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

Seattle was right to cut Jamal Adams

Why keep a player around that a team cannot rely on to be active for most of a season? Adams might have still been recovering for most of 2023 from a leg injury he suffered in Week 1 of 2022 (that recovery length seems longer than most players), but the 2022 injury certainly was not the first time Adams had been hurt for Seattle. The safety (and future linebacker?) missed at least four games in each year he played for Seattle.

Over the last two seasons, Adams played 10 out of a possible 34 games. Besides simply not playing, however, when he did play he was not very good. In nine games in 2023, He failed to have a sack and that is supposed to be one of his strengths. Adams has not had a sack since 2020. Adams allowed a 111.7 pass rating when targeted in 2023. That is very bad.

Releasing Adams was never not an option really. The savings for not having him around was too much to pass on. Plus, Mike Macdonald did not need the suddenly team-last Adams (he left his teammates behind in Week 15 of last year after being told he wasn't going to play) being vocal in Seattle's locker room, either. This is probably one reason he has not been re-signed by the Seahawks.

Seahawks needed to replace Pete Carroll

Almost everybody loves Pete, right? He is an affable human being and one wants him to succeed. For years in Seattle, Carroll did win. While John Schneider was the general manager, Carroll had the final say over all roster moves so the team ultimately belonged to Carroll much more than Schneider. By the end of Carroll-s tenure, though, the players on the team were not the biggest issue, the scheme given to those players was.

Carroll had lost the ability to find a solution to defensive issues that crossed over from year to year and defensive coordinator to defensive coordinator. Linebackers that did not drop deeply enough in coverage or have a clue how to shut down passes between where they lined up was as much an issue under Ken Norton, Jr. as it was under Hurtt. That means the problem was really Carroll's defensive philosophy.

The team had also begun to trend downward. The Seahawks missed the playoffs in two of the last three years Carroll was the coach and two-straight 9-8 seasons. Mediocrity is more difficult to overcome than simply being truly bad and one way to potentially fix that is a change of leadership. Bringing in a coach with a new perspective, Macdonald, to replace a coach seemingly stuck in his ways, Carroll, was necessary.

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