Leonard Williams is indeed a foundational player to the Seahawks.
The team and general manager John Schneider confirmed that Thursday by agreeing to a three-year contract extension with their 12th-year veteran defensive lineman. It’s princely: $30 million per season to play past his 35th birthday. Ian Rapoport of NFL Network was the first to report the new deal Thursday morning.
Williams said this month he once considered walking away from football after a series of losing seasons playing for the New York Jets, who selected him sixth overall in the 2015 NFL draft, and Giants. Schneider and the Seahawks traded with the Giants to acquire Williams during the 2023 season.
It changed Williams life.
That was back when he was a $63 million defensive tackle contemplating retiring.
Now he’s a dynamic, $90 million tackle, end and leader of a Super Bowl-champion defense that led the NFL in fewest points allowed last season. He’s a confidant for coach Mike Macdonald and leader of the Seahawks locker room. Macdonald uses him and sees him as the key to his defensive front, and culture.
Since he arrived in Seattle, Williams got married; he and Hailey wed last year. This March, one month after Williams played in his first Super Bowl and won it, he and his wife had their first child, son Zion. They own a home in which to raise their young family in the hills above Seahawks headquarters in Renton.
At 32, Williams is reborn and recommitted to football.
The Seahawks just recommitted to him through 2029.
“I just account that to your environment, surroundings, the people you are around every day,” he said two weeks ago, as the negotiations with Schneider and the Seahawks for this new deal played out. “It plays huge part in your individual and team’s success, and just the love of the game so far, as well.
“There was a time in my career when I was playing on the East Coast where we were going year after year with losing seasons, dealing with new coaching staff and new culture every two or three years. I was also dealing with an injury at the time, and I was only in (NFL) year eight at the time, and I clearly had a lot left in the tank. I was already like, ‘Is this it for my career now?’
“Obviously, I kept pushing, I kept fighting. And eventually I ended up here and turned it all around.”
He said his transformation and outlook on football was instantaneous upon his arrival in Seattle to then-Seahawks coach Pete Carroll in late October 2023.
“Honestly, I think just right away. Even though we have a new coaching staff now than when I got traded here, I think it just lit a fire within me. It just restored all my energy and love for the game. Just being in a new environment, in general, changed my perspective.”
Then Macdonald arrived.
The Seahawks fired Carroll following that 2023 season. They hired defensive innovator Mike Macdonald, the coordinator and play caller from the Baltimore Ravens, to become a first-time head coach at age 36 in January 2024.
Now Williams has re-signed twice with the Seahawks, at a total value of $154.5 million.
“When Mike got hired, it even heightened it, because of his principles and things that he has brought to the team,” Williams said. “His first year was my first year under (a new) contract, as well, and I think we were able to build a defense together and be a big part of it.”
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