If putting together a Super Bowl-caliber roster is tough, keeping it together is even more challenging. Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider already went through that during the "Legion of Boom" era, and he's experiencing it again in the "Dark Side" days.
As expected, there was a significant turnaround for the Seahawks early in free agency. They had a cheap secondary, and even though they had more than enough money to keep everyone in town, that may not have been the smartest approach in the long run.
The Seahawks had to make choices. To keep Josh Jobe, they had to let Coby Bryant take his talents to the Chicago Bears and Riq Woolen to join the Philadelphia Eagles. It was officially the end of an era in Seattle, which is why thousands of Seahawks fans agreed with Nick Emmanwori's one-word take on this situation.
Nick Emmanwori gets emotional over Seattle Seahawks departures
Shortly after Bryant and Woolen left, the star safety took to social media to share a black-and-white picture of himself, them, and Devon Witherspoon in practice. He simply captioned it "damn," and the post amassed over 15K likes in a matter of hours.
Dang, indeed, but that's just the way things go in this line of business. There's only so much money to throw around, and the Seahawks had other priorities ahead of their title-defending campaign. Bryant and Woolen earned their money, and they had to capitalize on that.
Losing Bryant will probably sting the most. He was Emmanwori's safety running mate, an outstanding man coverage defensive player who revived his career after struggling early as a slot corner, and he leaves Seattle with 14 forced turnovers in four seasons and with no clear replacement on the roster.
Woolen, on the other hand, got his career going with a bang as the league's co-leader in interceptions as a rookie, but failed to keep that momentum going in the following years. He'll now get a clean slate and a chance to bet on himself and prove to the rest of the league that he's still that playmaking defensive back.
The Seahawks should still be a great defensive team for as long as Mike Macdonald and Aden Durde are calling the shots. Also, Emmanwori and Witherspoon give the team the most dynamic and disruptive secondary duo in the league, so they should do just fine. Even so, it feels like this team could've at least tried to run it back for at least another season with this homegrown young core.