Seahawks never really knew what they had in Quinton Dunbar

The Seahawks learned this week that cornerback Quinton Dunbar would not be returning from a knee injury.

Quinton Dunbar is likely to never play football for the Seattle Seahawks again. Dunbar is a free agent after this year and he probably won’t be re-signed by Seattle. Seattle traded a fifth-round pick to get Dunbar for the 2020 season and Dunbar ended up playing in just six games, the last of which he clearly had no business playing in.

Dunbar was dealing with a knee injury by week 9 and this is the same injury that has now ended his season. But for the Seahawks and 12s we never really saw Dunbar at his best. After an offseason allegation of theft, his joining the team was delayed because of a temporary suspension. Since he was late joining the team he was late acclimating to the Seahawks system and therefore wasn’t really ready for week one.

The only true good game Dunbar played this year was in week two versus the Patriots when he almost had two interceptions and did get one. In his last game against the Bills in week 9 he was clearly injured but Seattle had no one else to play so Dunbar was put out there. Bills quarterback Josh Allen had a great day but he did so against a Seattle defense missing a lot of its secondary.

D.J. Reed made Quinton Dunbar expendable

But now D.J. Reed has emerged as a potentially very good corner for the Seahawks in the future. Reed has made Dunbar expendable. In fact, Reed is playing at a level that Dunbar never played at during his time with Seattle.

And that is part of the problem. Dunbar, if healthy, could have coupled with Shaquill Griffin to form a very good outside cornerback duo to start the season but the Seahawks pass defense was awful to begin 2020. Now it is better. And the reason it is better has a lot to do with Reed and nothing to do with Dunbar so Dunbar will be wearing a different uniform next year.