The possibility of the Seattle Seahawks losing running back Kenneth Walker III to free agency sounds likelier by the day.

Two weeks ago, NFL Media’s Bucky Brooks predicted the Seahawks would move on instead of paying him to get younger and cheaper at the position. He received tons of blowback from those who felt it was too harsh of a business move to not keep the 25-year-old Super Bowl LX MVP who’s now an obvious fan favorite. Today, Matthew Berry reported that he was told “Seattle is expecting to lose him” by a league source at the Combine last week.

In this context, Berry also wrote:

“They love him but given other team needs they aren’t willing to pay top dollar for him. As it was told to me, the Seahawks attitude is, basically, “Hey, Ken, go out there and test the market. If someone is willing to pay $12 or $13 million, good for you. Get paid. But if your market is around $10 million then come back and talk to us.”

This shouldn’t be too shocking to hear. John Schneider’s team-building strategy is too forward thinking to be understood by the public in most instances, anyway. A big part of the reason they won the Super Bowl with so much cap space left over is that they rarely break the bank to pay players. They moved off fan favorites Geno Smith and DK Metcalf last offseason at the perfect time and built an all-time roster in doing so. They’ll pay players for what they do going forward, not what they’ve already done. This quote also shows they care about keeping leverage in negotiations, and won’t just spend their cap space now that some players helped them win a Super Bowl.

In the same article, Berry also reported that the New York Giants are “very interested” in Walker. If they’ll pay him more? The Seahawks won’t be afraid to make a judgement call. But they’ll leave the door open to build their team with the same philosophy that got them here.

This article originally appeared on Seahawks Wire: NFL Combine reports say Seahawks could let Kenneth Walker III leave