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Seattle Seahawks

Report: Bobby Wagner will show up for Seahwks camp but will ‘be cautious’ until a deal is done

Seattle’s Bobby Wagner  talks with defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. during practice  May 21  in Renton, Wash. (Elaine Thompson / AP)
By Bob Condotta Seattle Times

SEATTLE – Seahawks middle linebacker Bobby Wagner indicated last spring that he wouldn’t hold out even if training camp began and he did not have a new contract, and he appears to be following through with that plan.

But playing in games during the 2019 season will apparently take getting a new deal, one that would make him the highest-paid linebacker in the NFL, according to a report Tuesday from NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.

The report said Wagner “is expected” to show up Wednesday, a day before players take the field for the first practice of the season on Thursday.

But Rapoport further reported that Wagner apparently intends to continue what he did during the offseason program – skipping on-field drills or anything else in which he could get injured – until he has a new contract.

“Wagner is expected to show up for training camp tomorrow, sources say, because of the kind of leader he is and wanting to be there with his teammates,” the report said.

“He may not put himself in harm’s way until a deal gets done, and he’ll be cautious. But he’ll be there.”

That’s basically what Wagner did during OTAs and minicamp, showing up and taking part in meetings, but standing off to the side when the team did anything on the field.

“I will be here – that will be my participation,” Wagner said in May. “… I am honoring the contract, I am here, participating, helping the young guys to be the best they can be. So I am here and that’s what I want to do.”

But anything more than that – such as playing in games – will apparently take signing on the dotted line.

Wagner is entering the final season of a four-year contract he signed just as camp began in 2015 worth up to $43 million with a base salary in 2019 of $10.5 million.

But Wagner wants what the Seahawks have often done with their core players and did with him in 2015 – a new deal before he enters the final season of his old one. As he said in May, what he’d like is a new contract that matches or surpasses the $17 million per-year average that the New York Jets gave linebacker C.J. Mosley in March.

That contract blew away the inside linebacker market – Carolina’s Luke Kuechly had been the highest-paid inside linebacker at $12.3 million per year, with Wagner next at $10.75 million.

But Wagner said in May that he wants what Mosley got.

“I mean, the number is the number, the market is the market,” Wagner said. ” … That’s the top (of the) linebacker market. That is the standard. And so that is the plan, to break that.”

Wagner is serving as his own agent, which he said he was doing in part because it’s obvious what the market is and he didn’t need anyone to tell what he wants.

The Seahawks and Wagner have been thought to be negotiating, but there have been no real leaks over the last few months about the progress of any talks. Coach Pete Carroll said in the spring the two sides had agreed not to talk about the negotiations. That Wagner is serving as his own agent, thereby decreasing the number of people who might know anything, also may be contributing to little leaking along the way.

The Seahawks have often completed deals with key players right as camp begins – Wagner signed his current deal on Aug. 3, 2015, just after Russell Wilson signed his on July 31 of that year. Safety Kam Chancellor also signed an extension right as camp began in 2017, and tackle Duane Brown and receiver Tyler Lockett did so last year.

That target date has still been considered as likely for Wagner.

But Wagner at the least appears to be making clear to the team that there is at least some urgency to get a deal done if they want him on the field anytime soon.

Wagner had said last spring that he was preparing for this season as if it could be his last in Seattle, just in case.

Asked later about that statement, he said he hoped he wouldn’t have to follow through with that plan.

“As of right now there is no other years for me left here so that was just a very honest opinion that if I don’t get a deal done, that’s it (in Seattle),” he said in May. “But I believe there is something that can happen.”

While he waited for a new contract, Wagner tweeting that he was spending the last day of the offseason driving around the Seattle area, delivering supplies to people in need.