Seahawks finally add a needed linebacker. Plus, their thinking at quarterback
Finally, when their followers were wondering what their plan is at linebacker — a day after they watched their Hall-of-Fame one leave, again — the Seahawks got a linebacker.
Seattle signed free-agent Tyrel Dodson from the Buffalo Bills Thursday night. The team announced the contract online.
Dodson started 15 games in four years with the Bills, 10 of them last season. Playing 51% of Buffalo’s defensive snaps as a part-time, off-the-ball linebacker against the run and pass, Dodson had 74 combined tackles, 2 1/2 sacks, eight tackles for loss, six quarterback hits, a forced fumble, a fumble recovery and two passes defensed in 2023.
Pro Football Focus gave the 25-year-old Dodson its highest grade for an NFL linebacker last season.
He was an undrafted free agent Buffalo signed in 2020 out of Texas A&M. He’s not gigantic for an NFL inside linebacker: 6 feet tall and 237 pounds.
But neither was Bobby Wagner (6 feet, 242 pounds)
The Seahawks needed a linebacker, or three.
Wagner agreed Wednesday to leave Seattle on a free-agent contract with Washington. It’s the second time in three years the six-time All-Pro middle linebacker who made the Pro Bowl with the Seahawks last season for the ninth time has left Seattle.
The team let Jordyn Brooks, its first-round draft choice in 2020, leave this week. He signed a three-year free-agent contract with the Miami Dolphins worth $26.25M million with $16 million guaranteed and an $8,375,000 signing bonus, Aaron Wilson of KPRC television in Houston reported.
“We just couldn’t move as quickly as they could,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider said of Miami and Brooks Thursday on Seattle’s KIRO-AM radio.
That contract suggests new coach Mike Macdonald didn’t see Brooks as fitting what he wants to do in the middle of his new Seahawks defense. Because Seattle could have afforded what Brooks got from Miami.
Schneider said the Seahawks prioritized bringing back defensive tackle Leonard Williams on a three-year, $64.5 million contract. They signed him to that deal on Tuesday.
The Dolphins prioritized signing Brooks.
“You have to allocate your funds in a specific manner,” Schneider said on the radio Thursday when asked about linebackers.
“We feel like we have a need at linebacker.”
It’s Dodson and perhaps, for now at least, Jon Rhattigan at that stop.
This week, the Seahawks tendered a right-of-first-refusal contract to Rhattigan, the restricted free agent from Army West Point. Rhattigan finished his third NFL season, all with Seattle, in January. Up to now, the inside linebacker has been a special-teams mainstay while Brooks and Wagner played inside linebacker on defense.
The Seahawks also figure to use one or some of their seven choices in April’s draft on an off-ball, inside linebacker.
New quarterback arrives
The Seahawks doubled their number of quarterbacks Thursday. And they followed a familiar script.
Seattle acquired Sam Howell, Washington’s starting quarterback last season, in a trade that also swapped 2024 draft picks between the teams.
The Seahawks get Howell, a fourth-round choice (No. 102) and a sixth-round pick (179). The Commanders, now coached by recently hired former Seahawks defensive coordinator Dan Quinn, get Seattle’s third-round pick (78) plus a fifth-rounder.
The swap gives starter Geno Smith a Seahawks backup similar to what Drew Lock was the last two seasons: a former NFL starter Seattle acquired in a trade while he is still under his rookie contract.
Lock agreed this week to a one-year free-agent contract with the New York Giants reportedly worth $5 million.
“They basically sold him on the opportunity to be a starter, and he felt like it was the right opportunity,” Schneider said of the Giants Thursday on KIRO.
Sam Howell’s background
Howell, 23, is younger than Michael Penix Jr., the University of Washington quarterback, and Oregon’s Bo Nix, both of whom are in this spring’s draft.
“He’s 23 years old and has 18 starts in the league already, and he’s the same age as like (Jayden) Daniels from LSU and (South Carolina QB Spencer) Rattler and Penix. And he’s a year younger than Bo Nix,” Schneider said told KIRO radio. “We were just really excited to be able to acquire him. We know he’s a serious dude and into it, he works his tail off.
“Sam’s a football player, I think that’s the best way to describe it,” Schneider said.
“He’s a quarterback, but he’s really a football player. That’s what I love about him. … He’s just a football player, and I keep going back to that, but that’s a legit thing. This past year he threw it over 40 times in eight games, he threw it 50 times in two games.
“So, you know, it was rough sledding for him this past year with the Commanders.”
Howell has this year and 2025 remaining on the contract Washington gave him when the Commanders drafted him in the fifth round in 2022 out of North Carolina.
Smith, who turns 34 in October, has two years left on his Seahawks contract.
“Geno’s the guy,” Schneider told KIRO radio, “and Sam will be backing him up.”
Howell went 4-13 last season starting for the Commanders. He threw a league-high 612 passes — with a league-high 21 interceptions.
Lock also led the NFL in interceptions the season he was a starter early in his career, in 2020, his second season after being a second-round pick by Denver. The Seahawks acquired Lock in the spring of 2022 as part of the huge trade of Russell Wilson to the Broncos.
Howell completed 63.4% of his passes last season for Washington, with 3,946 yards and 21 touchdowns. The Commanders signed veteran Marcus Mariota this week and are expected to use their second-overall pick in the draft in April on a top college quarterback.
He lit up the Seahawks’ 30th-ranked defense last season. He completed 29 of 44 throws for 312 yards and three touchdowns. Smith rallied from getting booed early in that game with 10 late points as the Seahawks came back to beat Washington 29-26 at Lumen Field in November.
Oh, yes, Schneider remembers Howell from that game in Seattle.
“The day we played here, that hit home how tough he was, how strong he was,” Schneider said Thursday on the radio. “Keeping his eyes downfield, finding the open receiver and, yeah, shoot, almost winning the game there at the end. …
“We got great reviews on him and we loved him coming out of college. We’re happy to get him in the mix.”
This story was originally published March 15, 2024 at 5:00 AM.
