Seahawks could make some shocking roster cuts very soon

The Seahawks came into the offseason with plenty of cap space. After the first free agent moves, that space shrank considerably. Bad roster cuts are coming.

Seattle entered the offseason with a bit over $59 million on cap space. Some projections showed the league salary cap would be set as high as $205 million for this coming season. Unfortunately, it came in at $198.2 million. The Seahawks were able to roll over their unused coins from 2019, so their cap is $199.6 million. That still isn’t going to stretch very far when your two biggest stars are pulling down $45 million between them. And yes, Russell Wilson and Bobby Wagner are worth it, no question.

However, that question will be asked of several more players, as the Seahawks look for ways to increase what is now just $204 million in cap space. That should be just about enough to sign Jadeveon Clowney, but Seattle needs to add than just one more player. I’d love for the Hawks to re-sign him. If they do, a lot of the players listed below will be cap casualties.

As far as I can see, the Hawks have no fewer than eight players whose release would trim at least $1 million from the payroll. A few of those would make tremendous differences. I’ll start with the man whose departure would save Seattle the most money, even though I’m not happy one bit to mention it.

Center Justin Britt will count $11.4 million against the cap this season. By releasing him, the Seahawks would save $8.5 million. Kick in a million, and you’ve covered Jarran Reed’s salary for the year. I like Britt a lot, and he’s been one of the few consistent players on the Hawks seemingly constant makeshift line. But he is coming off a torn ACL, and he makes an awful lot of money for someone who had his best year in 2016. If it weren’t for the cap crunch, I’d really like to have him stay. I just can’t see him restructuring his contract by enough money to warrant the Hawks keeping him.