SEATTLE – The Seattle Seahawks added a bit to their pass rush and brought back another Tuesday by agreeing to deals with Kerry Hyder and Benson Mayowa.
Agent Erik Burkhardt told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that Hyder’s deal runs for three years and $ 16.5 million with an increase to $ 17.5 million with incentives.
Mayowa, who played for Seattle last season, is returning to the Seahawks for a two-year deal that will likely include at least one additional void year for salary cap, a source told ESPN’s Brady Henderson.
Both Hyder and Mayowa will be 30 years old before the start of next season.
Hyder set a career high last season with 8.5 sacks in 16 games with the San Francisco 49ers when he played under coordinator Robert Saleh, a disciple of Pete Carroll who has a defense similar to Seattle’s. The 49ers signed the 270-pound 6-2 Hyder in free-agency last off-season to be a rotational player who lined up as a tackle and end, but he became a starter due to injuries to Nick Bosa and Dee Ford and was the 49ers’ most prolific defensive lineman while playing mostly on the edge.
Hyder had 8.0 sacks with the Detroit Lions in 2016 and has been on 18.5 since entering the league as an undrafted free agent for Texas Tech in 2014. He has also played for the New York Jets and Dallas Cowboys.
Mayowa had six sacks, seven tackles for loss, two forced fumbles and nine quarterback hits in 13 games with the Seahawks last season, and missed three games with an ankle injury. He made nine starts, but saw a slight dip in playing time when the Seahawks traded for Carlos Dunlap, who became their starter.
Mayowa’s Pass Rush win rate as a edge defender of 16.2% was 24th among qualifying players in the entire league and the highest among Seahawks players. Hyder came 39th with 11.3%.
Mayowa had a career-best seven sacks in 2019 with the Raiders before reuniting with the Seahawks in March for a one-year deal worth $ 3.05 million. After a slow start to their pass rush in 2020, the Seahawks picked up 37 sacks in the top league in the last 10 weeks – and Mayowa got four during that period.
He began his career as an undeveloped Idaho free agent in 2013 and spent his rookie season in Seattle. He has played 26 sacks in 100 career games for eight NFL seasons and also played for the Dallas Cowboys and Arizona Cardinals.
Dunlap remains unsigned following its release from the Seahawks earlier this month, saving the team $ 14.1 million in cap space.
Pass-rush was the Seahawks’ greatest remaining need as they enter the second week of free agency. Hyder and Mayowa join a group with LJ Collier, Rasheem Green, Alton Robinson and Darrell Taylor at the end with Jarran Reed and Poona Ford tackling. Taylor, a second-round pick last year, started practicing late in the season but didn’t play as a rookie due to a college leg injury.
The Seahawks added an invalid year to the contracts they gave Chris Carson and center Ethan Pocic last week, something the team has not done before under general manager John Schneider and VP of player administration Matt Thomas. That mechanism lowers a player’s immediate salary limit by spreading the signing bonus pro rata, but creates dead money down the road, so it boils down to borrowing a maximum of future years.
This report uses information from Nick Wagoner of ESPN.