In the first major personnel moves of the Mike Macdonald era, the Seahawks are shedding safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs and tight end Will Dissly, a league source confirmed to the Seattle Times.
The moves will save Seattle $34.5 million in cash and nearly $25 million in cap space for the 2024 season. While there has been speculation that Adams could be released after June 1, it will reportedly be a standard release and Seattle will now take the entire dead cap hit of Adams' deal, $20.8 million.
The moves are tied to the free-agent signing period that begins next Wednesday. By then, if not sooner, all steps will be official. OvertheCap.com
Adams' release has been rumored for some time, but it still comes with some shock as it marks the end of one of the larger trades in team history.
Seattle traded two first-round picks to the Jets in exchange for Adams in 2020. But after making the All-Pro second team with 9.5 sacks in 2020, he has battled injuries over the last three years.
Adams had two years left on his contract but no guaranteed money left, and cap numbers were at $26.9 million and $27.9 million over the next two years and salaries were at $16.5 million and $17.5 million. That was the last two years of a four-year contract worth up to $72 million, signed in August 2021.
Diggs and Dissly were each entering the final years of their contracts.
The release of Adams and Diggs means Seattle will have to look for some safeties. Julian Love will return, but Seattle doesn't have any other safeties with significant experience. One option could be Baltimore's Geno Stone, who had success with Macdonald as the Ravens' defensive coordinator last season and will now be a free agent.
Diggs was scheduled to make a salary of $10.4 million in 2024, against a cap hit of $21.2 million.
Dissly's release also means Seattle has no tight ends with significant experience on its roster, as both Noah Fant and Colby Parkinson may be free agents.
Dissly also had no guaranteed money left on his deal. He had a salary of $6.4 million in 2024 with a cap hit of $10.07 million.
Seattle acquired Diggs in a trade with Detroit in October 2019 and then Adams the following summer, hoping the two would come together to give Seattle a safety tandem to rival that of Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor.
But after a promising start in 2020, when Seattle went 12-4 and both Adams and Diggs made the Pro Bowl, the plan began to go awry.
Adams played just 12 games in 2021 as Seattle fell to 7-10 and then suffered a torn quadriceps in the first game of the 2022 season, sidelining him for the remainder of the season. He returned for the fifth game of the 2023 season, but the knee continued to bother him and he played just nine games before being sidelined for the remainder of the year.
Seattle president of football operations John Schneider predicted a possible move for Adams at the NFL Combine last week when asked how Adams might fit in Macdonald's defense.
“Is he in his plans?” said Schneider. “Yeah, I mean, we’ll find out. We will continue to work on it. … We’re still trying to figure it all out.”
Schneider had said the hope was that Adams would be healthier in 2024.
“It's been a tough year for him,” Schneider said of Adams' 2023 season. “…I'm sure Jamal would tell you it's been tough for him. He struggled to come back. He was constantly trying to be out there, being active and working with the coaching staff, the trainers, the strength and conditioning people. “I expect he’ll be a lot healthier next year, yeah.”
It turns out that now, at age 28, he won't be in Seattle's plans and will have to start his career somewhere else.
Diggs reached three straight Pro Bowls from 2020 to 2022, but saw his performance decline in 2023 as Seattle's defense ranked 25th in points allowed, 30th in yards allowed, and made just one interception, after making 14 in the past three years combined.
Diggs appeared to confirm the move when he took to social media platform X and said, “Forever grateful.”
Given its high market capitalization and savings, the release of Dissly was also not unexpected.
Dissly, a fourth-round pick from Washington in 2018, saw a significant decline in his playing time and stats in 2023 – his snap count fell from 60% to 39%, his receptions fell from 34 to 17 and his receiving yards fell from 349 to 172 .
This story will be updated.
Bob Condotta: 206-515-5699 or [email protected]; Bob Condotta covers the Seahawks for the Seattle Times. He reports on the team daily throughout the year.