The Seattle Seahawks and cornerback Devon Witherspoon have agreed to a four-year, $132 million contract extension that includes $101 million guaranteed, NFL.com reported. ESPN's Adam Schefter first reported the agreement on Saturday, August 15.
The deal carries a $33 million average annual value, the highest for a cornerback in league history. It surpasses the $31.1 million per year that Denzel Ward earns with the Cleveland Browns. Sauce Gardner and Derek Stingley Jr. also average above $30 million annually, per NFL.com. CBS Sports noted that the contract also resets the market for New England's Christian Gonzalez, who has been negotiating his own extension; Patriots owner Robert Kraft has said the team made Gonzalez an offer that would make him the highest-paid player at his position.
Witherspoon was the fifth overall pick in the 2023 draft out of Illinois and has made the Pro Bowl in each of his first three professional seasons. He earned second-team All-Pro recognition in 2025, a season in which he posted 72 tackles, seven passes defensed and an interception in 12 games.
Seattle won Super Bowl LX in February, beating the New England Patriots 29-13. Witherspoon recorded four tackles, a sack, a pass breakup and three quarterback hits in that game. Uristocrat previewed that matchup in Super Bowl LX Preview: Patriots vs. Seahawks.
The extension resolves a contract situation the team had been signaling since the spring. In March, the Seahawks confirmed fifth-year option values for Witherspoon and wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, with Witherspoon's set at $21,161,000 — the highest tier available for a player with at least two Pro Bowls in his first three seasons. Seattle stated at the time that it intended to work out long-term extensions with both 2023 first-rounders. Smith-Njigba, who led the NFL with 1,793 receiving yards in 2025 and won Offensive Player of the Year, signed a four-year, $168.6 million extension in March with $120 million guaranteed. Its $42.15 million average annual value is the highest ever for a pass catcher.
The deal continues a run of record-resetting contracts across the league, following Patrick Mahomes' $504.75 million Chiefs extension, the first NFL deal to clear $500 million.
Source: NFL.com
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