5 Seahawks the team was right to cut ties with after 2023

This has been an offseason of change for the Seattle Seahawks. The hope, obviously, is with a new coaching direction the team will have another run of a decade of success. But the team could be better simply because the five former Seahawks are no longer part of the organization.

To be fair, 12s might also need a bit of patience at the beginning of the season. There will be lots of new players still transitioning to playing next to different players and a coaching staff still trying to adjust to each other as well. How quickly the team can become one cohesive unit could decide if 2024 is a success or a failure for Seattle.

Long term, though, the changes made this offseason should be positive. If Seattle can improve on back-to-back 9-8 records, that would prove the changes made were good. By 2025, the Seahawks might be a truly dangerous team. Here are five former members of the organization that the team needed to move on from.

Seattle Seahawks were correct to move on from Bobby Wagner

Wagner is arguably one of the three best Seahawks ever. He is a future Pro Football Hall of Famer and should make it into the Hall on his first try. He was a freakishly good tackler and a fantastic leader on the field and off the field. The linebacker was still good enough in 2023 to lead the NFL in combined tackles (183) and be named Second-Team All-Pro by the Associated Press. That marked the tenth straight season Wagner had been named First-or-Second Team All-Pro.

But one aspect of Wagner's game that was never quite as good as the rest was his ability in pass coverage. Last season, Wagner allowed a pass rating against of 113.5, a career-high. 81.7 percent of passes thrown in his direction were completed (49 completions in 60 targets) for 515 yards. That is 10.5 yards per completion which is far too high for a linebacker.

One reason Seattle gave up so many first downs (380 - last in the NFL), especially on third downs (Seattle allowed 46.3 percent of third down attempts to be converted - 30th in the league), was because linebacker coverage was so terrible. Mike Macdonald's defense requires linebackers to excel in coverage and this is one reason Tyrel Dodson was brought in to replace Wagner.

Dodson allowed a quarterback rating of over 100, but he also gave up just 7.9 yards per reception, nearly 3 yards less per catch than Wagner. That should make a huge difference in the amount of first downs allowed by Seattle which should mean the defense is not on the field as much. This should equate to the Seahawks' offense scoring a few more points a game which might be all that is needed to get Seattle back into the playoffs.