Seahawks release Carlos Dunlap and Dunlap should be peeved

The Seattle Seahawks reportedly released Carlos Dunlap on Friday with a post-June 1st designation. This seems like an exceptional unfair and dumb move to make.

It’s unfair to the player who was released last offseason by Seattle, too, and then he re-signed on a team-friendly deal, then was asked to drop more into coverage by a completely stupid defensive scheme in 2021 designed by Ken Norton, Jr., did as asked, then was allowed to rush the quarterback again and finished with 7 sacks in the last four games.

It’s a dumb move for Seattle who, while they will save $5.1 million in 2022, will still cost the team $4.2 million in 2023. The problem is that saving money would be exciting if the Seahawks seemed to want to spend money but they don’t. Seattle currently has the second-most cap room after releasing Dunlap ($33,602,502) but they already had the third-most space before releasing him.

Seattle Seahawks reportedly release Carlos Dunlap on Friday

It’s also dumb because assuming Seattle asked Dunlap to go back more to his pure pass-rushing role in 2022, Dunlap would be very productive. Seattle overall basically saves $900,000 for releasing Dunlap but the $6.5 million he was owed in 2022 previously would have been well-spent.

The reason is that Dunlap was a bargain for what he potentially can do and the Seahawks have no one to really pick up his productivity. If Dunlap was signed for several more years, fine. But he wasn’t. Dunlap was free to leave after 2022 and in 2022, the Seattle Seahawks aren’t going anywhere near the Super Bowl.

But they’d be a bit closer to having any whiff of the playoffs with Dunlap than they are without him. At this point, with all the moves (or non-moves) Seattle has made (or not made) this offseason, I am confused about what the vision is for the future. The release of Carlos Dunlap just seems meaningless.