The Seattle Seahawks are in an odd spot. They fired Pete Carroll as head coach (oh, sure; he stayed on as an advisor but he didn't want not to be the head coach anymore so the decision was not his own) but the team still has a young and fairly talented roster. The team needs to improve, though, and to do so they need to open up some cap room.
Heading into the 2024 offseason, the Seahawks currently have $-4,027 in cap space. That is not good, obviously. That also ranks 24th in the NFL right now.
Don't fret, 12s. The team will find more cap room by reworking deals or releasing some players. What follows is an easy way for the Seahawks to clear $51.37 million. Some of this - if not all - might actually happen as well.
Seahawks could release safety Quandre Diggs
Cap savings: $11 million
Diggs is about to turn 31 years old. That is not old for a human being, but for an NFL free safety, that is getting a bit ancient. Free safeties need speed to be good and Diggs appears to lose a little bit in 2023. This season, he had by far his worst season with the Seahawks since being traded to Seattle in 2019. Plus, he had his fewest interceptions (1) since 2016, his second-fewest passed defended (5) since 2016, and his worst quarterback rating since at least 2017.
Diggs did get a tad better after the Seahawks stopped playing Jamal Adams as much, likely because Diggs did not have to do two different players' jobs as one never can be sure what Adams is trying to do. But even when Seattle's safety duo became Julian Love and Diggs, Love was the player that was awarded with a Pro Bowl nod and Diggs should be on his way out.
Even if Diggs had been better than he was in 2023, he still should be released. The Seahawks have to create cap room and Diggs' current contract is simply too big to pass. $11 million would be a bigger savings than any other Seattle player with a pre-June 1 designation except for quarterback Geno Smith and even releasing Smith would save the team just $2.8 million more than cutting Diggs.
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Seahawks could cut tight end Will Dissly
Cap savings: $6.97 million
I like Will Dissly as a player but he has become nothing more than a glorified offensive lineman. Maybe that will change with a new head coach in Seattle and a new offensive coordinator. While Dissly was graded as the 15th-best tight end in the league this year, per Pro Football Focus (subscription required), much of that is due to his blocking grades. If Dissly were an offensive tackle and had his blocking greats, he'd be an All-Pro, but he isn't an offensive lineman.
Except for his rookie season when Dissly only played four games due to an injury (and he played only six games in his second year so keep that in mind with these statistics), the tight end set a career-low in receptions (17), receiving yards (172), and catch-rate 77.3 percent). Even including his rookie year, Dissly tied his career low for touchdown receptions (1 and that did not come until the last game of the season), and yards per reception. Dissly has a cap hit of $10,070,000 in 2024 and that is far too high to keep him on the roster.
Seahawks could release defensive tackle Bryan Mone
Cap savings: $5.39 million
Seattle will definitely be releasing Mone this offseason. His cap hit is $5,890,000 currently. Due to a knee injury late in 2022, the defensive tackle missed all of this year. That is a shame because Mone is pretty good against the run and Seattle could have used him this year.
The hope is that Mone is finally healthy to play in 2024 and returns to the Seahawks as I think he would be a decent amount of the defensive line rotation on early downs. But he should probably make closer to $1 million until he can prove he is healthy and productive again. Hopefully, that happens with Seattle.
Seattle should cut safety Jamal Adams with a post-June 1st designation
Cap savings: $16.5 million
NFL teams can use the post-June 1st designation on two players a year if they so choose. While the Seahawks would not realize the full savings of releasing any player in this manner immediately, they would have more money during the summer to sign their draft class and other players who have not been signed. This should not go underappreciated because some players, such as edge rusher Jadeveon Clowney, like to wait until the summer to sign with new teams.
A new coach should not be hindered by having Jamal Adams on the roster. He turned out to be a false team-first player as he either left the stadium or stayed home in Week 15 when he learned he wasn't going to play against the Philadelphia Eagles. Adams is also terrible in coverage and has seemingly lost the explosiveness that allows him to pressure opposing quarterbacks.
Seahawks should do the same with defensive tackle Dre'Mont Jones
Cap savings: $11.51 million
Now that we know general manager John Schneider will have full control moving forward over roster decisions, maybe Jones will leave. Sure, Schneider signed Jones last offseason to the most expensive free agent contract he had signed a player to with Seattle, we don't know if Schneider really wanted Jones or if Pete Carroll wanted Jones.
No matter, Jones was not worth his contract this year. Forget the raw statistics, which are not that great either, Jones was graded as the worst interior defensive lineman on the Seahawks in 2023, per PFF. Jones played the most snaps of his career this season (762) but finished with his fewest sacks (4.5) since his rookie year in 2019 and his fewest tackles for loss (5) since the same season. Jones wasn't awful, but he hasn't proven to be worth paying $27 million over the next two years.