Seattle Seahawks defensive tackle Leonard Williams enters the 2026 season as one of the best interior defenders in football, and increasingly, as one of the biggest contract questions on the roster. Williams confirmed in late July that he and his representatives have opened extension talks with the team, though he was careful to note that nothing is close to finalized.
Williams is playing out the final year of a three-year, $64.5 million contract he signed in March 2024, five months after arriving in Seattle via a midseason trade from the New York Giants. The deal carries an average annual value of $21.5 million — a number that now looks like a bargain given how the market has moved and how well Williams has played.
Speaking to reporters during training camp, Williams kept his comments measured. “There’s been a few conversations, but nothing set in stone,” he said, adding that his focus is on the upcoming season rather than negotiations. “I’ve noticed that when I just focus on being where I’m at, focusing on my team and how I can get better individually, things always tend to work themselves out.”
Seattle reportedly has an informal policy of not extending players who have more than one season remaining on their current deal, which is part of why Williams is only now eligible for a new contract. The Seahawks have already used the offseason to lock up other core pieces of their roster, extending receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba and edge rusher Derick Hall, while continuing to work through a separate extension for cornerback Devon Witherspoon.
Williams’ situation carries its own urgency. If Seattle doesn’t get a new deal done before the start of the 2027 league year, the team would be on the hook for a significant dead-money charge tied to void years already built into his current contract.
Any extension talks are unfolding against a defensive tackle market that has been reset multiple times over the past year. The Tennessee Titans made Jeffery Simmons the highest-paid interior lineman in football, only for the Philadelphia Eagles to top that soon after, signing Jalen Carter to a four-year, $152 million extension worth $38 million annually — a deal that instantly became the new ceiling at the position.
Williams, at 32, isn’t expected to approach Carter’s number; the age gap between the two players is significant, and Seattle will likely be cautious about a long-term commitment that runs into Williams’ mid-30s. Still, his production keeps him firmly in the conversation with the league’s top earners at the position. He was named the No. 1 defensive tackle in football by ESPN’s panel of executives, coaches and scouts, and he’s coming off a Super Bowl LX championship season in which he remained a two-way force against the run and as a pass rusher.
Reasonable projections have centered on a shorter-term extension — something in the range of two years and roughly $70 million, which would put Williams’ new annual salary around $35 million and make him the second-highest-paid defensive tackle in the league behind only Carter. That kind of structure would reward Williams for his production while protecting Seattle from a long-term commitment to a player on the back half of his career.
General manager John Schneider now has a clearer read on the going rate at the position, thanks to Carter’s deal and the extensions already handed to Simmons and Kansas City’s Chris Jones. The question is less about whether Seattle values Williams — he’s been durable, missing just one game since arriving in Seattle, and has been one of the most productive interior linemen in the league — and more about finding a number that works for both sides given his age and the team’s other financial commitments.
As of now, there’s no signed deal — just confirmation from both Williams and the organization that discussions are underway. Given Seattle’s track record of extending its own before letting contract years become a distraction, and given how central Williams has been to the team’s recent success, a new deal getting done before or during the season wouldn’t come as a surprise. But for now, both sides appear content to let the process play out while Williams keeps his attention on football.
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