After a decade with the Seattle Seahawks, Bobby Wagner will now face them twice a year as a member of the Los Angeles Rams.
The All-Pro linebacker signed a five-year, $50 million deal that can escalate to up to $65 million if he meets incentives. After negotiating his payday, Wagner reflected on how his Seattle tenure ended.
On March 11, Wagner tweeted that he didn’t learn of his release from the team beforehand. Seahawks general manager John Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll both took the blame for the miscommunication, with the former saying Wagner representing himself made the process “somewhat awkward.”
Crazy part about all this. I played there for 10 years & I didn’t even hear it from them that I wasn’t coming back.
— Bobby Wagner (@Bwagz) March 11, 2022
Per Greg Beacham of the Associated Press (h/t Pro Football Talk’s Charean Williams), Wagner wasn’t buying that reasoning.
“First thing, I think after 10 years, I think it’s just simple communication,” Wagner said on Monday. “I don’t think it had to be that difficult. I watched their interview, and I’m grateful, but when they said it was because I represented myself, I feel like that was weak. I don’t feel like me representing myself, whether I had an agent or whether I didn’t have an agent, I still felt like that was a conversation that they could have had. That’s where I stand with it. I’m not going to dwell on it. It’s changed. They’ve already moved on. I’ve already moved on, so it is what it is at this point.”
Full quote from Rams LB Bobby Wagner about how he wishes Pete Carroll and John Schneider had handled his release better in Seattle after 10 seasons (re: black jerseys at the end, he always wanted to get Nike to make a black Seahawks jersey) pic.twitter.com/NR0UqMWdRq
— Greg Beacham (@gregbeacham) April 4, 2022
Wagner added that it would have been “easy to just pick up a phone and call,” and he didn’t think he did anything as an agent to make them weary of having the conversation.
“I shouldn’t have had to find out the way I found out,” Wagner said. “But it is what it is, and I ended up in a great place.”
The eight-time Pro Bowler isn’t completely letting go of those hard feelings. Per ESPN’s Brady Henderson, Wagner said that staying close to home was an important factor in joining the Rams, but facing the Seahawks twice a year was “the cherry on top.”
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