Michael Bennett re-signs with Seahawks

The Seattle Seahawks managed to retain the services of defensive end Michael Bennett with a four-year deal, as first reported by Pro Football Talk. The deal is worth $28.5 million with $16 million guaranteed, according to NFL.com's Ian Rapoport.

Bennett, 28, was considered one of the top names on the free agent market this year, and was pursued by multiple teams. The most notable of those teams was the Chicago Bears. After the negotiating period began on Saturday, multiple reports suggested that the Bears considered Bennett their top priority, and that the team was pushing hard to get him signed.

In fact, multiple reports also suggested that the Bears and Bennett had already agreed to a deal and were simply waiting for Tuesday to announce. Tight end Martellus Bennett, brother to Michael, is with the Bears currently and did an awful lot to get people used to the idea of the two playing together in Chicago.

Seattle was always a candidate to re-sign Bennett, of course, but most figured that a deal would already have been done if it was going to happen. Immediately after the team won the Super Bowl, in which Bennett helped a great deal, there was talk that the Seahawks would push hard to get him signed to an extension to keep him around sooner rather than later.

It's possible that Bennett always considered Seattle his top option but wanted to field some offers first to test his value. Whether or not that ultimately increased his value and earned him more money with the Seahawks is unknown, but given the sizable contracts we've seen given out already (Sam Shields, Everson Griffen), it would not be surprising in the least.

The Seahawks recently released defensive lineman Red Bryant and may expect further turnover on the defensive line. Retaining Bennett is a big deal for a team that has an awful lot of money earmarked for its franchise quarterback and secondary in upcoming extensions.