Seahawks 'Haven't Shut The Door' on Bringing Back Recently-Cut Players
The Seattle Seahawks have done some house cleaning as they gear up for the NFL free agency period.
With teams having to be cap-compliant by the start of the new league year (March 13), the Seahawks made several moves to ease their salary cap pressure. Veterans Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs were released along with tackle Bryan Mone and tight end Will Dissly.
The moves were no doubt made with an eye to free agency. For the Seahawks to be under the salary cap come the start of the new league year, moves had to be made. The release of Adams and Diggs saved Seattle $27.5 million in cash and cap space (almost $42 million available).
Players getting cut usually signals the end of an era, but general manager John Schneider said that he is open to some players coming back, though he wouldn't say specifically.
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"To be able to have (the coaching staff's) opinions on players obviously is very important, we haven't shut the door on any of them to come back, but when you do these contracts and try to create cap room, there's ramifications," Schneider said via Seattle Sports' Dave Wyman and Bob Stelton. "It's credit-card situations, you've got to pay the bills, and if you want to keep moving forward, you have to address that. 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 decide to move forward and see what the rest of the offseason is going to look like."
The Seahawks have several roster holes that need filling, with the offensive line looming as one area that is in dire need of fortifying.
Evan Brown, Damien Lewis, and Phil Haynes are all set to test the free agent market and could leave Geno Smith's protection rather thin heading into 2024.
While Schneider hasn't fully shut down the idea of the players who were released returning, it does seem like a long shot as any contract offered to them would likely be a serious cut to what they would be expecting.
Additionally, the Seahawks returning any players could be predicated on what the team can do/find in free agency as there could be several bargains that the franchise can find.
With this being Schneider's first offseason with his hands solely on the wheel, he will want to make sure things go smoothly and in moving on from several players with big cap hits in 2024, he has created some much-needed breathing room salary cap-wise.
Now, the next step is to shop in free agency and find the pieces needed to make the Seattle roster better than what it was last season. If he can't, then it is plausible that he returns to the well and perhaps offers contracts to those who have been released.
The door isn't shut on that idea, but one would imagine it would take something substantial for the Seahawks to even contemplate it.
