3 Seahawks who didn't live up to their contract in 2023

The Seattle Seahawks might have underperformed in 2023. The team went 9-8 which matched the same record as the previous year. Seattle was not expected to reach the Super Bowl, of course, but what made the year more disappointing was the team was in firm control of its playoff destiny with only two games left. Seattle missed the postseason.

Seattle made changes this offseason as the franchise was bordering on seemingly being mediocre for years to come. Will new head coach Mike Macdonald fix that? 12s probably won't know the answer until 2025 or 2026.

One bit that would help is if high-paid players earn their paychecks. for various reasons, the three players below did not do that last season. Two of the players are now no longer with the Seahawks.

These Seahawks players did not earn their paychecks in 2023

Tight end Will Dissly

2023 cap hit: $9,220,000

Quite likely, none of what Dissly was able to do as far as production catching the ball was his fault. The fault probably lies with former offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. When the Seahawks hired Waldron to be the OC in 2021, part of the thinking was that he would be able to find a way to incorporate tight ends more into the offense. He would have learned to do that under Sean McVay when he worked with the Los Angeles Rams.

Instead, Waldron's offenses digressed in terms of using tight ends. Last season, even with the talent of Dissly, Noah Fant, and Colby Parkinson, Seattle's TEs had a combined 99 targets. That equates to 17 percent of the targets Seattle's quarterbacks had. That combined target number is collectively less than what DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett had individually, and just six fewer than the number of targets Jaxon Smith-Njigba had.

Dissly proved to be a capable pass catcher in his first two seasons, though both ended prematurely due to injuries. He was a skilled blocker, but nearly $10 million in cap room was too much to pay for a player who was ultimately a glorified offensive lineman. The tight end finished with only 17 catches for 172 yards and one touchdown in 2023.

Defensive lineman Dre'Mont Jones

2023 cap hit: $10,176,666

Seattle signed Jones before the 2023 season. The hope was probably that the defensive lineman would help the team fix its run-defense issues, and Jones would supply some interior pass rush. The former Bronco appeared to be ill-used, however. The Seahawks forced Jones to play more as a pure defensive tackle early in the season, and only moved him outside once the other experiment failed.

The defensive lineman had never come close to producing ten sacks in a season through his first four years, and he never reached ten tackles for loss in a season, either. When Seattle signed him to a fairly massive contract, especially for Seattle, the deal was more about the hope of what Jones could do in the future than what he had done in the past.

The issue was that he was worse in 2023. He had his lowest number of sacks (4.5) since his rookie season as well as his fewest tackles for loss (5) since 2019. Mike Macdonald is the new Seattle head coach and has reportedly already moved Jones to edge rusher for some snaps. Obviously, Seattle still has hope Jones can be great, but 2024 might be a make-or-break season for the player.

Safety Jamal Adams

2023 cap hit: $11,496,666

The argument could be made that Adams only lived up to his contract with the Seahawks in 2020. That season, the safety had 9.5 sacks and 11 tackles for loss. He was acquired due to his ability to disrupt the rhythm of opposing offenses and for one year, he did that. 2020, though, is the last season Adams had a sack and he only has 11 tackles for loss in the last three years combined.

In 2022, the player might have had the excuse of being injured early in the season. He was hurt in Week 1 and missed the rest of the year. Last season, Adams managed to show up in nine games, but he did not produce much. He also missed 15.8 percent of his tackle attempts and allowed a quarterback rating when targeted of 111.7.

This offseason, the team released Adams saving the team $11 million. No other team has picked him up at this point, and if he is signed, he will likely be turned into a linebacker and rotational pass rusher. He might even return to Seattle, but wherever he goes Adams has a better chance of being injured than productive.

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