The Seattle Seahawks locked up a cornerstone of their Super Bowl-winning defense on Thursday, agreeing to a three-year, $90 million contract extension with defensive tackle Leonard Williams that includes $56 million guaranteed. The deal, first reported by NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport and ESPN’s Adam Schefter, takes Williams off the 2027 free-agent market entirely and ties him to Seattle through the 2029 season.
Williams, 32, was entering the final year of the three-year, $64.5 million contract he signed in March 2024 after Seattle acquired him from the New York Giants in a midseason trade back in October 2023. Rather than let one of the league’s steadiest interior defenders play out a contract year, general manager John Schneider and the Seahawks front office moved early to remove any uncertainty from a roster that just won it all.
How the Numbers Stack Up Around the League
At $30 million in average annual value, Williams is now tied with Tampa Bay’s Vita Vea — who signed a similar one-year extension with the Buccaneers on August 19 — for the fifth-highest AAV among interior defensive linemen in the NFL, trailing only Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter, Dallas’ Quinnen Williams, Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons and Kansas City’s Chris Jones. On fully guaranteed money, only Quinnen Williams, Simmons and Jones have more locked in among defensive tackles, putting Williams firmly in the sport’s top tier at the position financially as well as on the field.
The production backs up the price tag. Since Seattle drafted him sixth overall in 2015 out of USC — as a member of the Jets — Williams has piled up 61.5 sacks and 637 tackles across 175 career games. Last season alone, in his first full campaign after the trade fully took hold, he started all 17 games and produced 62 tackles, seven sacks, nine tackles for loss, 22 quarterback hits and a pass breakup, earning his second straight Pro Bowl nod in a Seattle uniform. He has now made the Pro Bowl in both of his full seasons with the Seahawks and was a driving force up front as the team won its most recent Super Bowl.
A Defense Built to Repeat — and What It Means for the Board
The timing matters. Williams’ extension comes just days after Seattle also signed cornerback Devon Witherspoon to a lucrative extension of his own, a one-two punch that signals the Seahawks have no intention of letting their championship defensive core scatter into free agency. For a team that already ranks among the shortest prices to win the Super Bowl again — Seattle sits around +1100 to +1200 across most major sportsbooks, trailing only the Los Angeles Rams and Buffalo Bills on most boards — retaining Williams removes one more variable that could have complicated a repeat bid.
From a market standpoint, extensions like this rarely move a Super Bowl number on their own, but they reinforce why oddsmakers have kept Seattle’s championship price near the top of the board all offseason instead of letting it drift after a title-winning roster typically sees turnover. Seattle’s NFC odds, currently in the +600 range on most boards, and its status as a heavy favorite to make the playoffs again reflect a front office that has prioritized continuity over cashing out on its stars. With the defensive interior secured, bettors eyeing Seahawks win-total overs, NFC futures or defensive player of the year markets tied to the team’s front seven get a clearer picture: Williams isn’t going anywhere, and neither, it seems, is Seattle’s status as a top-three championship contender heading into the season.
