric Ogbuehi back too was a big deal. I need to give him the premier opportunity to compete to start this year. In last year’s mode, we got a little bit out of whack there. I’m anxious to give him a great chance because he’s got great upside to his play.

Then Geno as well. We have Geno coming back. That’s a big deal. Geno is such a big part of this program. He’s such a great support system for Russ, for one, but he’s a fantastic talent too. When he gets his chance to play, he’ll be ready to go.

All of those are really important gets for us too, and we’re still going. The Jamal move is big, and there’s some other stuff coming up you’ll see in the next couple days too. Our special teams unit is a fantastic part of our team, getting Nick Bellore to come back to us, who’s a leader in that area.

These are really exciting things moving forward. Our team that was not able to be shared with the 12s last year in person, maybe we get the chance. Hopefully, we can get that done. Who would have thought we win all those games at home, and here we are in the playoffs, and we don’t have the 12s with us. We needed them. They would have been a factor and might have caused a difference in that game.

I wanted to make sure those things get said. We’re really, really thrilled about it. Ahkello Witherspoon is another guy too I didn’t mention.

One player the Seahawks have yet to re-sign is K.J. Wright. When asked about Wright, Schneider was surprised that Wright was still available.

Q. Did you have conversations with K.J. Wright’s people about bringing him back at all from free agency?

JOHN SCHNEIDER:

Yeah, we talked to K.J.’s people before free agency, but quite frankly, there’s so many coaches on our staff that were on our staff that are different places, we thought he would be signed by now. You know, you have the draft coming up. There’s several different phases. We look at it in free agency, there’s several different phases to it. We look at this being what we call phase 2, which is right around draft time. I think a lot of teams are going to see what they do in the Draft and come around to these veterans that are still available in free agency.

We have the utmost respect for him. He’s done a ton for this organization — great person, great leader. But yes, we have been in contact. I know Pete’s met with him.

PETE CARROLL:

I had a really good sitdown with him just the other day to bring it all together where we’re coming from. We needed to hear where he’s coming from and talk about the future and what’s possible moving forward. We’re right on the nose with this deal. Like John said, K.J. is one of the classiest players you could ever expect to have in your program and been a fantastic player. The door is not closed to us for what we’re doing moving forward. We’ve been really clear about that, and we feel good about where we are with K.J.