RENTON, Wash. – During the inevitable low points of what was a roughly two-year ordeal overcoming a lingering knee injury that eventually required surgery, Abraham Lucas tried not to think about the big picture.
Any worries about whether the injury might derail a career that began so promisingly in 2022 he tried to keep at bay. Whether a day like Thursday, when he finalized a three-year contract extension with the Seahawks that could pay him more than $46 million, might never come.
“You control what you can control,” Lucas said Thursday. “Mike Leach (his coach at Washington State) taught me that. So I tried not to think about it in that regard. … Injuries suck. They are tough to get through. But you just put your head down and keep going and I did that the best I could.”
Proof that strategy worked arrived this week as the Seahawks and Lucas’ agents finalized a deal that keeps him under contract through the 2027 season. Lucas was scheduled to sign it after practice.
Further details, such as the size of bonus and overall guarantees, had yet to surface as of Thursday afternoon.
He had been entering the final season of his rookie contract signed in 2022 that could have paid him a total of just over $7 million overall, including $3.4 million this season.
Now, he’ll make $15.33 million for the next three years, which ranks him 30th among all tackles in the NFL in average annual salary, according to Spotrac.com, and 13th among right tackles.
Lucas said it’s the fulfillment of a goal that first hatched when he watched Seahawks games as a kid with his father, Kelly. Lucas is an Everett native who attended Archbishop Murphy High before spending five years at WSU.
“It’s literally my dream come true, the dream that I had since the time I was three years old, four years old, watching football with my dad,’’ Lucas said. “So I’m just stoked about it. It means everything to me.’’
Such a day seemed a foregone conclusion when he was taken 72nd overall by the Seahawks in 2022 and then started 16 games that season as Seattle advanced to the playoffs.
But Lucas began experiencing pain in his knee late that season, which coach Pete Carroll described at the time as a patellar tendon issue.
The injury lingered into the 2023 season and he had a procedure done on the knee that September and spent much of the year on injured reserve before coming back late in the season, ultimately playing six games.
He had surgery on the knee to try to repair the injury for good in early 2024.
The team was vague about a timeline, saying there was no need to rush Lucas, which led to some public uncertainty about his future. But he recovered well enough to return last November and play in seven games, though he said he didn’t feel 100%.
Lucas said on several occasions he hoped a full and healthy offseason would get him back to where he was in 2022. That appears to have happened.
He didn’t appear to miss a snap during training camp and played well in two preseason game appearances.
That helped convince the Seahawks Lucas was worth a reward now and an investment for the future. His contract comes on the heels of Tampa Bay giving right tackle Luke Goedeke, the 57th overall pick in the 2022 draft, a four-year extension worth up to $90 million Tuesday.
Had Seattle waited, Lucas’ market might have increased to that level, if not more.
Lucas, who turns 27 in October, could have waited it out to see if there might be a bigger payday. But the travails of the past two years undoubtedly influenced him deciding to get some security now knowing he’ll still have a chance to hit free agency again before he’s 30 if he desires.
“In my mind it’s a reflection of how much they believe in me,’’ Lucas said.
It also appears to show faith in how the offensive line is developing under first-year offensive coordinator Klint Kubiak and new offensive line coach John Benton.
Under Kubiak and Benton, the Seahawks are implementing an outside zone scheme that could hardly have looked better in the preseason as Seattle scored touchdowns on three of the four drives in which Lucas and other starting offensive linemen played.
Lucas earned an 89.7 grade from Pro Football Focus for his 39 preseason snaps, best on the team.
Lucas is the first offensive lineman drafted by the team to earn an extension before the final season of his rookie deal since Justin Britt, a second-round pick in 2014. Britt signed a three-year deal worth up to $27 million in 2017.
From 2015-21 the Seahawks drafted 11 offensive linemen, none of whom earned an extension from the team. Ethan Pocic, a second-round pick in 2017, got a one-year deal in 2021 after his rookie contract had expired but none of the other stayed with the team beyond their rookie deals.
Lucas, though, could start a trend.
Left tackle Charles Cross, taken ninth in 2022, has two years left on his contract after the Seahawks picked up an option on his deal for the 2026 that will pay him $17.56 million (the option only applies to first-round picks).
The Seahawks, though, figure to ink Cross to a long-term deal before the 2026 season, though they probably won’t do so until after this season, adhering to a long-standing policy of not giving extensions to players who have more than one year left on their contract.
Lucas also becomes the first of the team’s heralded 2022 draft class to sign an extension.
Others from that class now eligible for extensions include rush end Boye Mafe, running back Kenneth Walker III, safety Coby Bryant and cornerback Riq Woolen.
All can be free agents after this season. A recent listing of the top potential free agents in 2026 from NFL.com rated Woolen fourth, Walker 16th and Mafe 19th.
ESPN has reported that the Seahawks have had talks with Bryant but have yet to reach an agreement.
Asked last week about the possibility of extensions for members of the class of 2022, Schneider said talks are “always going on.”
“It depends on the individual, where they are, how they’re performing, or what their story is,” Schneider added. “Everybody has a different story. … We love our guys and we’ll keep working with them. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. And if it doesn’t, just have to move on to the next guy. We will never stop trying to do that, but there isn’t one just standard philosophy, other than the fact that since we got here, Mr. (Paul) Allen (former team owner) and his philosophy is that we wouldn’t do anything without one year out. So, we’ll continue that route.”
That’s no longer a worry for Lucas.
But while he’s gotten both some financial and professional security, Lucas said he’s hardly satisfied.
“The goal has been always to be as great as I could be and anything else that comes with that is just part of the deal,’’ he said. “I’ve always wanted to be a Pro Bowler and an All-Pro player and that’s what I’m going to work toward. This is just basically another tick on the box. But there’s still so much more to do.”