Seahawks should push to get defensive tackle Jurrell Casey

Like every NFL team, the Seahawks could use another quality defensive lineman. Jurrell Casey was released by the Denver Broncos. Seattle should sign him. Casey is an excellent run stopper with the ability to get inside pressure on opposing quarterbacks as well. He has made the Pro Bowl five times.

The most recent concern about Casey is his injury in 2020. Until then, Casey had missed just four games in six years so assuming he will once again be hurt in 2021 is not truly based on his history and based only on one year. Of course, Casey is a 31-year-old interior lineman so maybe the injuries will start mounting but that’s a risk a team should be willing to take, especially if Casey is signed to just a one- or two-year deal.

Casey would work well for the Seahawks

Casey has been a very productive player, however. Not only is he fantastic against the run (and Seattle still needs help in stopping the run even if their raw numbers seemed OK for most of 2020), he has 51 sacks in his career.

One cannot assume, even if Casey stays healthy, that he is ever going to get close to the 10.5 sacks he had in 2013 but he has also been, before last year, consistently in the 5-7 range every season. Even if Casey can get 4 sacks next year, he would be worthy of a deal somewhere in the $4-5 million range.

The truth is that the Seahawks are probably going to let Carlos Dunlap walk which means Seattle will probably try to go with depth again over individual top-end talent. This is probably a mistake but Seattle also needs to create cap space. No Dunlap frees up$14 million. Casey could take up a third of that and still leave room for an edge rusher.

Yes, Dunlap is an end and Casey is a tackle but signing Casey should also help relieve some attention paid to any quality end so it’s a win-win. The only other question is how well Casey might adapt from a 3-4 base to a 4-3 but he is a veteran who can likely adapt to anything and supply quality along with it.