With June 1st right around the corner, it is all but a guarantee that teams across the league are going to make cuts throughout the next week. The Seattle Seahawks have multiple players on their roster who could be victims of a post-June 1st cut, which splits up the dead cap between 2022 and 2023, or who could simply be a victim of a roster crunch. So, with that in mind, who are a few of the players Seattle might look to cut? Let’s look at three, ranked from lowest to highest profile.
Cody Thompson – WR – 2021 stats – 5 games, 0 targets, 4 offensive snaps, 47 special teams snaps
Contract details – 1 year – $825,000 cap hit – $0 in dead cap with pre or post June 1st release
The lowest profile player on this list, cutting Thompson simply has to do with the fact that there is very little need for him on the roster. At best he is the ninth or tenth receiver on the depth chart, coming off of a season in which he only saw four offensive snaps. Then on the special teams side of the ball there is very little in terms of need for him there either. Seattle signed and drafted a plethora of players who can be special teams contributors this upcoming season including Tariq Woolen, Coby Bryant, Tyreke Smith, Vi Jones, Bubba Bolden amongst others. Cutting Thompson brings very little in terms of salary cap relief as his release would net the team less than $1,000,000 in additional cap space, however Seattle could look to release him to simply make space for another player on the 90-man roster come training camp.
Jason Myers – K – 2021 stats – 17 games, 23 field goals attempted, 17 field goals made, 47 extra points attempted, 44 extra points made
Contract details – 1 year – $5,000,000 cap hit – $1,000,000 in dead cap with pre or post June 1st release
Cutting Myers would be a bit of a risky bet this late into the offseason seeing as most of the UDFA and traditional free agent kickers have been signed. However, with that aside there is a very strong case to cut Myers, who is coming off his third season in the last six years in which he hit less than 80% of his attempted field goals. His extra point% of 93.6% was his highest career total. According to pro-football-reference.com, among qualified kickers Myers ranked 31st of 34 in field goal% and 17th out of 24 in extra point% in the 2021 season. These numbers make it extremely difficult to justify Myers carrying the fifth largest cap hit among kickers.
With Myers being the only kicker on the active roster, Seattle would have to bring in at least one kicker with it being likely they bring in 2 to 3 kickers to compete for the job. The likeliest candidate to come in is former Colts kicker Michael Badgley, who is coming off of a season where he went 18 for 22 in field goal attempts and 40 for 41 in extra point attempts. Some other names to look out for on the kicker front would be former Titan Sam Ficken and UDFA’s Parker White and Nate Needham.
Chris Carson – RB – 2021 stats – 4 games, 54 carries, 232 rushing yards, 3 total touchdowns, 29 receiving yards, 1 fumble
Contract details – 1 year – $6,100,000 cap hit – Pre-June 1st release $3,100,000 in savings/$3,000,000 in dead cap – Post June 1st $4,600,000 in savings/$1,500,000 in 2022 and 2023 dead cap in addition to $1,500,000 in dead cap in 2023 from a void year.
There are a few reasons as to why Seattle might look to release Carson. The first being the running back room is crowded with younger and outside of Rashaad Penny, who is playing on a one-year deal, far more cost controllable talent. The combined cap hits of Kenneth Walker lll, Deejay Dallas and Travis Homer will equate to around $3,400,000 less than Carson’s 2022 cap hit.
The second reason is there’s unfortunately no guarantee that Carson is going to be an effective player this year, if ever again. He is coming off of a neck injury that required season ending surgery and was at one point believed to be career threatening. We do not know for sure but there is a chance an injury of this style will inhibit Carson’s range of motion, as well as the possibility that it could affect his overall ability to keep up with the toll a 17-game season would put on his body.
The third reason is that the cap space cleared will help sign the rookie class and potentially could be rolled over into next year to create additional cap relief, with the increased cap hits of Jamal Adams, Tyler Lockett and Quandre Diggs coming, along with the anticipated extension of DK Metcalf as well.