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The Seattle Seahawks are signing Leonard Williams to a three-year, $90 million contract extension that will make him one of the NFL’s highest-paid defensive tackles, sources told ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler and NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport.
Williams will make $56 million guaranteed as part of the deal, sources told ESPN's Adam Schefter.
Williams, who was scheduled to become a free agent in 2027, is tied with Tampa Bay's Vita Vea for the fifth-highest average annual income for a defensive tackle in the NFL, behind Philadelphia’s Jalen Carter, Dallas’ Quinnen Williams, Tennessee’s Jeffery Simmons and Kansas City’s Chris Jones.
Williams, 32, is one of the most impactful players on the NFL's top-ranked scoring defense in 2025, and the reigning Super Bowl champion Seahawks are making a significant bet that he'll remain a dominant force into his mid-30s.
In polling conducted this offseason by Fowler, Williams was voted the NFL's best defensive tackle by league executives, scouts and coaches. One coordinator called him "the most important player on that Super Bowl team," according to Fowler. "That was amazing," Williams said of his No. 1 ranking. "I think it's awesome to get that recognition, especially later in my career."
When asked last month about his contract situation, Williams confirmed that his agents and the Seahawks had been talking about an extension. He was entering the final year of the three-year, $64.5 million deal he signed to return to the Seahawks in March 2024.
Seattle acquired Williams in a midseason trade with the New York Giants in October 2023, giving up a 2024 second-round pick and a 2025 fifth-rounder.
Williams has made the Pro Bowl in each of his two full seasons with the Seahawks and earned second-team All-Pro honors in 2025. In 2024, he recorded 11 sacks and added returned an interception 92 yards for a touchdown — the longest pick-six by a defensive lineman in NFL history, according to ESPN Research.
Williams followed that up with seven sacks during last year's regular season, adding another sack in the playoffs for the eventual Super Bowl LX champions.
Williams spent his first four-plus seasons with the New York Jets, who drafted him sixth overall in 2015 and traded him to the Giants in 2019. He made the first of his three Pro Bowls in 2016. Over 11 seasons, he has 61.5 sacks in 175 regular-season games, including a career-high 11.5 in 2020.
