Why Seattle Seahawks Should Re-Sign Bobby Wagner Right Now For 2024

It’s never too early to start planning for the next season, especially with the Seattle Seahawks battling it out for a berth in the NFC playoffs.

Despite how quickly the season is ending, the Seattle Seahawks’ 2023 campaign is still ongoing. Seattle, which has only won one of its previous five games, will next play NFC East leaders San Francisco and Philadelphia. In an extremely competitive NFC, it’s even possible that the Seahawks might go 9-8 on the season and yet miss the playoffs.

It could be time to start planning for next season and how they might catch the 49ers in the West, especially for general manager John Schneider.

When the next season begins, the 12-year veteran will be 34 years old, and most linebackers, especially the elite ones, tend to falter around that age. Wagner, though, still seems to be at the top of his game, so it doesn’t seem like that will happen.

Wagner is ranked as the No. 10 linebacker in the NFL for this season by Pro Football Focus. Although pass coverage is one of his most obvious weaknesses, it has always been one of his strong suits and he has managed to remain among the league’s best.

The Seahawks ought probably get a good deal on him as well. After a $1.2 million signing bonus, he’s only making $5.5 million this season, and that won’t be increasing much. Wagner has played in 12 games this season and has accumulated 127 tackles and 2.5 sacks. His place in the first ballot Hall of Fame is assured.

And where better for him to call it a day than the place where it all began, when, at a much younger age, he was a member of the renowned Legion of Doom? We don’t need to factor in 2022, when he played for the Rams, who were in the same

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DK Metcalf On Sign Language Celebrations: ‘I Always Try To Exercise My Mind’

DK Metcalf didn’t dance or spike the ball to celebrate last week’s 73-yard touchdown run into the end zone. Rather, he let the ball drop and signed “standing on business.”

This season, Metcalf, a receiver for the Seahawks, has made it a habit to celebrate during games by using American Sign Language. And this isn’t a situation where a player picks up a word or phrase to celebrate on the field; rather, he has been studying ASL for a number of months, going back to a language he studied for the first time during his college summer.

As part of his ongoing efforts to push himself and broaden his horizons, Metcalf said he will be speaking with Knoxville, Tennessee-based sign language instructor Darrell Utley on a Zoom call every Tuesday beginning the first week of the season.

“I always try to exercise my mind or try to learn something new,” Metcalf stated. “I thought, let’s take it a step further. I used to attend acting courses. Thus, I’m currently attempting to learn both ASL and how to play the guitar.”

Metcalf expressed his enjoyment of his weekly workouts with Utley, who he wants to host for Seattle’s Week 16 matchup with Tennessee.

realize that his festivities in sign language are also serving to raise awareness for others who frequently feel ignored.

“It’s great that I get to learn something new, I get to challenge myself to learn something new, and also just to bring light to a community that I didn’t know felt unseen, felt like they were being forgotten about,” Metcalf said. “Let me just throw some light on the ASL and deaf communities, where an increasing number of people are beginning to learn ASL and are beginning to pay attention to the question, ‘All right, what is he going to sign next?'” Is he signing anything? When it comes to raising awareness of the ASL language, curiosity plays a role.”

“A few people have reached out to me saying, ‘Thank you for learning ASL,'” Metcalf continued. Alternatively, “I appreciate you signing on national TV.”

Boye Mafe, a colleague, initiated the “standing on business” celebration last week. Boye Mafe and his siblings started learning sign language while they were in high school. Mafe, who always signs “I love you” to his late mother Bola before games and occasionally after sacks, saw that Metcalf was interested in the language that he and his brothers still occasionally use to communicate. This season, Mafe has given his teammate some advice. Last Wednesday, during a team meeting in Dallas, Mafe demonstrated the art of signing “standing on business,” and Metcalf took the sign to the next level.

Metcalf remarked, “I said, ‘Well, I’m using that when I score tomorrow.'” “So everybody can give Boye credit for that one.”

Recently, there has been a lot of speculation about Metcalf learning sign language so he can talk trash without getting in trouble. Although he admits after the fact that there may be some truth to that, learning sign language was never his intention when he started using it earlier in the season.

“It started out as me trying to learn something new, then the reffing thing kind of got thrown into the mix to where it kind of turned into trash talk,” he explained. “But no, I’m trying to learn a new language, simply put.”