Roster cuts can be stressful for most involved. Many Seattle Seahawks, for instance, might have already assumed their jobs were safe, but others weren't as comfortable. A team will shape its roster in the best way they think will help them win.
Clearly, general manager John Schneider knows what he is doing. He won a Super Bowl in the Pacific Northwest when former head coach Pete Carroll was in charge of the roster, but Schneider won another when he was in full control.
Whatever decisions he makes, Seahawks fans can assume he has a good reason. Still, some strange moves were made ahead of the season, like the three subjects below.
Trying to decipher a few of the Seattle Seahawks' stranger roster moves
Keeping only three safeties
When initial roster cuts were made last season, the team kept five safeties, and the year before was four. The latter number is the normal amount for many teams, and especially the Seahawks. Keeping only three, with Nick Emmanwori potentially iffy while coming back from ankle surgery, is just odd.
Of course, there could be a positive way of looking at this. One is that Emmanwori is going to be ready for Week 1, and an extra safety or two wasn't needed. This is further implied by the team losing rookie Bud Clark for the season with an ankle injury, so maybe Emmanwori will be ready to go.
Seattle still has time to add other players to the active roster or sign veterans like D'Anthony Bell to the practice squad. Bell, or some other player like him, could then be elevated as needed on game days. Whatever the reason for three safeties, 12s can be certain John Schneider has a plan.
Trading for cornerback Avery Smith
Seattle signed veteran cornerback Trevon Diggs about a week before final roster cuts needed to be made, but then released Diggs. The reason was to hopefully sign the cornerback to the practice squad and let him get more acclimated to Mike Macdonald's system/
Smith, however, was an undrafted rookie this year who will start on the active roster, even though he hasn't yet played a down in practice for the Seattle Seahawks. The trade likely meant Smith wouldn't be acquired and then immediately released.
The hope is that he can learn Macdonald's system quickly, though having him be a healthy scratch in Week 1 is a possibility. That would allow more time for the team to figure out exactly what they have in the Toledo product.
Keeping five inside linebackers
The Seahawks kept five inside linebackers on the initial roster in 2023, but Pete Carroll was still the head coach then and also in charge of the roster. More often, Seattle has kept four off-ball linebackers. That might have been the expectation by many entering 2026, too.
The top three in the group are quite good. Ernest Jones IV is definitely going to start, and whether Drake Thomas or Tyrice Knight earns the other half of the duo as the season goes on shouldn't matter: Both are capable of excellent play.
More likely, Patrick O'Connell was kept, as the team might have been afraid of him being claimed on waivers. Chazz Surratt is fantastic on special teams, and that is why he got the nod. That said, if the team needs to add a player at another position before or during the season, one of the inside linebackers could be released to make room.
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