The Seahawks continued the makeover of their defense Friday by agreeing to terms with free agent defensive back Julian Love, formerly of the New York Giants.
Love’s agent, Drew Rosenhaus, confirmed that he has agreed to terms with the Seahawks. ESPN initially reported Love agreed to a two-year deal worth up to $12 million.
Love was among three defensive players visiting the Seahawks this week. Seattle also signed one of the other visitors, linebacker Devin Bush. The other was defensive back Lonnie Johnson.
The 24-year-old Love started 16 games at safety for the Giants a year ago but has also played substantially as a nickel corner.
According to Pro Football Focus, Love played 494 snaps in 2022 at free safety, 154 as a nickel corner and 271 in the box, or essentially lined up as a linebacker.
That Love has shown a lot of versatility could mean Seattle sees him as a candidate to help out at nickel or in the three-safety looks that the Seahawks have begun to use a lot the last two years, and particularly in 2022.
Love could be insurance if Jamal Adams does not make it back in time for the start of the regular season from a knee injury he suffered in the season-opener a year ago against Denver.
Seattle could also view Adams as playing more as a weakside linebacker when he returns — other than Bush, the Seahawks have done little to address their inside linebacking position so far.
Love’s addition may spur speculation about the future of Adams, who has three years remaining on a four-year, $72 million contract signed in 2021.
Adams recently had $2.56 million of his $11 million base salary for 2023 become guaranteed. And if he were to be released before June 1, the team would take a $23 million dead cap hit with no salary cap savings. However, Adams could be designated a post-June 1 cut and save $8.4 million against the cap while taking a $9.6 million dead cap hit (meaning, cap devoted to a player no longer on the team).
Adams has already earned $35.4 million on that contract, and has played just 13 games since signing it.
Seattle coach Pete Carroll said at the NFL scouting combine in February that the team is optimistic Adams will be ready for the start of the 2023 season but noted there is still a long road ahead in his recovery.
“He’s making his progress,” Carroll said. “He’s doing his stuff. We’ll see him in the next week or so in person, so we’re anxious to get connected with him. But when he came out and visited with our guys and checked in, everything was going the way it was supposed to go. This is a difficult recovery. We went through this with Jimmy (Graham), so we’ve been through it before. It’s really intricate, they’ve got to do a really good job. Again, it’s always that you’ve got to avoid the setbacks. So long as we can do that, he should be on schedule to get back.”
Seattle also has Quandre Diggs at free safety and earlier this week placed a right-of-first-refusal tender on Ryan Neal, who started 10 games at safety last year in the absence of Adams.
Love was a 2019 fourth-round pick, No. 108 overall, by the Giants out of Notre Dame. He was largely a situational and special teams player his first three years before becoming a full-time starter last season.
Pro Football Focus rated Love as the sixth-best safety available in free agency and the most underrated of that group.
“Love was a full-time starter in 2022 and, in turn, delivered a career-best 70.9 PFF coverage grade,” PFF wrote. “A more-than-capable tackler, Love has missed just 7.9% of his career attempts. This past season, he tied for fourth among all safeties with 30 tackles resulting in a defensive stop.”
Love is the fifth external free agent Seattle has added since the free agent signing period began Monday, four of whom are defensive players — Love, Bush, and defensive linemen Dre’Mont Jones and Jarran Reed. Seattle also added center Evan Brown.