Doug Baldwin expects to begin extension talks with Seahawks soon
Baldwin is coming off a breakout year and hopes to be in Seattle for a while longer
Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Doug Baldwin is coming off what can only be described as a true breakout season. Baldwin came into 2015 with 196 career catches for 2,757 yards and 15 touchdowns. His career highs were 66, 825, and 5, respectively. He blew them all away in 2015.
Baldwin finished with 78 grabs for 1,069 yards and a league-best 14 end zone trips. He closed the season on an absolute tear -- in Seattle's final eight games, Baldwin racked up 47 catches for 724 yards and 12 of those 14 touchdowns. That's a full-season pace of 94 catches, 1,448 yards and 24 TDs.
Needless to say, no one has ever reached all three figures in a full season. (Randy Moss holds the single-season receiving touchdown record with 23.) Only 40 times since the AFL/NFL merger in 1970 has anyone hit 94 catches and 1,448 yards, per Pro-Football-Reference. Given that pace of performance, perhaps we shouldn't be surprised that Baldwin said in appearance on Sirius XM NFL Radio that he's set to begin extension negotiations with the Seahawks fairly soon.
"We haven't started conversations yet. I did have a one-on-one meeting with John Schneider a couple weeks ago and he assured me that we'd be on the way to discussing a possible extension in the next couple weeks. That was before the draft. I'm expecting something to get started here shortly but I've been on record saying that I'm not too worried about it. I know that I got one year left on my contract so I'm going to be with the Seattle Seahawks this year regardless. So I'm just going to focus on that, the task at hand which is just being the best that I can be for my teammates this season."
Baldwin is 27, and will be 28 by the start of the season. He also doesn't have quite as long a track record of elite play as guys like Demaryius Thomas, Dez Bryant, A.J. Green, Julio Jones, and even T.Y. Hilton, who have all signed big-money deals over the last two offseasons. He doesn't even have the track record of an Eric Decker or Jordy Nelson, who signed their deals at a similar age to where Baldwin is now. So it is very, very difficult to gauge what kind of contract he might be in line for.
Given his chemistry with Russell Wilson, it's probable that the Seahawks will want to lock him down. The only question is how long the deal will be and how much it'll pay him. He doesn't seem too worried about it, though.
