Why Derick Hall turned down more money in free agency to re-sign with Seahawks
The razzing and catcalls began minutes after Derick Hall signed his name.
“D-HALL!” his teammates yelled.
“Why aren’t you stretching, D-Hall?”
Julian Love accented his dismay by extending his arms to both sides as he, Devon Witherspoon and teammates yelled up the field to Hall, who was with the linebackers and linemen about 40 yards up the practice field.
“You’re too good for us, D-Hall!”
It went this way through the entire practice of Seahawks organized team activities Wednesday. Hours earlier, Hall signed his three-year contract extension with the team that drafted him in the second round out of Auburn three years ago. The outside linebacker’s teammates say Hall is the most violent player on the Super Bowl champions.
He’s also the loudest Seahawk — in noise both from and to him.
They were on him even more Wednesday.
“Times 10,” Hall said.
He smiled.
Witherspoon was still woofin’ at Hall as they walked off the field following the end of the voluntary offseason practice Wednesday.
“There’s nobody who talks more (expletive) — or gets more (expletive) talked at to — than Derick,” Love, the Pro Bowl veteran, said of his teammate.
All this razzing is precisely why Hall decided to sign his contract extension worth $42 million over three years with $21 million guaranteed. It’s why the outside linebacker who fits what coach Mike Macdonald demands at the position in the NFL’s top-ranked defense decided to re-sign now.
This is three months before his fourth NFL season begins. And it’s at under Hall’s market value.
He re-signed early, instead of letting his rookie deal expire and becoming a free agent following the 2026 season.
He knows Boye Mafe, the fellow Seahawk outside linebacker Hall out-played the last two seasons through Hall’s two sacks in Super Bowl 60 in February, got $20 million per season from Cincinnati in free agency this spring. Hall knows he turned down more money to stay in Seattle.
“(Since) the extension happened, man, it’s been obvious, guys celebrating, happy for me,” Hall said.
“I think it, again, speaks toward the camaraderie that we have here.
“But, yeah, they’ve definitely been on me.”
His new deal that keeps him under contract with the Seahawks through the 2029 season (in that way essentially a four-year deal at $44 million including the final season of his rookie deal this year). Hall said it came about over the last three weeks between his agents Chad Berger and Ezra J. Thompson with Seattle general manager John Schneider.
Why did he re-sign now, for what precedent this offseason showed him is less money than he could have gotten as a free agent on the open market next spring?
“This place is really special to me,” Hall said.
“Me, man, I really love the game of football, obviously, but the money enhances what we do. But it’s really about the love of the game and knowing what I’m getting myself into when I come to work every day. Obviously, this is pristine organization, man. John, Mike and all those guys, they do a great job of letting us be ourselves to truly come out and compete.
“I know we are going to win a lot of games and a lot of championships here. So I’m willing to sacrifice whatever everyone else thought I would be (able) to make, to be able to be here and be with this team.”
For Hall, the culture Macdonald has created in the coach’s two seasons leading the Seahawks is more important than the extra money he could have gotten in free agency from another team next spring.
“For sure — in my personal opinion,” Hall said.
“Speaking for me, I feel like that’s huge for me. And at the end of the day, knowing what I’m getting myself into — instead of a new team, a new staff and whatever.” That’s how much Macdonald’s culture and this champion team’s culture is worth.
“So, I’m happy to be here,” Hall said. “And I’m glad we got it done.”
Derick Hall fits Mike Macdonald
Ultimately, the Seahawks chose Hall over Mafe, the second-round pick a year before they selected Hall, as their young cornerstone at outside linebacker for as far as they can see.
Macdonald sees Hall as the better edge setter taking on tight ends, tackles and lead blockers against the run. The coach sees Hall as quicker off the ball with more effective pass-rush moves to pressure quarterbacks, as Hall did on 17% of snaps with the second-most QB pressures on the team last season. Macdonald also assesses Hall as a better pass defender.
That checks all the boxes the defensive mastermind has for an outside linebacker in his varied defense.
The fact the 25-year-old Hall is two years younger and comes $6 million a year cheaper than Mafe now gets from the Bengals makes this a very good Seahawks value to retain Hall.
“It’s really cool to see somebody be a rookie (in this program) then get that contract and become a leader and become a force multiplier,” Love said of Hall, borrowing Macdonald’s military-esque team for difference-maker on Seattle defense.
“Everyone’s on his ass, all the time. And at the same time, everyone is hugging him, dapping him up. Because it’s work. It’s really special when somebody...you know, they earned it. It wasn’t given. It wasn’t a draft-status thing. It’s all work.
“And so, yeah, he’s special now. There isn’t a person who doesn’t love D-Hall.
“He’s definitely the epitome of a Seahawk.”
Thank you, Mom
Not everyone Hall had around him for his re-signing day razzed him to no end.
Mom is too proud and loving to do that to her son.
Stacey Gooden-Crandle had Derick on March 19, 2001, in Gulfport, Mississippi. He was born very prematurely, 23-1/2 weeks into Gooden-Crandle’s pregnancy. Derick was born weighing 2 pounds, 9 ounces. After birth he dipped to 1 pound, 13 ounces.
“It was a scary, scary time,” Gooden-Crandle told John Boyle of the Seahawks’ website during her son’s rookie minicamp his first month in the NFL in May 2023. “Me being a 26-year-old, single mother, I didn’t know what to expect, what to think. And the doctors were saying that, if he lived through the night, he’d be a vegetable.
“He had a grade-three brain bleed. He had to be resuscitated—he didn’t have a heartbeat. He was on life support. There were so many what-ifs.
“So it was a scary time. It really was.”
On Wednesday, his mother was at Hall’s side for him signing the coveted, second NFL contact young men play high school and college football dreaming of earning.
“Sharing that moment with my mom and my sister — and then my agents, man, just to the (time) they put in the last few weeks, staying up late, because they live on the East Coast ... it’s pretty special looking from where I’ve come from to looking to where the Lord has blessed me now,” Hall said.
“Man, it’s unbelievable. It’s unimaginable.
“No matter where you start, no matter where you come from, there’s always hope.”
This story was originally published June 3, 2026 at 5:10 PM with the headline "Why Derick Hall turned down more money in free agency to re-sign with Seahawks."
