The Seattle Seahawks are going to look a lot different next year.
The Seahawks are releasing star safeties, Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs, the team announced in a Tuesday afternoon Tweet.
They also announced their release of veteran tight end Will Dissly.
We have released Jamal Adams, Will Dissly, and Quandre Diggs.
📰: https://t.co/iarFR8n4HG pic.twitter.com/1Mah14dTqu
— Seattle Seahawks (@Seahawks) March 5, 2024
The decision to cut Adams isn’t a shocker. The Seahawks gave up a lot to acquire him in 2020, sending two first-round picks, a third-round pick and safety Bradley McDougald to the New York Jets in exchange for Adams.
Adams would have a good start in 2020, making the Pro Bowl in his first Seattle season. But he fell off precipitously after that. After recording 9.5 sacks in 12 games in 2020, he didn’t record a single one in the same amount of games in 2021.
In 2022, a torn quadricep ended his season after only one game, and in 2023 he was limited to nine games, playing so poorly that former head coach Pete Carroll actually benched him at one point.
When Adams was benched, his replacement, Julian Love, balled out. So it’s not really a surprise to see them let him go. What is a headscratcher, however, is the decision to cut Diggs.
Diggs was a revelation for Seattle. After coming over in a midseason trade with the Detroit Lions in 2019, Diggs recorded 18 interceptions in four and a half seasons in Seattle. After missing a few games in 2019, he played in every single regular season game for the Seahawks for the last four seasons. He made the Pro Bowl in three consecutive years from 2020-2022.
Diggs reacted to the news on Twitter, writing, “Forever grateful.”
Forever grateful.
— Nino (@qdiggs6) March 5, 2024
I’m not quite sure why the Seahawks didn’t want to hold on to him. He will definitely go on to be a valuable asset to another team. (RELATED: NFL Team Reportedly Has ‘Buyers Remorse’ On QB Who They Handed 9-Figure Contract To Less Than A Year Ago)
Still, general manager John Schneider indicated he’d like to let new head coach Mike MacDonald build his own roster.
“Mike and I, when we got together, we had a vision for where we want to take this thing, but you’ve got to get into the specifics of the positions, too, and understand what is important to those guys in order to get the buy-in from the staff,” Schneider said, per Seahawks.com senior reporter John Boyle.