New-era Seahawks continue to shed expensive veterans. Why they cut Bryan Mone
The new Seahawks era continues.
Now that general manager John Schneider has scouted the combine and negotiated with agents, now that new coach Mike Macdonald has put in his playbooks and training plans, their re-make of Seattle’s roster is fully underway.
It continued Wednesday with the Seahawks releasing veteran defensive tackle Bryan Mone. It’s another move to send away an expensive and recently injured and/or less-productive player to save money against the NFL salary cap.
The Seahawks did the same thing Tuesday. They cut three-time Pro Bowl safeties Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs plus tight end Will Dissly.
It’s so they can buy new, younger, healthier and cheaper players for Macdonald’s new defense and team.
Cutting Adams, Diggs, Dissly and Mone saves the Seahawks $30.26 million against the league’s salary cap for 2024.
That’s enough money to buy needed interior defensive and offensive linemen, plus perhaps a new safety to pair with 2023 Pro Bowl selection Julian Love in the back of Macdonald’s new Seattle defense.
Mone missed last season following reconstructive knee injury late in the 2022 season. The 28-year-old former undrafted rookie free agent from Michigan signed a two-year, $11 million contract to stay with the Seahawks before playing 13 games in that 2022 season.
Cutting Mone before the final year of his deal saves Seattle another $5.39 million against this year’s NFL salary cap. It costs them only $500,000 in so-called “dead” cap space for a player released with contract time remaining.
That’s because Mone’s base salary for 2024 was not guaranteed.
The Seahawks saved another $500,000 by releasing Mone before March 17. A clause in his contract would have given Mone that amount had he been on their roster through that date.
Schneider explained at last week’s combine in Indianapolis he and salary-cap executive Matt Thomas typically put those roster-bonus clauses in their contracts for veteran players to give the team cap flexibility at the start of each league year.
The 2024 league year begins March 13. That’s the day free-agent signings officially begin.
Monday, all teams can begin negotiations with unrestricted free agents.
This story was originally published March 6, 2024 at 1:56 PM.
