Bobby Wagner doesn’t know what his future with Seahawks holds, but he knows he’s not ready to be done playing

SEATTLE – Bobby Wagner spent the first half of his NFL career standing in the middle of one of the greatest defenses in league history, directing traffic and helping hold it all together.

He’s spent the last half watching all the pieces of the famed Legion of Boom slowly drift away.

Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett following the 2017 season.

Earl Thomas in 2018.

And then following the 2020 season, K.J. Wright, the player closest to Wagner on the field all those years, manning the other inside linebacker spot, and maybe the closest off it, as well.

That’s left Wagner, in his 10th year in the NFL, standing out figuratively – if not physically – all alone, if still in the middle of everything.

And as his first year without any of his old LOB teammates comes to a close, Wagner can’t help but wonder if he might be the next to go.

A 5-10 season, he knows, leaves little guarantee about anything in the NFL.

There is also the reality of his contract. He has one year left on a three-year deal he negotiated himself in 2019 worth a total of $54 million. The contract has no guaranteed money in 2022 while carrying a $20.3 million cap hit. If Wagner were released, the Seahawks would save $16.6 million in cap space.

And then there’s the presence of a potential heir apparent in Jordyn Brooks, the team’s first-round pick in 2020, who could slide from his current weakside linebacker spot to the middle.

All of which means Wagner knows there’s a chance that Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions could be the last he plays for the Seahawks at Lumen Field.

“You think about it,” Wagner said Wednesday. “You think about what the next year looks like, and just, period, what the future holds because this was a season that I don’t think we all planned for. We didn’t plan for the season to go this way. And so obviously there’s going to be some changes.

“And whether or not I’m part of those changes, I don’t know. But all I can control is these last two games. And you know, figure it out from there, whatever the team thinks is the best thing to do moving forward. We’ll see how that plays out.”

Wagner, though, does know what the long-term future holds – a spot in the team’s Ring of Honor someday, almost certainly a bust in Canton, Ohio, in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, and maybe having his number retired along with Steve Largent, Walter Jones, Cortez Kennedy and Kenny Easley.

He also knows at least some of what the short-term future holds – more football – even if he isn’t sure where.

Wagner, who turned 31 in July, made that clear Wednesday, saying he plans to keep playing even if it’s not with the Seahawks.

“I don’t see myself stopping playing,” he said. “I feel like I’ve got a lot of room to grow as a player, to grow as a leader. I feel like there’s a lot of new technology that’s going to let me play a little bit longer, so I’m excited to dive into that stuff and we’ll see how it works out.”

And what’s indisputable is Wagner’s impact on the Seahawks as probably the second-most pivotal player during the team’s greatest run of success other than quarterback Russell Wilson.

Both arrived in the famed draft class of 2012, Wagner with the 47th pick, Wilson at 75.

Via Pro Football Reference’s career approximate value rating, they are the top two players in that draft, and also the two players who have provided the most value to the Seahawks of any the team has drafted in its history.

Wagner arrived with a few questions about the level of competition he’d faced at Utah State, that he measured 6-foot, 241 at the time, which led to the common moniker “undersized linebacker” in predraft scouting reports, and that he’d missed the scouting combine due to a bout of pneumonia.

But the Seahawks focused on his production, speed (4.46 seconds in the 40-yard dash) and overall athleticism (a 39.5-inch vertical leap that would have been the fifth best at the combine and better than any nonoffensive skill position player), and resisted the urge to take Wilson at 47 at the risk of missing Wagner.

Wagner proved better than advertised from the start, the missing piece in a defense that had improved drastically in 2011 but needed to solidify its linebacking position (David Hawthorne was his predecessor in the middle).

His rookie year began a streak of four straight seasons the Seahawks allowed the fewest points in the NFL, something that hadn’t been done since the Cleveland Browns of the 1950s and hasn’t been done since.

But if that season proved Wagner had staying power, he admitted Wednesday he wasn’t thinking too far ahead when he arrived in Seattle.

“When I first got into the league, I was just trying to figure out what goals I can set for myself,” he said. “And the first goal was, when I got here everybody was saying that players only lasted three years. So I was trying to get to at least five. And then I say, ‘OK, once I get to five, see if I can get to 10.’ ”

This is now that year, one that has statistically been as good as ever.

Wagner leads the NFL with 170 tackles, which also is a franchise record, topping his mark of 167 in 2016. If he gets six tackles against the Lions, he will have the most tackles of any NFL player in a season since 2000.

Wagner is well aware those numbers are helped by the fact Seattle’s defense has been on the field for 1,070 plays, 56 more than any other team, and will almost certainly set a dubious team record for facing the most opponent plays – the record is 1,137 by the 1998 team.

“But at the end of the day, we’re out there,” Wagner said. “We still have to make the plays.”

Regardless of how this year has gone, and what may happen in the future, that will be one of Wagner’s lasting legacies – making plays.

Among his numerous team records is the longest interception return in history, 98 yards against the 49ers in 2018. His eight Pro Bowls are second most in team history behind only the nine of Jones.

And his six first-team All-Pro selections are two more than anyone in team history (Jones is next with four).

Wagner said he’s always tried to live in the moment, something he’s focused on even more as his NFL career – which brings with it inevitable highs and lows rarely experienced anywhere else – has progressed.

But he admits this season, and what may happen after, has left him more reflective than usual.

“I’ll probably think about, you know, just how the 10 years have gone,” he said Wednesday.

And if, like Wagner himself on the field, they’ve gone really fast, they’ve also left an imprint that will last in Seattle forever.