The Seattle Seahawks are suing 2017 second round pick Malik McDowell in a federal court in Michigan, stating that he has not paid back the nearly $800,000 in bonus money that he was ordered to pay by an arbitrator, according to a lawsuit obtained by the Detroit News.
McDowell was Seattle’s first selection in the 2017 NFL draft, and had big potential as the next Michael Bennett type force on the defensive line. Unfortunately, an ATV incident in July caused him to suffer serious injuries and prevented him from ever suiting up for the Seahawks.
He remained on the non-football injury list until he was waived this past March. It was reported that team doctors were unable to clear him to play, but his agent, Drew Rosenhaus, reported that he had been cleared by independent doctors. That opened up the door for him to try out for the Cowboys, but he was not signed and since then there have been no reports about other interested NFL teams.
According to the suit, McDowell was ruled to be in breach of his contract when he suffered the non-football injury. It was concluded that he would need to forfeit his $1,599,238 dollar signing bonus. The Seahawks withheld payment of $800,000 for the 2018 season, leading to the amount of $799,238 that was ruled McDowell must pay back.
That ruling came out on February 27, 2019, and to date McDowell has not paid any part of that money back to the Seahawks, leading to the lawsuit.
