Four Seahawks that could be roster cuts before 2020

The Seahawks have $60 million to spend in free agency this offseason. But Seattle might need to trim the roster to make more room for an edge rusher or two.

The Seahawks have been a good team for most of a decade but staying a contender means making smart moves. This does not only mean drafting well and getting productive free agents that don’t blow the payroll, but it also means letting some players leave via roster cuts because they make too much or are not overly productive or both. This offseason, Seattle will need to clean up the roster some to improve the 2020 version.

Seattle has not been overly fortunate with free agent signings in the last few years. Though the Seahawks have the cash to spend this year, they need to spend it wisely. They also probably need to create more room to get not one edge rusher, but likely two. This includes re-signing Jadeveon Clowney and bringing in someone else.

Seattle, of course, would not want to cut a player just because of money. They need make sure that they have a quality player ready to take the place of the one they lose on the roster. For instance, the Seahawks are not going to cut K.J. Wright even though he makes quite a bit of cash because there is simply no one available with his skill level.

Roster trimming is never fun or easy, but every team has to do it. So who might Seattle choose to let go to make room for others? Here are four possibilities.

Bradley McDougald

Bradley McDougald has been one of the few success stories for the Seahawks in free agency over the last four years. He has been a good communicator at safety and versatile enough to play both safety positions. In 2019, McDougald had 6 passes defended, 2 interceptions, 70 tackles and a forced fumble. He was amazingly consistent and had exactly 6 tackles in 8 games, oddly enough.

But consistent performance doesn’t truly mean consistently outstanding. McDougald set behind Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor his free year in Seattle. The reason why? He wasn’t as good as those players. In fact, McDougald isn’t as good as his safety mate, Quandre Diggs, either.

McDougald played much better once the Seahawks traded for Diggs in midseason. McDougald is the kind of player that needs another good to very good player next to him so that he plays better. He is not a difference maker on his own. That is part of the issue.

Cutting McDougald would save Seattle about $4 million. Seattle might already have McDougald’s replacement on the roster in Marquise Blair. Blair is faster than McDougald is now, he just doesn’t have the experience. He would gain said experience if he were the starter and he would have the help of the speedy Diggs.

Justin Britt

In 2019, the Seahawks showed that they need a strong center. Justin Britt is that and Joey Hunt is not. Hunt knows the offense and played decently at times but he also got ran over a lot after he became the starter in week 8 after Britt was lost for the rest of the year with an ACL tear. Britt is a bigger and more physical player than Hunt, but not by so much that his current salary warrants him sticking on the team instead of Hunt.

Britt has a cap hit of $11.4 million next year. That is quite a bit for someone coming off of a serious injury and who hasn’t performed as well over the last couple of years. According to Pro Football Focus, Britt was the 37th highest-graded center in 2019 and Hunt was 35th. See, Britt is better. But.

Hunt’s pass block grade was better than Britt’s and Hunt played more snaps than Britt. Britt was better, and no surprise here given his girth compared to Hunt, at run blocking. The question becomes whether moving forward the Seahawks will value pass blocking over run blocking since they have injuries at running back and Russell Wilson is a great quarterback.

Either way, Hunt might supplant Britt as the starter. If this is the case, Seattle would save about $8 million in salary.

Ed Dickson

This might sound surprising, but Ed Dickson is still a member of the Seattle Seahawks. Dickson is due to make nearly $3.9 million in 2020 and he shouldn’t. Not with the Seahawks anyway. The tight end didn’t play at all last year because of a knee injury. He did play in 2018 but in only 10 games and caught just 12 passes.

Dickson stayed pretty healthy until 2018. But he is now 32 years old. Seattle needed tight ends to be productive last season after Will Dissly was lost to injury but no one on the week 1 roster was able to contribute very much. Instead, Seattle re-signed Luke Willson mid-season and brought Jacob Hollister off the practice squad.

Hollister will be on the Seattle roster next year. Dissly will return too at some point after rehabbing from injury. The Seahawks might sign a veteran free agent such as Greg Olsen. Where does that put Dickson? Out the door.

Part of the issue with Dickson seems to be his work ethic as well. Or Pete Carroll seems to imply that when one tries to parse Carroll’s words about Dickson. Carroll said of Dickson last year just days after Dickson was actually activated to the 53-man roster, “He doesn’t quite feel as ready as he needs to be.” That sounds more like Dickson just didn’t want to play instead of him being too injured. He needs to be a roster cut before next season.

Tedric Thompson

Tedric Thompson will be entering his fourth season with the Seahawks in 2020. He got 10 starts in 2018 and six more in 2019 and has proven one thing: He does not need to be a starter in the NFL. Thompson made 2 crazy good interceptions last year and then also got beat over the top a bunch.

According to PFF, Thompson had a grade of 46.6 last year. That was 84th in the NFL. McDougald was 62nd at 62.8. Diggs was better at 73.4, 23rd in the NFL. Blair in more limited snaps graded at 78.4. 78.4 would have tied for the 11th best safety grade in the league. Thompson isn’t in the top three of Seattle’s best safeties and probably not in the top four.

Yet, Thompson will earn $2.3 million in 2020. Cutting him would save the Seahawks $2 million. That is a lot of money to spend on the ineffective Thompson and money that could be grouped with other money to sign a free agent edge rusher or offensive guard or anything other than a safety like Thompson.

In fact, if Thompson actually does make the active roster next year then something has gone terribly wrong for the Seahawks. Seattle is still not far off from being a really good team but keeping players like Thompson around means Seattle will not reach its potential.