Seahawks 53-man roster

John Schneider adds another free agent miss to his track record

The Seattle Seahawks cut the roster down to 53 players on Tuesday and here they are:

QB (3)

Jalen Milroe, Sam Darnold, Drew Lock

RB (3)

Kenneth Walker, Zach Charbonnet, George Holani

FB (2)

Robbie Ouzts, Brady Russell

WR (6)

Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Cooper Kupp, Tory Horton, Jake Bobo, Dareke Young, Cody White

(IR: Steven Sims)

TE (4)

Eric Saubert, A.J. Barner, Elijah Arroyo, Nick Kallerup

OL (9)

Charles Cross, Grey Zabel, Jalen Sundell, Anthony Bradford, Abe Lucas, Josh Jones, Olu Oluwatimi, Bryce Cabeldue, Mason Richman

(IR: Christian Haynes)

DL (4)

Leonard Williams, Jarran Reed, Byron Murphy, Mike Morris

(injuries: Johnathan Hankins, Rylie Mills)

EDGE (6)

Uchenna Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Derick Hall, Demarcus Lawrence, Jared Ivey, Connor O’Toole

LB (3)

Tyrice Knight, Ernest Jones, Drake Thomas

CB (5)

Devon Witherspoon, Tariq Woolen, Josh Jobe, Shaquill Griffin, Nehemiah Pritchett

S (5)

Julian Love, Nick Emmanwori, Coby Bryant, D’Anthony Bell, Ty Okada

ST (3)

Jason Myers, Michael Dickson, Chris Stoll

What are your immediate reactions?

Another FA miss: Marquez Valdes-Scantling

I was never rooting for MVS to make the roster. I was only ever rooting for the Seahawks to not have another bad free agent signing under John Schneider, but by releasing MVS and wasting $3 million to have a 30-year-old receiver camp body on the team in August that’s exactly what that deal turned out to be…A bad use of Seattle’s money. Same as every single Seahawks free agent signing in 2024.

My hope was that the Seahawks gave MVS a $3 million guarantee because they had a plan for him that did not necessitate the X receiver being a WR3. That Valdes-Scantling was signed to be a component of the offense that would work whether the team ended up drafting a better receiver or not.

Instead, this makes it seem like Valdes-Scantling was merely signed as insurance and the reason that looks bad is that “insurance wide receivers” do not cost anything! RECEIVERS ARE EVERYWHERE!

Just look at a player like Hunter Renfrow as an example:

• Renfrow is the same age (30)

• Renfrow was released by the Panthers on Tuesday

• Carolina paid him $50,000. $50K! (That’s 1/60th of $3 million)

Of course, Renfrow is a much different type of receiver than MVS and he wasn’t even in the league last year. But if you needed insurance in camp with experience, there were MANY options available. It’s just ludicrous to look back at the MVS signing now and know that the team was going to make him fight for a roster spot as if he was no different than a guy like Renfrow.

This can only be called bad business. Bad roster management. And a bad signing.

2024 free agency looms large over 2025

It is not a good day for Schneider when he has to cut that player before Week 1 and hand him an easy $3 million check just because Tory Horton has been a better receiver than Seattle expected to get in the fifth round. That’s really, really bad football business because now MVS is being treated like the same type of expendable receiver that NFL teams can find on any day of the week, any week of the month, and any month of the year WITHOUT guaranteed money.

For a GM who signed Jerome Baker, Connor Williams, Rayshawn Jenkins, George Fant, Tyrel Dodson, Pharaoh Brown, Laviska Shenault, and Nick Harris in 2024 — and re-signed Noah Fant — this offseason had to be a step forward in free agency. By adding $3 million more on the 2025 cap in dead money for MVS, Schneider is inching ever closer to a reality in which his reputation as a veteran talent evaluator hinges greatly on three players:

• QB Sam Darnold, $37.5m fully guaranteed

• WR Cooper Kupp, $17.5m fully guaranteed

• EDGE Demarcus Lawrence, $13m fully guaranteed

Valdes-Scantling’s guaranteed money might not be a lot in the grand scheme of things, it’s barely over 1% of the team’s entire salary cap, but these numbers add up quicker than you can imagine:

2025 dead money now stands at over $75 million!

