SEATTLE — In the first major personnel moves of the Mike Macdonald era, the Seahawks are releasing safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs as well as tight end Will Dissly, a league source confirmed to The Seattle Times.
The moves will save Seattle $34.5 million in cash for the 2024 season as well almost $25 million in salary-cap space. Though there had been speculation Adams could be a post-June 1 release, he reportedly will be a standard release and Seattle will take all the dead-cap hit — or $20.8 million — on Adams’ deal now.
The moves come before the NFL’s free agent signing-period that begins March 13. All the moves will become official by then, if not sooner.
The Adams release had been rumored for a while but still is a jolt, because it represents the end of one of the bigger trades in team history.
Seattle traded two first-round draft picks to the Jets for Adams in 2020. But after he made the All-Pro second team in 2020 with 9.5 sacks, he battled injuries the past three years.
Adams had two years remaining on his contract but no guaranteed money left. That included cap hits of $26.9 million and $27.9 million the next two years and salaries of $16.5 million and $17.5 million. Those were the last two years on a four-year contract worth up to $72 million signed in August 2021.
Diggs and Dissly were entering the final years of their contracts.
The release of Adams and Diggs means Seattle is left searching for safeties. Julian Love will return, but Seattle has no other safeties with significant experience. One option could be Baltimore’s Geno Stone, who thrived last season with Macdonald, who was the Ravens’ defensive coordinator before being hired as the Seahawks’ coach, and will be a free agent.
Diggs was due a salary of $10.4 million in 2024 with a cap hit of $21.2 million.
The Dissly release also means Seattle has no tight ends with significant experience, as Noah Fant and Colby Parkinson can be free agents.
Dissly also had no guaranteed money left on his deal. He had a salary of $6.4 million in 2024 with a cap hit of $10.07 million.
The Seahawks acquired Diggs in a trade with Detroit in October 2019 and Adams the following summer. They hoped the two would combine to give Seattle a safety tandem to rival that of Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor.
After a promising start in 2020, when Seattle went 12-4 and Adams and Diggs made the Pro Bowl, the plan started to go awry.
Adams played only 12 games in 2021 as Seattle went 7-10, then suffered a season-ending torn quad muscle in the 2022 opener. He returned for the fifth game of the 2023 season.
But the knee continued to bothered Adams, and he played only nine games before being shelved for the rest of the season.
Seattle president of football operations John Schneider had foreshadowed that a move might be coming with Adams last week at the NFL combine when he was asked how Adams might fit in Macdonald’s defense.
“Is he in his plans?” Schneider said. “Yeah, I mean, we’ll find out. We’ll keep working through things. … We’re still trying to figure all that out.”
Schneider had said the hope was Adams will be healthier in 2024.
“It was a rough year for him,’’ Schneider said of Adams’ 2023 season. “ … I’m sure Jamal would tell you guys it was hard for him. He fought his tail off to get back. He was constantly trying to be out there, trying to be active and working with the coaching staff, working with the trainers, strength and conditioning guys. I would expect him to be much healthier next year, yes.”
Now he won’t be in Seattle’s plans and at age 28 will have to jump start his career elsewhere.
Diggs made three consecutive Pro Bowls from 2020-22 but saw his production drop in 2023. Seattle’s defense finished 25th in points allowed and 30th in yards allowed, making just one interception after recording 14 total the previous three years.
Diggs appeared to acknowledge the move when he took to the social media platform X and stated “Forever grateful.”
Given the high cap hit and savings, the Dissly release was also not unexpected.
A fourth-round draft pick out of Washington in 2018, Dissly saw his playing time and stats drop significantly in 2023. His snap counts fell from 60% to 39%, his receptions from 34 to 17 and yards from 349 to 172.
