Seahawks Ed Dickson has surgery creating salary cap issues

Seahawks tight end Ed Dickson had relatively minor knee surgery but it will keep him out at least five weeks. This could be bad for Seattle.

The Seahawks announced on Wednesday that veteran tight end Ed Dickson had knee surgery that will keep him out for at least four to five weeks. This makes cutting Dickson difficult. Dickson was a player on the roster bubble due to the amount he would be due in 2019 and the youth in Seattle’s tight end room. Now the picture is murkier.

Dickson has a cap hit of north of $4 million in 2019. That is a lot of money for someone who may not even be a starter at tight end. In fact, that was one reason Dickson might have been cut prior to week one. He is a good blocker and can catch but he doesn’t produce at a high enough level to make as much money as he is due.

Now if Seattle keeps Dickson on the active roster through week one his salary of $3.3 million as a vested veteran becomes guaranteed. That isn’t far off his cap hit. This means if Seattle keeps him on the active roster they might as well keep him for the rest of the season.

If Seattle decides to simply place Dickson on injured reserve, they would still have to pay him $194,117 per week until he comes off of IR. Of course, he might not actually be on IR that long, so the savings the Seahawks would have might still be still be a lot better than keeping Dickson on the active roster week one.

Either way, Seattle might have better options in Will Dissly, Nick Vannett and Jacob Hollister long-term than Dickson. All those guys are younger than Dickson and could add a lot more value. The Seahawks might simply decide to cut Dickson either way because Dissly, Vannett and Hollister give Seattle a better chance to win than would Dickson. At the end of the day, that is what matters.