NFL reinstates Quinton Dunbar to Seahawks roster. He’s arriving to report to training camp
Quinton Dunbar is a free man. A doubly-free man.
Two days after prosecutors in Florida dropped all criminal charges against the Seahawks cornerback stemming from an alleged armed robbery, the NFL officially did what became known Saturday: it reinstated Dunbar from the commissioner’s exempt list.
The league’s official transactions for Sunday showed Dunbar is now on Seattle’s 80-man preseason roster. He became exempt from it July 27 when the NFL put him on the commissioner’s list while he awaited a felony trial that never came.
Dunbar posted on his Instagram social-media account that he was flying Sunday from his home in Miami to Seattle to report to Seahawks training camp.
It will be his first time with the Seahawks since his trade from Washington in March. That was right after the coronavirus pandemic closed team facilities across the NFL.
Before he left Florida, Dunbar made a statement to media there:
“I thank God, thank my family, my defense team, my agent—and Seattle, most definitely Seattle, for being in my corner this whole ride,” Dunbar said. “I’m just looking forward to moving on with my life.”
Dunbar has been in Miami while his legal situation played out Upon reporting to camp at team headquarters in Renton he was to go directly into the team’s COVID-19 testing protocol in trailers in the parking lot just outside the facility. That protocol for reporting players has been three tests for the virus over an initial four-day period. Only after Dunbar passes those tests will he be allowed inside the team facility for the first time.
The Seahawks are finishing eight days of strength and conditioning workouts this week. Their first non-padded practice of camp is scheduled for Wednesday.
Their first full-pads practice is scheduled for Aug. 17.
Each team gets 14 padded practices before the season begins, which for Seattle is Sept. 13 at Atlanta.
The league put Dunbar on the exempt list after unexpected turns, accusations of victims being bribed, lawyers dropping out and more in his unusual felony case for robbery with a firearm in Broward County, Fla. While on the commissioner’s exempt list Dunbar was prohibited from practicing with the Seahawks or attending games.
It appeared he was heading to trial. Last week, coach Pete Carroll said whether Dunbar would play for Seattle this season was out of the team’s hands.
But Friday, Michael J. Satz, state attorney for the Seventeenth Judicial Circuit of Florida, wrote in a statement released by the Broward State Attorney’s Office: “Broward prosecutors declined to file criminal charges against the other NFL player who was arrested in relation to this incident, Quinton Dunbar, 28, due to insufficient evidence.”
Surprisingly, the Seahawks gained a starting cornerback they weren’t sure they were going to have for the 2020 season.
Co-defendant DeAndre Baker, a cornerback for the New York Giants from Dunbar’s hometown of Miami, was formally charged with four counts of robbery with a firearm. He is accused of stealing cash and watched from four men at a party in Miramar, Fla., May 13.
Baker will go to trial.
Dunbar will not.
“I’m extremely happy,” Dunbar’s Miami-based attorney, Andrew Rier told The News Tribune Friday. “I think the Broward County prosecutors did the right thing in dropping the charges against Mr. Dunbar.
“I can’t wait to root for him on the football field this fall.”
The NFL could still discipline Dunbar as part of its own investigation under the league’s personal-conduct policy. It doesn’t need a criminal verdict or even a charge against a player to do that. But the NFL would have to uncover a load of information against Dunbar that Florida’s law-enforcement and judicial systems have not.
Suddenly the Seahawks’ secondary and defense look stronger than they did before this weekend.
Dunbar is coming off a career year with Washington, before his trade to Seattle this offseason. The Seahawks traded for him expecting him to replace Tre Flowers, who struggled at cornerback in 2019, his second year converting from college safety.
Now that he begin practicing soon, Dunbar should become the starter opposite Pro Bowl cornerback Shaquill Griffin.
Seattle’s safeties are Quandre Diggs, a Pro Bowl alternate last season after his trade from Detroit in October, and All-Pro Jamal Adams. Seattle traded two first-round picks and veteran starter Bradley McDougald to the New York Jets to acquire Adams, 24, last month.
The 6-foot-3 Flowers could become an option as a bigger, rangier nickel defense back inside against taller receivers in a three-cornerback arrangement, depending on matchups this season.
Dunbar and Griffin are entering the final seasons of their contracts.
