It’s possible that, in the end, the Seahawks will keep only one of their two veteran wideouts whose best days are behind them.
Financially, however, it would be easy for Seattle to put both Braylon Edwards and Terrell Owens on the 53-man roster.
Per multiple reports, Owens signed a one-year deal for the 10-year-plus minimum of $925,000, with a $65,000 signing bonus. His $990,000 salary counts only as $540,000 against the salary cap, under the minimum salary benefit.
Edwards signed a similar deal, per a league source. Based on his years of experience (seven), his minimum salary is $825,000. He also receives as $65,000 roster bonus. Of the base salary, $270,000 of it is fully guaranteed. Still, Edwards counts only as $540,000 against the cap.
So the Seahawks can carry both guys into the season at a total cap charge of only $1.08 million.
For Edwards, it’s a long drop from the $15 million in guaranteed money he supposedly was poised to receive last year from a team that got cold feet after he was wrongfully implicated in a knife-and-fork assault in Michigan.
Regardless of whether one or both guys sticks around in Seattle, the Edwards and Owens dynamic could get interesting. When Edwards joined the 49ers in 2011, he temporarily was issued No. 81. And Edwards didn’t want to wear T.O.’s number.
“I’m not trying to be known as the next [Terrell Owens] or anything related to him, and maybe not even 17. Maybe a fresh start means a fresh number, so 81 is temporary. And when the time is right, I’ll find the number that I’ll be wearing,” Edwards said at the time.
So what did Braylon mean when he said he didn’t want to be known as the next T.O. “or anything related to him”?
That could be the first question Owens asks his new teammate.