Seahawks defensive end Michael Bennett continues to boycott voluntary offseason workouts. And he continues to admit his absence relates to his desire to get paid more money.
“Trying to get the contract right,” Bennett said at a dinner for his foundation, via Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times. “I’ll be there shortly. I don’t know when I’ll be there. Depends on the team and stuff. See how it works out.”
Bennett hopes to rip up the last three years of a four-year, $28.5 million deal that he signed last year as a free agent.
“Somewhere near the top seven at my position, top eight at my position,” Bennett said of his target compensation. “Not a lot of guys play inside and out. Not a lot of guys do what I do. So I feel like I should be somewhere near there. . . . I just want to be in the realm of the guys that play like me. There are only so many guys that do what I do, and I would love to be like somewhere in there where they are at.”
Bennett hinted at a holdout into training camp.
“I will miss whatever I can miss,” Bennett said. “Depends how much the fine is.”
The fine is $72,920 if he skips a three-day mandatory minicamp. And then the fine is $30,000 per day if he stays away from training camp. In the end, however, Bennett has no desire to change teams.
“I see myself being with the Seahawks,” Bennett said. “I think we have something special here and the things that we do in the community, the players that we have and the team and the coaches. I think it’s a great organization. But at the end of the day, it’s all about the business part of it, and sometimes people see your value as something else and sometimes you see your value as something different, and it’s just part of the business. . . . We’ll see what happens. The ideal situation would be that I get a raise and that will be something great.”
If he doesn’t get a raise, apparently that won’t be great. But he’s still under contract for three more years, and his options would then be the same as they are for Adrian Peterson -- play for his current team or play for no one.