Few teams in the NFL are in a transition season as much as the Seattle Seahawks. Arguably, maybe only the New England Patriots are. Seattle moved on from former head coach Pete Carroll after 14 seasons and the team will have several new starters.
Some of the free agents Seattle signed this offseason are going to help the team, of course, and some will be busts. The same happens every season. The difference this year is that Seattle signed nearly whole groups of players at position groups where the team hopes the players turn into long-term starters.
Seattle will have new starters at inside linebacker, at the safety spots (especially if Mike Macdonald plays a lot of three-safety sets; two of the safeties will be new to the team), and along the offensive line. The 2024 free-agent class is going to need to be a good one for the Seahawks to have any chance at making the playoffs. But the following five players could be one-and-done in Seattle.
Tyrel Dodson - Seattle Seahawks linebacker
The risk that the Seahawks are taking on Dodson doesn't just stem from the team signing him to a one-year deal worth a maximum of $4,260,000. That could end up being a steal for the linebacker who graded as the top linebacker in the NFL in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required). PFF grades can be exceedingly misleading, though. We are only a couple of years removed from Ryan Neal being the top-graded safety when he was with Seattle.
Oddly, Neal, like Dodson last year, barely started more than half of his team's games when he received the top grade. Does PFF have a glitch where if a player does well but doesn't play too much his grade is somehow better? The risk with Dodson was the same as what happened to Neal. The safety was awful for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2023 and Dodson could be terrible for Seattle in 2024.
Dodson will also be the green dot on the Seahawks' defense which means he will be Mike Macdonald communicator on the field. Not only is Dodson going to be the presumed starter at the beginning of a season for the first time in his career, but he will need to be a leader as well. The linebacker can cover well, is solid in blitz schemes, and doesn't whiff on too many tackles so he could be a Pro Bowler this season. Or a colossal bust.
Johnathan Hankins - Seahawks defensive tackle
Hankins has bounced around the league quite a bit since 2017. Seattle will be his fifth team in that time. Early in his career, he was a decent pass rusher and had 7 sacks for the New York Giants in 2014. Since that time, however, he has become more of a pure run-stopper, or at least he hopes to help stop the run. One issue he has had is that he misses a lot of tackle attempts.
In 2023, Hankins started 14 games for the Dallas Cowboys and played under new Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde when Durde was the defensive line coach in Dallas. Durde must have seen enough in Hankins to suggest bringing him to Seattle this offseason. Hankins only missed 3.6 percent of his tackle attempts with Dallas, but that was a career low. He is normally closer to double-digit misses and that is awful for an interior defensive lineman.
As 12s know, Seattle struggled greatly with missed tackles the last several years. If Hankins reverts back to whiffing on so many attempts, 12s might suffer from PTSD. Hankins was only signed for one year and $2.05 million so maybe he can outperform his contract.
Pharaoh Brown - Seahawks tight end
Unlike one or two players on this list, Brown is almost guaranteed to make the team in 2024. That is because while Seattle only signed Brown for one season, $2.69 million of his $3.2 million salary is guaranteed. Brown is much more of a blocker than a receiver, however. Other than in 2021 when he had 23 catches, Brown has not had more than 14 in any season. He is simply taking former Seattle tight end Will Dissly's spot, only Dissly was a better receiver.
Brown is solid at what he does. Simply because all he does is block does not make him valuable. He is an extension of the offensive line and a decent one. But Seattle is going to need more than one receiver who can catch; Noah Fant being the only proven pass-catcher. Rookie AJ Barner might develop into a receiving threat, but he is more of a blocker too and Brown is standing in his way of getting more reps.
Rashawn Jenkins - Seahawks safety
Jenkins has made a good impression so far. He has been funny in interviews with the media and appears to have picked up the defense fairly quickly during OTAs. The reason Jenkins might not stick around past 2024 might not even have anything to do with his quality of play unless he proves to be near-Pro Bowl caliber. Jenkins has a couple of things that he cannot help going against him in 2025.
One is that Jenkins will be 31 years old entering next season. That is not old for a human being, but for an NFL safety, Seattle might be a little nervous that Jenkins could lose half a step. This is seemingly what happened to Quandre Diggs in 2023.
The second problem is that Jenkins was signed to a two-year deal but his 2025 cap hit is higher as well as the saving to release him. His cap number rises to $7.9 million but Seattle could save $5.4 million by moving on from Jenkins. Seattle is already $18,008,836 over the cap in 2025 so the team will have to find savings anywhere they can. Let's just hope Jenkins plays so well that Seattle has no choice but to keep him for his full contract.
Nick Harris - Seahawks center
The hope is that Nick Harris never plays a down in Seattle. If he does that means Olu Oluwatimi has either been injured or inefficient. Either one of those could lead to a long-term problem for Seattle. If Oluwatimi is hurt, hopefully, he is not injured for too long. If he is bad, Seattle needs to draft a center in 2025 and move Oluwatimi to a backup role. Either way, Harris would be out.
Harris has played three seasons in the NFL so far and all with the Cleveland Browns. In those three years, he started four games in total. Two of them came in 2023. According to Pro Football Focus, Harris did not grade poorly in limited reps, especially in terms of pass-blocking. The fact that he never got a chance to start more is telling, though. Cleveland did not want to take a chance on Harris and likely neither will Seattle after 2024.