This time a year ago, the Seattle Seahawks had Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs under contract, keeping alive the idea that each could return for the 2024 season to anchor the safety position.
That thought went out the window on March 5 when both were released in a cost-cutting decision and a defense-reshaping move under first-year head coach Mike Macdonald.
After that year of upheaval, the Seahawks enter the 2025 offseason with a safety position that appears set with its top two but may undergo change elsewhere.
As we continue with our reviews of the team’s position groups heading into the offseason, let’s look at the safety room.
Safety
Starters
Julian Love
Age: 26.
Snaps played in regular season: 1,079, 95.40%, via Pro Football Reference.
Contract situation: Love has three years left on the three-year, $33 million extension he signed in July. He has a $1.2 million salary for 2025 and has a $1.6 million option due on March 18.
Coby Bryant
Age: 25.
Snaps played in regular season: 786, 69.50%.
Contract situation: Bryant is entering the final season of his four-year rookie deal. He was scheduled to make $1.1 million in 2025, but his playing time in 2024 helped him reach a Proven Performance Escalator for the final year of his deal that bumps his salary in 2025 to an estimated $3.325 million, via OvertheCap.com.
Backups
Rayshawn Jenkins
Age: 30.
Snaps played in regular season: 550, 48.63%.
Contract situation: Jenkins has one year remaining on the two-year deal he signed last spring worth up to $12 million. That includes a $4.890 million base salary for 2025 that is not guaranteed. The Seahawks can save $5.28 million against the cap if he is cut or traded before or after June 1.
K’Von Wallace
Age: 27.
Snaps played in regular season: 127, 11.23%.
Contract situation: Wallace is an unrestricted free agent after playing last season on a one-year deal that paid him $1.5 million.
Others who played in 2024: Ty Okada, who spent the season on the practice squad, played 33 snaps and was signed to a futures deal at the end of the season. Jerrick Reed II, a sixth-round pick in 2023, played five snaps and ended the season on injured reserve. He has two years left on his rookie contract.
The Seahawks claimed AJ Finley off waivers from the Chargers on Nov. 26. Finley ended the season listed as a backup to Love at safety. Finley played six snaps in four games. He has one year remaining on his contract, due to make $1.03 million in 2025.
2024 review
The Seahawks cut ties with Adams and Diggs to create $27.5 million in cap space, some of which was used to re-sign defensive lineman Leonard Williams.
The move was made with the team planning to re-sign Love, who originally came to Seattle in 2023 on a two-year deal.
The Seahawks signed Jenkins to pair him with Love, and Wallace to play as a third safety with Bryant — who was the team’s starting nickel as a rookie in 2022 before an injury-riddled 2023 season — trying to forge a role somewhere in the secondary.
Some early-season struggles by the defense and a hand injury to Jenkins gave Bryant the opportunity he needed to start again, and once he got the job in a Week 7 win at Atlanta that he capped with an interception, he didn’t give it up.
Jenkins returned to a third safety role after missing four games, and the Seahawks went the last 11 games of the season with Love and Bryant as the starters — a duo that could anchor the back end of the defense for the next few years.
Love was rated the seventh-best safety in the NFL this year by Pro Football Focus and Bryant 22nd, with both grading out particularly well in run defense.
Bryant showed a knack for big plays with a game-turning pick-six against Arizona. He finished tied with Love and Riq Woolen in interceptions with three and sixth in tackles with 68.
“I think it was just a matter of finding the right role for (Bryant),” Macdonald said late in the season. “Sometimes with those guys you try to maybe ask them to do too many things because he can do all these things, when maybe the best thing is to kind of pick one and choose. You know, (it) takes time to find the right thing. To his credit, he’s really embraced the challenge. When Rayshawn went down, he was ready. … So, we’re excited about the year he’s had and expect him to take the next level as we move forward.”
2025 preview
With Love under contract for three more years, the questions at this spot are whether the Seahawks look to extend Bryant now instead of waiting until after the 2025 season, and if they will release Jenkins and look to other options for the third safety and other depth roles.
OvertheCap.com valued Bryant’s play as worth $5.4 million in 2024, when he started only 11 games. Bryant’s cap hit for 2025 is $3.529 million, making him a bargain if he turns in the same kind of season again.
The Seahawks could structure an extension to not increase that cap hit — and possibly bring it down — and give him some security and assure he stays.
Cutting Jenkins would clear $5.28 million, and that seems likely since his $7.78 million cap hit is a lot for a third safety.
If they cut Jenkins, that leaves the question of who fills the third safety role.
Reed has shown some flashes but has played only 15 games in two years because of injury, making him something of an unknown quantity.
Finley could be a legit candidate for the third safety role. He played four years of safety at Ole Miss and led the team in interceptions in 2021-22, but he has played mostly on special teams in two NFL seasons with the Chargers and Seahawks.
Okada has played in nine games in two seasons, mostly on special teams, and was re-signed to a futures deal, and could again fill a role of practice squad player.