Seahawks Sign Julian Love
The Seattle Seahawks are adding secondary help by signing former New York Giants safety Julian Love, per Josina Anderson.
Love, 24, has spent his first four seasons in the NFL with the Giants. Love started all 16 games that he played during the 2022 season. He had a career-high two interceptions last season and was a key member of a successful Giants defense.
The Seahawks are getting Love for a good price. The Notre Dame product is getting 2 years/$12 million for its services. This is the second move that Seattle has made to address their defense Friday, picking up linebacker Devin Bush earlier in the day.
Love will be thrown into the mix of safeties for Seattle, and will likely have to earn the starting job. Quandre Diggs was the team’s starting free safety last season. Throw in Jamal Adams as well. Love is versatile, he could even be put at nickel cornerback or strong safety if Seattle has the need.
For New York, they’ll lose a leader in the locker room and a starter on their defense. Last season, rookie Dane Belton had some nice games and looks to be a potential replacement for Love. Jason Pinnock also got some reps at the free safety position, but he’s expected to return to his role as a special teamer.
One of Love’s biggest plays of the season was intercepting Lamar Jackson, and returning the ball into the red zone to help seal a Giants’ win over the Ravens.
The State of The Saftey Market
Love joins five other safeties that have been paid up to this point. The safety market has certainly been interesting in the 2023 off-season so far.
It’s a bit surprising that Love is only getting $6 million from Seattle. He likely could have bargained for a little more. In any event, the market has been hard to understand these first few days of free agency. Is Jessie Bates really an arm and a leg better than Love? He probably is, but it’s still surprising that a 26-year-old like Bates can get $16 million while the younger Love is only garnering $6 million.
One of the most enticing free agents, former Eagle C.J. Gardner-Johnson, has still yet to sign a deal. He’ll be using Bates’ and Love’s contracts as leverage.
The Seahawks still have around $17 million in cap space, per OverTheCap. Expect them to continue to add pieces to what was a playoff team last season.
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