It’s done: Seahawks, DK Metcalf agree to 3-year, $72M deal with record WR signing bonus

DK Metcalf has his deal.

It’s a royally rich one for a 24-year-old. For anyone of any age.

The Seahawks and their 2020 Pro Bowl wide receiver have agreed to a three-year, $72 million contract that includes $58.2 million guaranteed and has a $30 million signing bonus. It keeps him under contract with Seattle through the 2025 season and his 28th birthday that December.

The signing bonus is the highest in NFL history for a wide receiver.

ESPN’s Adam Schefter was the first to report Metcalf’s deal, half an hour after coach Pete Carroll told reporters at Seattle’s training camp there was nothing new to report on the team’s negotiations with its star.

The average annual value of $24 million per year gives Metcalf the sixth-richest contract among NFL wide receivers. Stefon Diggs averages $24 million in his deal with the Buffalo Bills.

Metcalf’s $58.2 million in total guarantees — the numbers that mean the most to NFL players in this very-little-is-guaranteed league — is seventh-highest in the league for wide receivers. He’s just behind the deal Amari Cooper signed with the Cleveland Browns this offseason, with $60 million in guarantees.

Metcalf “held in” during the first two days of training camp. He was present, on the sidelines in a cap instead of a helmet, refusing to practice until he had a new deal.

He signed autographs and smiled for selfies with clamoring fans immediately following camp’s second practice Thursday.

Now we know why he was smiling.

His former quarterback and mentor Russell Wilson, whom Seattle traded to Denver in March, offered his congratulations online Thursday afternoon.

The Seahawks’ have a remodeling offense. Geno Smith and Drew Lock are competing to replace Wilson. They, Carroll and coordinator Shane Waldron will eagerly welcome their lone remaining star back into the offense when they resume practicing Saturday.

For the first two days of camp, Metcalf watched Cody Thompson be the first-team wide receiver opposite Tyler Lockett Wednesday. Thompson is two years older than Metcalf. He has zero career catches in NFL regular-season games.

Dee Eskridge, the team’s first-round draft choice in 2021, has missed the first two practices of training camp. Carroll said the speedy wide receiver has a tight hamstring.

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 is a mandatory fine per the NFL collective bargaining agreement of $40,000 per day for players still on rookie contracts; Metcalf is entering the final year of his. That’s why Metcalf showed up yet did not practice, “held in” instead of holding out, to avoid the daily fines.

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 had Metcalf in line for at least $25 million per year for 2023 and beyond.

In the end, Metcalf took a tad less than that — $24 million annually — in exchange for a record signing bonus he will get in cash right away, up front. The three-year contract is also unusually short by Seahawks standards for foundational players. The team typically wants to go to four or five years, to spread and backload the salary-cap hits of rich new deals across additional, more team-friendly years.

This deal gets Metcalf potentially eligible for free agency, or a rich, third Seahawks contract, while he’s just months past his 28th birthday.

Depending how the first year of the three-year deal is structured for 2023, Metcalf could be the Seahawks highest-paid player next year. Safeties Jamal Adams ($18.11 million) and Quandre Diggs ($18.1 million) are currently one and two in salary-cap charges for Seattle in 2023. Wide receiver Tyler Lockett is third, at $16.75 million for next year.