Seattle Seahawks fans were misled. 12s were told Bobby Wagner was not going to be a good fit in new head coach Mike Macdonald's defensive scheme so he wasn't going to be re-signed this offseason. Instead, Seattle took a chance on two inside linebackers in free agency, Tyrel Dodson and Jerome Baker. Neither has worked out.
Baker was traded to the Tennessee Titans a few weeks ago for Ernest Jones IV. Jones has been pretty decent in the last couple of games. Baker failed to be good in coverage which is a requirement under Macdonald. Or so 12s were told.
Dodson was signed this offseason to be the green dot in Seattle's defense. He was top-graded linebacker in 2023, according to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), and the hope was that now that he would be given a full-time starting gig for the first time in his career, he would come into bloom and potentially be a Pro Bowler. Dodson failed.
Seahawks make the shocking move of releasing inside linebacker Tyrel Dodson
The odd part is that Dodson did not seem to fail so badly that he was in jeopardy of being released. He had started every game this year, was graded as the 35th-best linebacker in 2024, according to PFF, and wasn't awful. Still, Seattle did release Dodson on Monday. Why?
Releasing a player outright is weird unless the player maybe had an off-field issue or was worthy of being demoted to the bench. Seattle, however, does not seem to have anybody ready to take Dodson's spot. Rookie Tyrice Knight will likely be the guy, but Seattle had seemingly lost so much faith in him that he recently saw decreasing snaps. Now he is likely to be the starter?
None of it makes real sense. Send Dodson to the bench and play Knight. If the rookie fails, re-insert Dodson into the starting lineup. The move to release Dodson and trade Baker and completely start over at inside linebacker would imply Seattle is ready to look forward to 2025 when maybe they can draft a long-term inside linebacker to hopefully play next to Knight.
Seattle is going to be exceedingly thin at inside linebacker for the rest of the season. Surely, general manager John Schneider and Mike Macdonald are aware of this, and if they are, they should know that the inside linebacker group is even more of a question mark than it was before the team released Dodson.
The Seahawks made a mistake. They should have just tried to keep Bobby Wagner. That the team did not and has now released Dodson, Schneider's personnel decisions should be questioned by the ownership group and Schneider's job should be in question.