Michael Bennett, Cliff Avril apply the heat on the cheap Tom Pelissero, USA TODAY Sports January 21, 2014
(Photo: Steven Bisig, USA TODAY Sports)The Seattle Seahawks targeted defensive ends Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett before free agency began in March, but they figured the price would be too high.Then the initial rush passed, a market for experienced pass rushers never developed and the Seahawks had the chance to sign two for the price of one.Selling point: Come to Seattle, win a championship and test the market again in a year or two.What Avril, Bennett and their new team couldn't know then is how big a role they would play in sending the Seahawks to Super Bowl XLVIII against the Denver Broncos — an overdue opportunity for two players who entered the season with a combined 54.5 sacks and no playoff wins."It's huge," Avril said after the NFC Championship Game win vs. the San Francisco 49ers. "I won zero games my rookie year, and to be here, at this moment right now, about to go to the Super Bowl six years later, is a heck of a story that I can tell my son."Avril, 27, spent the first five seasons of his career with the Detroit Lions, who went 0-16 in 2008 and made the playoffs once, losing in the wild-card round to the New Orleans Saints in the 2011 season.Bennett, 28, never got to the postseason in four seasons with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who claimed him off waivers from the Seahawks in 2009.Neither is a full-time player in Seattle. Bennett has three starts and Avril two, both playing around half of the defensive snaps. But they've made up for lost time in the postseason.Bennett had the forced fumble and recovery against Saints running back Mark Ingram that set up Seattle's first touchdown in their 23-15 divisional-round victory. Bennett scooped up the ball after Avril's strip-sack of San Francisco quarterback Colin Kaepernick in the fourth quarter started a run of three consecutive takeaways to sink the 49ers."That's the way we've played the whole season," Bennett said of the Seahawks defense. "These guys are relentless. All we do is practice turnovers on defense, and we just wanted to be in that situation, where the game was on our back."Avril also got credit for the strip of Saints QB Drew Brees on a sack he shared with Bennett, who had an additional strip-sack against Kaepernick. That gives the pair four forced fumbles in two playoff games — the rest of the Seahawks have none.No doubt, playing in front of the NFL's most feared secondary will help any pass rusher."We work hand in hand," Avril said. "The better they cover the guys, the longer we get to get to the quarterback and vice versa."But the veterans' high-impact play makes the low-risk, short-term deals that came out of an oversaturated free agent market in March look like bargains.
San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick (left) fumbles the ball after being hit by Seattle Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril (56) during the fourth quarter of the 2013 NFC Championship Game at CenturyLink Field in Seattle on Jan. 19, 2014.(Photo: Steven Bisig, USA TODAY Sports)One year after he made $10.605 million as the Lions' franchise player, Avril signed for $13 million over two — a $6.5 million average that ranks 19th among defensive ends. Bennett took a one-year, $4.8 million deal over more lucrative offers because Seattle was a good fit and he thought he could win."This is exactly what I imagined," Bennett said, "but I imagined a bigger ring in two weeks."Of course, Bennett could cash in off the Seahawks' success — perhaps by staying in Seattle, where he has shown the versatility to play both ends as well as inside and figures to be a priority to re-sign.Avril has fared well enough to think he's likely to return for another season, even though the $5million guaranteed portion of his $7 million base salary is guaranteed for injury only until five days after the start of the 2014 league year waiver period.There might be more snaps available if starters Chris Clemons ($9.67 million cap number for 2014) and/or Red Bryant ($8.5 million) don't return — not that anyone's thinking past Feb. 2, when Peyton Manning and the high-powered Broncos will stand between the Seahawks and a title."We're up for the task," Avril said. "They're a heck of an offense, and we feel like we have playmakers that can go out and make plays. It's going to be fun."
Bennett took a one-year, $4.8 million deal over more lucrative offers because Seattle was a good fit and he thought he could win.
Obviously. Why do all of the idiots think all he got was the offer from Seattle. Idiots that love to ride Dominik's nut sack. Vin? Delores? Care to comment? He wants a ring. This should be every players goal. This type of thing should be common.
We should have PAID the man. Dom or Schitano couldn't eval d line to save their jobs...oops...they didn't. Selvie, Gilberry, Bennett...I am glad that the Dom/Morris/Schiano era is dead and gone. What a black hole they were on our organization.
Bennett took a one-year, $4.8 million deal over more lucrative offers because Seattle was a good fit and he thought he could win.
Obviously. Why do all of the idiots think all he got was the offer from Seattle. Idiots that love to ride Dominik's nut sack. Vin? Delores? Care to comment? He wants a ring. This should be every players goal. This type of thing should be common.
I think it's entirely possible Seattle is the only team that made him an offer.
Lol @ the suggestion that I was ever a Dummynik nutrider.What we should have done was sign Abraham. A bonfide double digit sack guy year in and year out , and he came cheaper.I'm tired of talking about Bennett regardless. The topic that will never die...
I mean, only an idiot would turn down the more lucrative $5 mil one year offer from the Jags to go play for the Hawks way out in the bumf**k northwest left coast nowheresville. But that's Bennett. Or the $5.1 mil one year offer he got from the Bills to play in eastern Canada. So many more lucrative offers to choose from and he picked the Hawks. Idiot I say.
The people that keep bringing this crap up about former Bucs on other teams are people that keep trying to make the previous regime look bad. But what's the point? Schiano is gone. Dominik is gone. They are not here and they are not coming back. What you are doing is beating a dead horse.Schiano was crap. We get it! Now seriously...move the f*** on!Oh and that AFC championship game proved why Blount and Talib are not Bucs.