Seahawks Sale Approved, Leonard Williams Gets Paid as NFL Cutdown Day Looms

The NFL apparently decided the final weekend of August needed a little bit of everything. The defending Super Bowl champions are changing hands for nearly $10 billion, Seattle turned around and handed Leonard Williams another $90 million, the Raiders finished the preseason without technically naming a starting quarterback even though everybody can see where that one is headed, Pittsburgh might carry four of them, and in Nashville, a joint practice between the Titans and Bears went completely off the rails after one hit.

All of it comes with Sunday’s roster deadline hanging over the league. Here’s where things stand.

Seahawks Sale Gets the Green Light

The Seattle Seahawks officially have their next ownership group.

NFL owners unanimously approved the sale of the franchise Wednesday to a group led by Vinod and Neeru Khosla, clearing the biggest hurdle in a $9.612 billion deal that shatters the record for the most expensive team sale in league history. For perspective, Josh Harris and his group paid $6.05 billion for the Washington Commanders three years ago.

That record didn’t just fall. It got smoked.

The Khoslas reached an agreement in July with the estate of late Seahawks owner Paul Allen, whose family has controlled the franchise since he bought it in 1997. Jody Allen took over following her brother’s death in 2018 and was at the helm when Seattle captured its second Super Bowl championship last season.

Vinod Khosla, the Sun Microsystems co-founder and longtime venture capitalist, will have to give up his minority stake in the San Francisco 49ers before taking control of the Seahawks.

“How often do you get to buy a franchise that just won the Super Bowl?” Khosla said after the vote.

Fair point.

The sale still needs to formally close, but that is expected shortly. Seattle opens the season Sept. 9 against New England in a Super Bowl LX rematch, which is not exactly a quiet way to begin a new era.

Leonard Williams Isn’t Going Anywhere

One day after approving the sale, Seattle made sure one of the biggest reasons it has a Lombardi Trophy isn’t going anywhere either.

Leonard Williams agreed to a three-year, $90 million extension Thursday with $56 million guaranteed. Williams was headed into the final year of his contract and probably could have commanded a monster deal on the open market, but Seattle never let it get that far.

The 32-year-old defensive tackle has been terrific since the Seahawks traded for him midway through the 2023 season. He has 22 sacks in 2½ years with Seattle, made consecutive Pro Bowls and earned second-team All-Pro honors last season while anchoring the league’s best scoring defense.

Now he’s getting paid like it.

The extension puts Williams among the five highest-paid interior defensive linemen in football and continues an expensive offseason for a Seahawks team determined to keep its championship core together. Jaxon Smith-Njigba got his deal. Devon Witherspoon got his. Now Williams has his.

“It feels amazing,” Williams said. “I think this is my first time being extended while under contract with a team.”

Turns out winning the Super Bowl is pretty good for business.

Raiders Won’t Say It, But Kirk Cousins Looks Like the Guy

Klint Kubiak still won’t name his Week 1 quarterback, but at this point, he almost doesn’t have to.

Kirk Cousins started Thursday night’s 18-12 preseason loss to San Francisco and completed 8 of 11 passes for 51 yards. Rookie Fernando Mendoza followed him and went 7-of-14 for 57 yards with an interception while taking two sacks.

Mendoza’s first NFL preseason ends at 25-of-45 for 240 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. Nothing catastrophic, but nothing that screamed he’s ready to start an NFL opener, either.

Then Kubiak pretty much said the quiet part out loud.

“He needs another three preseason games,” Kubiak said of Mendoza. “All those rookies do.”

That’s not exactly the quote you expect from a coach preparing to hand a rookie the keys two weeks later, but Kubiak still refused to make anything official after the game.

“I still don’t think we need to name anybody,” he said.

Fine. Until he says otherwise, there’s technically a competition. But Cousins has received two preseason starts, Mendoza is clearly still developing and Las Vegas opens against Miami on Sept. 13.

If Mendoza is standing behind center for the first snap of that game, that would now be the surprise. Of course, the future is Fernando’s, but the present seems to belong to Cousins.

Pittsburgh Might Actually Keep Four Quarterbacks

Meanwhile, the Steelers apparently looked at the usual NFL roster construction rules and decided they weren’t interested.

Pittsburgh could carry four quarterbacks into Week 1. Aaron Rodgers, Mason Rudolph, Will Howard and rookie Drew Allar all remain on the roster, and Mike McCarthy gave his strongest indication yet Thursday that he plans on keeping it that way.

Asked after Pittsburgh’s 28-27 loss to Buffalo whether all four had earned roster spots, McCarthy didn’t exactly dodge the question.

“I think that’s a very accurate evaluation on your part,” he said.

That would be a first for McCarthy in 18 seasons as an NFL head coach.

Rodgers is obviously the starter. Rudolph gives Pittsburgh a veteran No. 2. The real decision was supposed to come down to Howard and Allar, two young quarterbacks the Steelers aren’t exactly eager to expose to waivers.

Apparently, their solution is not choosing.

Howard completed 9 of 15 passes for 69 yards, two touchdowns and an interception Thursday before being evaluated for a head injury. Allar went 9-of-18 for 88 yards.

Four quarterbacks on a 53-man roster is a luxury, and it means Pittsburgh will have to squeeze another position somewhere else. McCarthy seems willing to live with that.

Titans-Bears Practice Turns Ugly

Then there was Nashville.

Joint practices are supposed to give teams quality work against somebody other than their own teammates. Thursday’s Titans-Bears session gave them a brawl instead.

Tennessee receiver Wan’Dale Robinson caught a pass over the middle during a thud period when Bears safety Xavier Woods delivered a late hit that immediately set off the Titans. Austin Schlottmann and Peter Skoronski were among the Tennessee players who went after Woods before both sides poured into the mess.

Titans coach Robert Saleh didn’t bother dressing it up afterward.

“It was cheap,” Saleh said.

Robinson walked off the field under his own power and was evaluated for a concussion. By Friday afternoon, he was not believed to have suffered one, although Tennessee continued to monitor him.

That’s a significant break for the Titans. Robinson signed a four-year, $70 million contract this offseason and is expected to play a major role in Tennessee’s offense.

Skoronski made it clear afterward that the Titans weren’t upset about ordinary training-camp physicality.

“That’s teach tape 101 in terms of what not to do in a thud practice and a thud period,” he said. There’s competing, and then there’s drilling a defenseless receiver when nobody is supposed to be tackling.

The Bears and Titans meet Saturday night. That should be friendly.

Now Comes Cutdown Day

And after all of that, NFL front offices still have actual work to do.

Every team has until 6 p.m. ET Sunday to cut its roster from 90 players to 53. That means hundreds of players will become available over the weekend, waiver claims will start flying and teams will work the phones looking for trades before cutting players they believe somebody else might want.

For guys sitting on the roster bubble, the preseason isn’t some meaningless collection of August football games. It’s the difference between having a job Monday morning and looking for one.

The preseason is just about finished. Now the hard part starts.