Unless something extremely unexpected happens, the Seahawks will not have nearly as much of a chaotic offseason in 2023 as they did in 2022. Last offseason, Russell Wilson was traded and Bobby Wagner was released. Two likely future Hall of Famers left the team on the same day, March 8th. Losing those two players meant a shift in how the team would move forward.
The idea was probably to take a beating for a year while Seattle remade the roster with younger players. Get lucky on several of the 2022 draftees and Seattle might be relevant again by 2024. Instead, many of the rookies were better sooner than expected and Seattle actually made the playoffs this year. 2023, with another good group of rookies hopefully, should be even better.
Of course, it also helped that quarterback Geno Smith was as good as he was for most of the year. No one, not even the ever-optimistic Pete Carroll, could have known just how good Smith could be. But Smith ended up having one of the best seasons by a Seahawks quarterback ever.
Like every NFL team, though, Seattle will have some tough decisions on which players to keep and which ones to let go. Seattle does need upgrades at many spots on the roster, but few players were glaringly awful. But the following four players shouldn’t be brought back.
Seahawks should let go of safety Josh Jones
Jones is 28 years old and likely on the back end of his career. It isn’t like he is old but he simply isn’t very good. Jones doesn’t do anything in particular very well. For some reason, after Jamal Adams was hurt in Week 1, the Seahawks replaced Adams with Jones. This was even after watching Ryan Neal play pretty well in the last couple of seasons when Adams was hurt and Neal replaced him.
After a few weeks of seeing Jones not do very well, Neal replaced Jones and the entire defense improved for a bit. The highest-graded safety in the NFL this season is Neal, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required). Jones is 83rd.
In coverage in 2022, teams have completed 13 of 18 passes when targeting Jones. Worse, Jones has allowed 17.6 yards a completion. But Jones simply is a terrible tackler. He has missed 25 percent of his tackles this season and a player that misses that much shouldn’t see the field.
Seahawks should let go of defensive end L.J. Collier
In 2019, I wrote an article about exactly how Seattle would take Collier in the first round and who they would trade down with to take Collier. Maybe for once in my life, I looked pretty smart. What I wish I had known, however, was just how bad Collier would be in the first four years of his career. It’s almost a bit shocking to think that Collier started every game for the team in 2020 because he has missed as many games as he has played the last two seasons and mostly because Seattle didn’t want him to be on the field.
Per Pro Football Focus, Collier is the worst-graded interior defender for Seattle in 2022. In 140 snaps, Collier has made only 5 tackles and missed 2 other attempts. He has as many penalties as he does quarterback hits: One. While he was really bad in 2021 too, he still had 9 quarterback hurries in 219 snaps. This year he has 1 hurry.
There is a very real chance that Collier goes from first-round choice in 2019 to not playing another down in the NFL after 2022. He might end up on the practice squad of a team but it is difficult to think a team views him as anything other than a potential backup. Either way, it would be shocking and wrong to have him back with the Seahawks.
Seahawks should let go of guard Gabe Jackson
Seattle has gotten younger at many positions and still needs to remake parts of its offensive line. Rookie tackles Charles Cross and Abe Lucas looked to be good for many years and should only get better after 2022. Left guard Damien Lewis has been better this year and is still in just his third season. But center and right guard haven’t been very good overall.
The Seahawks started rotating right guard between Gabe Jackson and Phil Haynes in Week 5. Haynes has been better than Jackson. Jackson still has a year left on his current contract but could be owed $11,262,333 in 2023. That is far too much to keep Jackson around. Haynes is a restricted free agent who will probably return.
Possibly the biggest issue with Jackson is he is extremely inconsistent in pass protection. Per Pro Football Focus, Jackson’s pass block grade was 66.3 in Week 1 and then an atrocious 13.6 in Week 2. Jumping ahead to Week 14, Jackson graded at 67.4, in Week 15 he was 26.4, in Week 16 he jumped back to 79.3, but in Week 17 he fell back to 28.7. Jackson simply can’t be trusted with protecting the quarterback.
Jackson has allowed 29 pressures this season and 2 sacks. In 2021, Jackson allowed 37 pressures and 3 sacks. Releasing Jackson would create $4.762,223 in dead cap for Seattle next year. But that is still better than paying him north of $10 million.
Seahawks should let go of defensive tackle Bryan Mone
I like Mone as a run-stopper. But even at his best, that is really all Mone can do. The Seahawks clearly like Mone’s ability to stop the run as well because they gave him a contract extension through 2024 that could pay him $3,795,000 in 2023 and $6,400,000 in 2024. Seattle hopefully isn’t looking at their current group of defensive tackles and thinking the group doesn’t need changes. Mone needs to be one of the changes.
If Seattle does release Mone, the dead cap created will only be $1 million. That’s better than paying Mone almost $4 million next year. In 271 snaps in 2022, Mone has 16 tackles and has missed 2 of his attempts. Again, he offers nothing as far as pressuring opposing quarterbacks. He has 0 sacks this year and only 1 quarterback hit.
Mone is the 89th highest-graded interior defender in the league this year, per Pro Football Focus. But part of his overall grade of 52.7 is based on him receiving a 60.9 grade in pass rush. His strength is run defense but he has only graded 48.7 there. That’s not good enough.
The Seahawks should take a defensive tackle like Jalen Carter high in the 2023 NFL draft. Adding interior defenders means getting rid of some players already on the team. Mone needs to be one of the players Seattle doesn’t have in 2023.