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The Seattle Seahawks went through a lot in Mike Macdonald's first year as head coach. They missed the playoffs for the second consecutive year but managed to win their most games since 2020. With the promise they showed in 2024, the Seahawks have a new game plan for the 2025 NFL offseason, beginning with compiling a list of cut candidates.
Despite building his team around a core of young players, general manager John Schneider will deal with one of the worst cap space situations of the offseason. The Seahawks are projected to be roughly $27 million over the limit in 2025, giving the front office minimal space to work with. The circumstances force Seattle to make at least one internal roster move before initiating any significant changes over the summer.
Since the end of their season, the Seahawks have already made several key moves to improve their coaching staff. After one season, Macdonald fired offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb and replaced him with Klint Kubiak, the son of longtime head coach Gary Kubiak. Grubb subsequently returned to college football, where he reunited with Kalen DeBoer to be the offensive coordinator of Alabama.
With the addition of Kubiak, Macdonald — a former defensive coordinator — has put a clear emphasis on the offense moving forward. While Seattle's defense showed clear improvements under Macdonald, its offense was up and down in 2024. The Seahawks' passing game ranked among the best in the league but faltered down the stretch while running back Kenneth Walker III took another step back to decrease the team's rushing production.
Yet, ahead of the 2025 NFL offseason, most of the Seahawks' large contracts come from the defensive side. The $75 million extension Geno Smith signed in 2022 still makes him the team's highest-paid player, but Leonard Williams, Dre'Mont Jones, Uchenna Nwosu and Julian Love are all atop Seattle's payroll. If the front office wishes to build on the foundation Macdonald set in 2024, the Seahawks need to identify several cut candidates.
WR Tyler Lockett
One of the most prominent bright spots of the Seahawks' 2024 campaign was the breakout of second-year wideout Jaxon Smith-Njigba. After a letdown rookie season, the former first-round pick led the team with 1,130 receiving yards and six touchdowns. With his outburst, Smith-Njigba firmly established himself as Geno Smith's No. 1 option late in the year over veteran teammates DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett.
Due to Smith's waning on-field chemistry with Metcalf, many fans assumed Smith-Njigba's breakout sparked the end of the former Ole Miss Rebel's run with the team. Perhaps Schneider moves Metcalf and his $72 million contract in the offseason, but Lockett might be even more of a liability.
While Metcalf took a step back in 2024, Lockett's role decreased even further. The longtime slot receiver notched just 600 receiving yards in his 10th season, the fewest of his career since 2017. Much of the reduced production had to do with Smith-Njigba's emergence, but at 32, Lockett's speed and athleticism have been on a notable decline.
The biggest issue with Lockett is his conflicting role with Smith-Njigba, who took 74 percent of his snaps in the slot. Both Lockett and Smith-Njigba thrive in the slot, but neither performs well on the outside. At this point in their careers, the latter is far more effective in the role. Conversely, Metcalf, despite the down year in 2024, complements his sure-handed teammate on the outside. If one veteran receiver is to be released in the 2025 NFL offseason, it will be Lockett.
OLB Uchenna Nwosu
Seahawks fans might be surprised to find out that Uchenna Nwosu is the fifth-highest-paid player on the roster, mainly since the oft-injured edge-rusher has hardly been a factor with the team. For the second consecutive season, Nwosu played just six of the 17 games in 2024 and barely made an impact even when he was on the field. Since signing with Seattle in 2022, he has appeared in just 57 percent of the team's games.
Since leading the team with 9.5 sacks in 2022, Nwosu has just three over the past two years. The low sack count indicates his increasing ineffectiveness, as he has just three pressures since 2023. His decreased production has led to a downtick in usage. In 2024, Nwosu was on the field for over 50 percent of the team's defensive snaps in just three of his six games.
Seattle's defense, once known as the doormat of the league, has turned a corner under Macdonald. Led by veteran Leonard Williams, they were 10th in 2024 with 45 sacks. Derrick Hall, Boye Mafe and Dre'Mont Jones all supplemented his efforts, along with defensive tackle Jarran Reed. The Seahawks' situation ahead of the 2025 NFL offseason is much different than it was in 2022, making Nwosu less of an asset and more of a cut candidate.
DE Roy Robertson-Harris
Much like Nwosu, Roy Robertson-Harris has not been the player the Seahawks thought they obtained in 2024. The veteran defensive lineman played just 11 of the 17 games, almost exclusively as a reserve. His snap count decreased as the season progressed to just 9.1, 6.3 and 30.3 percent of the snaps over the final three weeks. In his 11 games, Robertson-Harris managed just 13 tackles and failed to record a sack.
Despite his low usage, Robertson-Harris will have the 10th-highest cap hit in 2025. He remains on the sizeable three-year extension he inked with the Jacksonville Jaguars back in 2023. That makes him the sixth-highest-paid defensive player still on the Seahawks' books.
In Macdonald's 3-4 defensive scheme, Robertson-Harris is just one of a handful of interior linemen on the roster. Williams, Byron Murphy, Derrick Hall and Cameron Young are all ahead of him on the depth chart and will return in 2025. That says nothing about the potential free agents the Seahawks can woo in the 2025 NFL offseason.
Schneider only relinquished a sixth-round pick to acquire Robertson-Harris in 2023, making him nothing more than dead cap space. With a bevy of external options at the position, Robertson-Harris' contract is not equivalent to his current value on the roster.
