Free Agent Primer: Will Josh Jobe’s Storybook Ascent Continue With Seahawks?

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Seattle Seahawks cornerback Josh Jobe (29) pursues New England Patriots running back Rhamondre Stevenson (38) during the second quarter in Super Bowl LX at Levi's Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images [/caption]

After climbing back to the NFL’s mountaintop by winning Super Bowl LX, the Seattle Seahawks have no shortage of big decisions to make this offseason as they begin their title defense, starting with the free agency period.

With a new league year slated to kick off on March 11, the Seahawks have nine unrestricted free agents scheduled to test the market along with seven restricted free agents and two exclusive rights free agents. Compared to prior seasons, general manager John Schneider has more financial flexibility at his disposal with OverTheCap.com listing the franchise as sixth in available effective cap space ($62 million), but with several big name stars in line for extensions such as All-Pro receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba, the team won’t be able to keep everyone after running the table to hoist the Lombardi Trophy.

Over the next several weeks, using statistics courtesy of Pro Football Focus and TruMedia, I will break down each and every one of the Seahawks' unrestricted free agents by revisiting their 2025 seasons, assessing why they should or should not be re-signed, breaking down an ideal contract, and making an early prediction on whether or not the player will return in 2026.

After reviving his career in the Emerald City as a waiver wire claim two years ago, does Josh Jobe’s future remain as a starter in the Seahawks’ secondary? Or will he cash in on his unexpected success to earn a massive contract elsewhere?

2025 in Review

Coming off a surprising 2024 season where he emerged as a viable starter in the second half for the Seahawks, Jobe proved that meteoric rise wasn’t a fluke, maintaining a starting job in a nickel-heavy defense as one of the team’s two boundary cornerbacks out of training camp. Playing sticky, physical coverage on the outside, quarterbacks had a difficult time completing passes when targeting him, only converting on 51% of the 96 throws in his direction during the regular season and playoffs, the eighth-lowest rate among qualified cornerbacks. While he did allow three touchdowns in 19 games, he ranked in the top 15 in pass breakups (10) and passer rating (74.1) and was equally impressive against the run with only one missed tackle and an average depth of tackle of 3.8 yards, regularly sniffing out ball carriers near the line of scrimmage after successfully navigating blocks in front of him.

Why Seattle Will Re-Sign Jobe

Since his unheralded arrival off the waiver wire scrap heap early in the 2024 regular season, Jobe has done everything coach Mike Macdonald demands from his cornerbacks in the secondary. Both scrappy and football smart, he has overcame average athletic tools and size by NFL cornerback standards with excellent technique and short-term memory, consistently bouncing back with stellar play on the rare occasion where opposing receivers get the better of him. He has rarely allowed big plays downfield, he doesn’t leave many tackles on the field against the run or after the catch, and while his interception numbers haven’t been staggering, he ranked in the top 20 in forced incompletion rate by frequently finding ways to get his hands on the football with air-tight coverage.

From a financial standpoint, Jobe doesn’t have the eye-popping physical traits or former Pro Bowl pedigree of teammate Riq Woolen, likely putting a significantly lower ceiling on what teams will offer to sign him in free agency. More than confident in what he can do as a key cog for a championship defense, the Seahawks’ comfort level with his game could work to their advantage bringing him back at a much better price than Woolen, potentially offering more bang for the buck on a multi-year contract as a means to maintain as much continuity in the defensive backfield as possible.

Why Seattle Will Let Jobe Walk

For as well as Jobe has played over the past two seasons, contractual decisions need to be built around both rewarding prior play and future expectations, and it’s debatable how much more the Seahawks can squeeze from the veteran cornerback potential-wise heading towards his 28th birthday. Without top-tier traits, he’s already a polished product and has performed above expectations on modest contracts the past two seasons. But the organization may have reservations about his ability to play up to a contract worth six or seven times what he has earned during his time in Seattle up to this point, especially after he endured a couple of rough games yielding multiple explosive receptions against the Rams in Week 16 and the NFC Championship Game.

If Woolen’s market doesn’t materialize as anticipated and he and Jobe have similar price points testing the open market, nobody would blame the Seahawks if they opted to pay for untapped upside rather than established skill from a player who looks to be a finished product at this point. And in the event that the “Super Bowl tax” comes into play and other teams start throwing funny money at the veteran cornerback, John Schneider isn’t one to engage in bidding wars and push the envelope upping his financial ante beyond pre-planned budgets, even for gritty players as revered by the coaching staff as Jobe has been.

Ideal Contract

Two years, $17 million

Prediction

Among the potentially most intriguing situations facing Schneider as free agency opens, while the market could dictate otherwise with a strong cornerback draft class, the Seahawks more than likely will have to choose one or the other when it comes to retaining Jobe or Woolen. Finances will be the primary driving force behind such a decision, with most expecting Woolen to be the one who has a more fruitful array of offers from other teams due to his rare athleticism/size package and prior track record creating turnovers. If that expectation becomes reality, locking up Jobe will be the smarter fiscal decision for the franchise, retaining a solid starter while maintaining financial flexibility to re-sign the likes of Jaxon Smith-Njigba and Devon Witherspoon to massive extensions.

If Jobe and Woolen wind up having similar markets, however, Schneider’s choice will suddenly become a lot more complicated. Some teams would value traits above all else, but with Macdonald at the helm, fundamentals, physicality, and playing smart, assignment-sound football sit atop his chart of core values along with athleticism and size/length. Even given his penalty issues this past season, Jobe checks off all of those boxes and has earned the trust of the entire coaching staff and his teammates with his consistently stellar performance as an all-around defender, which could sway decision makers towards re-signing him instead. As things stand, Woolen likely will have the hotter market for the aforementioned reasons, making the odds of Jobe coming back seem like the safer bet.

Previous Free Agent Primers: Ken Walker III | Riq Woolen | Rashid Shaheed | Coby Bryant | Boye Mafe