The Seattle Seahawks lost Jared Ivey on the waiver wire on Monday, as the 2025 undrafted free agent who was on Seattle’s roster for the entire season was claimed by the Atlanta Falcons. Normally I would say that losing a player on the waiver wire is diabolically overrated. It’s sort of like getting stung by a bee: Nobody wants the pain, but it’ll pass shortly and only rarely does it have dire consequences.
However, in Ivey’s case it does seem like there’s at least a small chance that the Seahawks will regret cutting Ivey in favor of someone else who made the roster and may not have been claimed.
Ivey had to be viewed as a player who was buried too deep on the roster after the team signed Dante Fowler, Jr. and clearly have liked what he’s done in practices. Due to his lack of special teams value, Ivey was inactive for 15 of 17 games last season, as well as the entire playoffs.
Conversely, the team kept Connor O’Toole, a player active for eight regular season games and all three playoff games, thanks in part to special teams value. The depth at outside linebacker implies that if Seattle had protected Ivey again, he risked spending another season in the 53-man roster without actually playing.
Even so, it doesn’t mean that Ivey couldn’t thrive in Atlanta.
Ivey joins a Falcons defense that has had a disastrous offseason at outside linebacker, first learning that James Pearce was being accused of serious crimes (and later suspended for eight games) and then Jalon Walker tore his ACL.
That leaves Samson Ebukam and Za’Darius Smith as their starters, two players who combined to have 3.5 sacks last season. Ivey may actually become a full-time player overnight, which if anything means that maybe John Schneider missed an opportunity to simply trade the player to Atlanta and get something in return.
Ivey was lauded for bowling over starting Chiefs guard Trey Smith in the preseason finale, leading me to incorrectly assume he would make the roster again.
However, it just feels like Jared Ivey wasn’t meant for the Seahawks at this time.
Although it could turn out that a player like Montorie Foster or Chazz Surratt gets released in short order too, it wouldn’t really matter for Ivey unless the Seahawks needed to replace someone like Fowler or one of the other pass rushers. And in that case, it appears that Mike Macdonald prefers O’Toole.
Also, Seattle has just eight secondary players on the 53, including Avery Smith, a player they acquired in a trade with the Chargers on Sunday, and Julian Neal, who missed the majority of camp. And Josh Jones is their only backup tackle.
The Seahawks have bigger concerns than losing Jared Ivey, and hence they’ve started to assemble a practice squad on Monday, including these reported signings:
CB Trevon Diggs
WR Emmanuel Henderson
OLB Aidan Hubbard
NT Uso Seumalo
WR Ricky White III
RB Jacardia Wright
CB Michael Dansby
CB Andre Fuller
T Logan Brown
DT Deven Eastern
S AJ Finley
S Maxen Hook
WR Julian Hicks
OLB Marvin Jones
RB Velus Jones
S Rodney Thomas II
C Federico Maranges (roster exception)
The Seahawks can sign eight more players to the practice squad on top of the ones that have already been reported. I’ll update the list here and in the comments after those names are announced.
Fun fact: Seahawks still have the least amount of dead money ($2 million), have spent the second-most cash in 2026, and have the 11th-most cap space. They are a bit above-average in terms of age of the final 53-man roster, around 27.
Post updated. Only published a few minutes before the entire practice squad announced. I wonder if AJ Finley or Rodey Thomas will be week 1 callups.
No D'Anthony Bell??