Schneider: Seahawks haven’t ‘shut the door’ on bringing back cut players

The Seattle Seahawks were able to add more financial wiggle room this offseason with a series of roster cuts this week.

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On Tuesday, the Hawks made three big releases, parting ways with Pro Bowl safeties Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams as well as tight end Will Dissly, who was drafted by Seattle in 2018. On Wednesday, the Seahawks released defensive tackle Bryan Mone, who missed all of 2023 with a torn ACL and joined the team as an undrafted free agent in 2019.

After those four releases, the Seahawks now have just under $42 million in available cap space to work with, per Over The Cap, and free agency begins next Monday with the legal tampering period.

So what went into these roster cuts? There’s no one better to break it down than Seahawks general manager and president of football operations John Schneider, who had his weekly John Schneider Show on Seattle Sports on Thursday and discussed the Hawks’ recent moves.

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Schneider first pointed to the coaching staff, which is essentially brand new for the Seahawks this year as Mike Macdonald was hired as head coach earlier this offseason to replace Pete Carroll.

“It’s a combination of the coaching staff, how they feel about things,” Schneider said. “But honestly with this situation, it’s more about what free agency looks like. How are we prepared in setting this up as we come around the corner here into free agency? To be able to have (the coaches’) opinions on these players, obviously, is very important.”

Could any of these released players return to Seattle? Never say never.

“We haven’t shut the door on any of them to come back,” Schneider said.

Adams, Diggs and Dissly were set to be among the team’s highest-paid players, and cutting Mone, who hasn’t played since Week 15 of the 2022 season, saved the Seahawks over $5 million.

“When you do these contracts and you try to create cap room, there’s ramifications,” Schneider said. “It’s like a credit card situation. Eventually you’ve gotta pay the bills, and if you want to keep moving forward, you have to address that. And unfortunately you get in a situation where guys have high cap numbers and either you can deal with it and try to work with it, or you can’t and you just decide to move forward and see what the rest of the offseason is going to look like.”

Part of why the Seahawks made these moves now, Schneider said, was both to help the Seahawks have more cap room ahead of free agency, but also so those players could “get into free agency as quickly” as possible. Those four are now what are referred to as “street free agents” and could theoretically sign with a new team before free agency officially begins on Monday.

“We wanted to come back here (from last week’s NFL combine) and kind of regroup with the coaches – last week was the first week they were together (for a whole) week,” Schneider said. “And so we wanted to go down to the combine, give them time to get together, put their processes in. And then have time to spend watching our team and what it looks like and a little bit of free agency as well, and then come back and sit down with them and then be able to say, ‘OK, you guys good? This is what it’s gonna look like and here we go, we’re gonna start moving forward.’ And we’ve had those meetings throughout the week this week as well.”

Schneider was also asked if any more cuts are coming.

“I hope to be done, yes. We hope to be done,” he said.

‘Narrative’ about Jamal Adams’ Seattle Seahawks tenure

Of the four players the Seahawks parted ways with this week, the most high-profile name was Adams. He was also the most controversial player of that group.

Cutting Adams wasn’t unexpected as he has dealt with serious injuries each of the past three years and carried a very high cap hit for 2024. The Seahawks acquired him in 2020 along with a draft pick from the New York Jets for two first-round picks, two third-round picks and safety Bradley McDougald.

After an All-Pro 2020 campaign where Adams set an NFL record for sacks by a defensive back in a single season, he received a four-year extension that made him the highest-paid safety in the league at the time. Soon after that, injuries took their toll and Adams’ production took a dive as he missed more games than he played in between 2021 and 2023.

“I think one of the more aggravating texts we get (from listeners) is that ‘Jamal Adams got paid’ and then he just shut it down, and he wasn’t this and that,'” Wyman and Bob’s Dave Wyman, a former NFL linebacker and current Seahawks radio broadcaster, said to Schneider.

Replied Schneider, “I would vehemently disagree with that.”

Schneider also said he’s “a little tired” of criticism over “the trade portion” in terms of what the Seahawks gave up to bring Adams to Seattle.

“It was the COVID year. We were picking (23rd overall in the first round of the 2021 NFL Draft), and in order to go from where we were and trying to (move) up to pick a guy like Jamal, who was picked (sixth overall in 2017), you’ve got to give up another first-round pick the next year,” Schneider said. “He came in here, our coaches did a great job with him, he had 9.5 sacks, goes to the Pro Bowl, is completely disruptive. He comes back the next year, he’s having a good season, gets hurt. Then he gets hurt again (Week 1 of 2022) – like really, really bad injury. So I feel bad for him.”

Schneider also said the Seahawks and Adams both could have taken different approaches during their time together.

“Are there things that we would like to have handled differently with him? Yes,” Schneider said. “Are there things that I’m sure he would like to have handled differently? Absolutely. But yeah, that narrative is not cool.”

The John Schneider Show airs at 4 p.m. each Thursday during Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob leading up to the NFL Draft, including April 25, which is the day of the first round. Listen to this week’s edition at this link or in the player near the top of this post.

More on the Seahawks

• This offseason is chance for Seahawks to prioritize the trenches
• Seahawks Draft: Versatile players for Mike Macdonald’s defense
• Rost: 4 big questions after Seahawks release Diggs, Adams and Dissly
• Salk: Do Seahawks’ releases signal a big change?
• AP Mock NFL Draft: D-lineman to Seattle Seahawks in first round?

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