Uchenna Nwosu's latest injury could be his last with the Seahawks
THE NEEDFUL THINGS that the Seahawks must do to improve their team in 2025: Seaside Joe 2046
The Seahawks placed Uchenna Nwosu on injured reserve on Tuesday, which for me almost puts to bed the year-long conversation we’ve had to have about Seattle cutting Nwosu in 2025 for cap savings. Nwosu’s Seahawks career was going so well prior to his midseason pec injury in 2023, just three months after Seattle extended Nwosu to a three-year, $45 million contract on the day before training camp.
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I did write that this could be a really good year to buy the dip on Nwosu, and maybe it would have been if not for two new injuries unrelated to each other or the one that cost Nwosu half of the 2023 season. But Monday’s headline of “Uchenna Nwosu to IR?” dropped the question mark and whether or not we ever see him in a Seahawks uniform again is a matter left to future versions of ourselves.
I’ve said it 20.5 times before, so I’ll say it one more: Nwosu’s $21.5 million cap hit in 2025 is 12th-highest in the National Football League for edge rushers and you can just book it now that several players above him, like Von Miller, are also more likely than not to be released. Uchenna Nwosu has never been a top-10 edge rusher in any context, so he’s certainly not a top-10 edge rusher having missed all but about six games worth of snaps since his extension.
Seahawks 2025 salary cap
The faint glimmer of a silver lining to all of this, if you fancy the idea of being an NFL general manager and toying with possibilities in the future, is that it makes Seattle’s decision with Nwosu less controversial and less complicated. “Hey, he doesn’t play, what were we supposed to do?”
If I had to pin this entire year’s worth of Seaside Joe’s newsletters on one article that completely sums up the Seattle Seahawks present situation, the article I’ve linked to more than any other, it’s this one:
This article—”Seahawks have $120 million in salary cap decisions to make in 2025”—is actually just as relevant to Seattle’s 3-2 record in 2024 as it is to THE NEEDFUL THINGS that the Seahawks must do in 2025.
“Seaside Joe, why isn’t the Seahawks defense playing as well for Mike Macdonald as the Ravens defense did for him in the past two seasons?”
We could start with the defensive injuries, right? To this point, the losses of Nwosu, Boye Mafe, Leonard Williams, Byron Murphy, and Jerome Baker at different points and for different periods of time, have made it difficult for Seattle’s defensive coaching staff to hold a plan together. They had to play Tyus Bowser for considerable snaps against the Lions and that hurt. Bowser has played more snaps for the Seahawks this season than Nwosu and that’s going to continue for at least five more weeks.
But it goes beyond injuries and Pete Carroll could be the first person to tell you that coaches should not be expected to make their favorite recipes with someone else’s favorite ingredients; Can you make spaghetti out of Rice Krispies, cheese curds, and lentil soup?
The Seahawks had one wave of new additions this year, including Murphy, Baker, Rayshawn Jenkins, Tyrel Dodson, Johnathan Hankins, Trevis Gipson, Tyrice Knight, and K’Von Wallace. But even out of a sample like those eight names, perhaps only two or three will stick around for longer than a year or two. Seattle needs another wave of new additions in 2025, but there’s a problem: The Seahawks are already almost maxed out with their contractual commitments next year.
John Schneider will have to clear out tens of millions in cap space—if not up to almost $100 million—depending on who proves himself worthy of another key role on the 2025 team and then who doesn’t.
Unfortunately in Uchenna’s case, these injuries that fall outside of his control have probably made the decision too easy for Schneider and that will be to cut him unless he’s willing to take a pay cut from the $14.48 million in base salary he’s scheduled to make in 2025. Seattle “only” saves $8.5 million by releasing Nwosu, with $13 million in dead cap, but the Seahawks can only worry about money saved and not cap that they’re using up with or without him anyway. Don’t compare “13 million” to some other number, just compare $21.5 million to have an edge rusher who hasn’t been on the field to having $8.5 million in cap space that could be used to add someone else.
Maybe even a guard? (I doubt it, but I’ll allow dreaming today.)