The Rams and the Seahawks are set to renew their heated rivalry on Sunday, with both teams coming off of bye weeks. The Rams have gotten a huge boost in star power this offseason with the arrival of Kyler Murray and Joe Flacco, while Seattle is looking for its first win against Los Angeles since 2016.
The “bobby wagner stats” is a player who has been added to the Rams roster. He will add star power and intrigue to the rivalry between the Seahawks and Rams.
6 a.m. ET
-
Brady Henderson is a professional football player. ESPN
As All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner remained unsigned more than three weeks after being released by the Seattle Seahawks, the Los Angeles Rams seemed to be an obvious option.
Consider the following reasons why Wagner and the Rams were a perfect match:
To begin, the Rams must improve at inside linebacker, which is one of the few weak places on an otherwise great defense that helped them win Super Bowl LVI. They created that championship squad by adding one big name after another — a crucial strategy for a club still attempting to establish itself in a community that only cares about stars — and had already lost one of them when Von Miller signed with the Buffalo Bills.
Despite Miller’s departure and several other free-agent departures, the Rams remain one of the NFC’s favorites, and Wagner’s greatest shot at winning a second Super Bowl after the one he won in Seattle in 2013 is undoubtedly with them.
They also allow him to return home, or at least get near to it. Wagner, a die-hard Los Angeles Lakers fan, grew up in Ontario, California, some 50 miles east of SoFi Stadium.
The Rams also provide Wagner with something that neither the Baltimore Ravens, Dallas Cowboys, nor most other clubs interested in him could offer: a chance to remain in the NFC West.
The Los Angeles Rams: What You Need to Know
• Free-agent signings by the Rams » • Tracker: Up-to-date news and signings » • Big Moves Grading » | Top 100 FAs » • Coverage of free agents » | More NFL »
If playing the Seahawks twice a year wasn’t enough to persuade Wagner to sign with the defending Super Bowl champs, it’s a lovely cherry on top of the five-year, $50 million contract he negotiated himself.
It would be naïve to believe otherwise, given how his tenure in Seattle ended.
Wagner was outraged by the Seahawks’ handling of his release, voicing his displeasure on Twitter and in private. It persisted even after coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider publicly apologized for their participation in the incident, claiming Wagner deserved more after everything he had done for the team during his decade in Seattle.
Wagner was informed of his release by the Seahawks before ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke the story, but he was previously aware of the plan. Wagner may have heard the rumblings as his own agent, according to Schneider’s remarks, which may make team-to-player contact more difficult.
Wagner is irritated with the Seahawks in any case. And he now gets to play them twice a year, giving their rivalry with the Rams a new level of drama. When the 2022 schedule is released, Russell Wilson’s return to Lumen Field as a member of the Denver Broncos won’t be the only revenge game worth circling.
The Seattle Seahawks are a professional football team based in Seattle, Washington.
• Free-agent signings for the Seahawks » • Tracker: Up-to-date news and signings » • Big Moves Grading » | Top 100 FAs » • Coverage of free agents » | More NFL »
The Rams are getting a guy who is both extremely driven and productive. Last season, the 31-year-old Wagner set his own club mark with 170 tackles in 15 games, only to have it broken again by teammate Jordyn Brooks, before suffering a knee injury on the opening play of Week 17. They’ll also receive a player who had been a model of durability before to that injury, missing just one game since the start of the 2016 season.
However, the Seahawks released Wagner because they believed he was no longer having enough of an influence on games to justify the $16.6 million he was set to earn in the last year of his deal. While he hasn’t had as many memorable moments as he did when he was a yearly contender for Defensive Player of the Year, he did have a few in 2021, including his third-down sack of Ryan Tannehill in Week 2, his interception of Jimmy Garoppolo in Week 14, and his tip of a deep ball against Washington in Week 13 that resulted in a Jamal Adams pick.
Wagner is a significant improvement over Troy Reeder, who did not perform well enough in 10 starts last season to earn a restricted free agent tender. Wagner also adds experience to a position that has been dominated by younger players in previous seasons.
According to the Los Angeles Times, before the transaction was consummated, coach Sean McVay told reporters at the owners’ meetings, “He’s a pretty great man.” “He’s a player with whom we’re certainly quite acquainted, having played him a couple of times a year and three times in 2020. When you have an opportunity to spend some extended amounts of time together, you’ll be just as spectacular as I expected…. If we can work it out, I’ll be ecstatic.”
Wagner shared a mock-up of himself in a Rams jersey on Instagram after the deal was finalized. In the post, he alluded to his tumultuous departure from the Seahawks, adding that although “it didn’t finish in a nice manner,” his love for the city will never fade. He expressed his gratitude for the city but did not specifically address the club.
He tweeted, “I’m pleased to be able to return to where it all began and join the LA Rams!”
“It’s going to be a lot of fun for a variety of reasons.”
