DK Metcalf’s push for a new Seahawks deal now includes a ‘hold in’ from training camp

DK Metcalf chatted before and after practice with his position coach.

He clasped hands and greeted running backs coach Chad Morton with a smile.

He twirled a football his hands. He pantomimed being an option quarterback, with a riding, fake hand-off and flip pitch to a make-believe running back.

He looked as the 24-year-old Pro Bowl wide receiver always has in his three years with the Seahawks: supremely fit and ready.

He did everything but what healthy players are at the first day of training camp to do.

You know, practice.

Metcalf’s actions-as-statements to get a contract extension entered a new phase Wednesday. He showed up but chose not to practice, a recent trend in the NFL known as a “hold in.” That is, not holding out from camp and thus not being subject to mandatory fines of $40,000 or $50,000 per day — but not practicing until he gets a new deal.

Metcalf had surgery this past winter to fix pain in his foot he played through last season. Asked Wednesday if Metcalf not practicing to begin camp is related to his recovery from that surgery, Carroll said: “No, it isn’t.

“He passed his physical (to begin training camp).”

That means it’s the contract.

“We’re working, and I don’t have any update for you,” Carroll said. “But we are working.”

Those contract negotiations continued between Seahawks general manager John Schneider and top contract man Matt Thomas and Metcalf’s representatives.

“Right now,” Carroll said Wednesday afternoon following the 90-minute practice.

Metcalf watched Cody Thompson, who has zero career receptions in the NFL, be the first-team wide receiver opposite Tyler Lockett Wednesday.

Wide receiver Dee Eskridge, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2021, was sidelined by a hamstring issue Carroll described as minor.

Metcalf stayed completely away from the team’s mandatory minicamp last month. It was the one relatively safe leverage play he could make while seeking a new, second contract beyond his rookie deal that ends after the 2022 season.

Skipping minicamp left him subject to fines of $30,000 for the three days of offseason practices in June, though the Seahawks, per NFL rules were not obligated to fine him.

Carroll refused to say last month if the team did.

Skipping training camp results in a mandatory fine of $40,000 per day for players still on their rookie contracts, as Metcalf is, and $50,000 per day for veterans. The league’s collective bargaining agreement doesn’t leave fines for training camp absences up to teams. It’s a must.

Also, the new CBA between the league and its players states if a player in the final year of his rookie contract fails to report to camp, his season doesn’t accrue toward his first chance at free agency the following spring. Such holdouts from camp become restricted free agents instead, losing tens of millions by missing out on the open market.

That wasn’t going to happen with Metcalf.

He spent the offseason rehabilitating his foot. He’s been working out over the last month in Southern California, running and catching passes and appearing ready for training camp.

It’s become chic in the NFL for players seeking new contracts to report to training camp to avoid the mandatory fines that pile into six figures within three days, but to “hold in” and not practice until they get the money they want. Safety Quandre Diggs and left tackle Duane Brown did that to the Seahawks last summer.

The team eventually gave Diggs and Brown more guaranteed money up front for 2021. They re-signed Diggs, 29, this offseason for three years and $40 million following his two consecutive Pro Bowl seasons, the first two of his career. They let the 36-year-old Brown’s contract end without a new deal. Seattle drafted Charles Cross ninth overall in April to take Brown’s place as the starting left tackle.

Metcalf is due to earn $3.99 million in the final year of the contract he signed after Seattle traded up into the bottom of the second round to get him in the 2019 NFL draft. His draft classmate and former University of Mississippi teammate A.J. Brown got a $100 million, four-year deal from Philadelphia in a trade from Tennessee this spring.

It was the latest example of how the market for wide receivers has skyrocketed this offseason. That has Metcalf in line for at least $25 million per year for 2023 and beyond.

The Seahawks have a precedent of re-signing foundational players to contract extensions, particularly second NFL deals, on the first day or within the first days of training camps.

The final details to complete a contract this large usually involve guaranteed money: how much and when it will be paid. Players seek increasing percentages of their total contract value to be guaranteed in this non-guaranteed sport. One injury can alter or end a career and a player’s earning potential.

In January, Metcalf said he wanted to stay with Seattle.

“I’m not trying to leave,” he said six months ago.

He reiterated that in May on Hall of Famer Shannon Sharpe’s podcast, saying: “We’re going to get something done. I think I’m going to be in Seattle for the next couple of years.”

Carroll has said the team has no intention of letting Metcalf go after the 2022 season, and that getting this new contract done remains a top Seahawks priority.

It stayed that way into Wednesday evening.