• DK Metcalf, $21m

• Dre’Mont Jones, $14m

• Tyler Lockett, $13.9m

• Geno Smith, $13.5m

• Noah Fant, $4.5m

• MVS, $3m

• Rayshawn Jenkins, $2.5m

• George Fant, $1.85m

• etc.

In two free agency periods without Pete Carroll, Schneider has yet to land a single viable veteran player who does anything more than keep a seat warm for a replacement like Ernest Jones or Tyrice Knight. That’s why I say that so much hinges on Darnold, Kupp, and Lawrence because his fourth most-notable free agent pickup this year did not even make the roster.

You will never hear me complain that the Seahawks released Marquez Valdes-Scantling…But consistently giving away money to the types of players — like MVS — who are readily available at any time of year because you didn’t have a plan that necessitated that player on the roster when you guaranteed his contract?

MVS is not a miss for anyone who expected him to make the roster. Unless that person was the one who gave him $3 million.

Christian Haynes: IR (not cut)

It was looking bad for Christian Haynes and sure enough, he’s out. The Seahawks placed Haynes on IR.

Other surprises include Nick Kallerup, Cody White, Connor O’Toole, and Ty Okada, but Seattle’s 53-man roster is not fully set yet. The Seahawks will continue to make moves; it is improbable that the team only has three off-ball linebackers going into Week 1.

One of the best things about this day is seeing shockers like Nick Kallerup, a player I had as an assumed “certain cut” on Monday. Kallerup’s stay on the 53 could be brief — maybe less than 24 hours —but it’s not a bad sign for him that he’s got any value to Seattle whatsoever. That stuff is noticed.

Rookie “Surprises” come down to numbers

There’s really nothing else about Seattle’s moves to get down to 53 that are particularly surprising at this moment. Yes, the Seahawks cut some of their rookie draft picks like Damien Martinez and Ricky White III, but those moves were expected and a part of Monday’s primer on cutdowns.

When a team drafts nine offensive players — not just total picks (11), but nine on just one side of the ball — they almost guarantee that not all of them will make the 53. Conversely, when you only draft 2 defensive players, it increases the odds that undrafted rookies will sneak onto the 53 and that was the case for Jared Ivey and Connor O’Toole.

What does the desire for depth at edge rusher say about Seattle’s confidence in the four guys (Lawrence, Nwosu, Mafe, Hall) to be able to go 17 games or be back in 2026? The Seahawks have invested a lot in those four players recently, so ideally fans would like to think that Seattle has confidence in them now and in the future.

It is still a good roster

Let’s offset the bad news by ending with good news:

The Seahawks appear to have a much better roster going into 2025 than they had going into 2022, 2023, or 2024. There’s also good reason to be optimistic about the coaching changes since last year.

Yes, the Seahawks take a loss on Valdes-Scantling, but again it’s barely a 1% loss. Because of having an abundance of draft picks in the first three rounds since 2022, the depth chart looks younger and more talented than any of the past five years:

• First rounders: Cross, Witherspoon, JSN, Murphy, Zabel

• Second rounders: Mafe, Walker, Hall, Charbonnet, Emmanwori, Arroyo

• Third rounders: Lucas, Milroe

• Day 3 hits: Bryant, Woolen, Barner, Knight

• Day 3 rostered: Young, Bradford, Morris, Oluwatimi, Pritchett

• Day 3 rookies: Horton, Outzts, Cabeldue, Richman

• Vet additions pre-2025: Leonard Williams, Reed, Jones IV, Love

Seahawks fans should be very on-board with the changes. Mike Macdonald had a successful first year as HC/DC and Klint Kubiak has ignited reasonable optimism to expect offensive improvements as OC.

What could fans really be that upset about with the roster or coaching staff as constructed going into 2025? Relative to past years, this Seattle team is more exciting! There’s just a blindspot when it comes to free agency that was further exposed on Tuesday, so the pressure to prove that this is an overreaction shifts to the “big three”.

Schneider — none of us — are in a hurry to see that cut down to a big two or one.

Seaside Joe 2367