TOP STORIES
Roster
Trevon Diggs Lasted Eleven Days, and That Was the Idea
Trevon Diggs signed here on August 19. He intercepted a pass in Kansas City on Friday night. He was released on Sunday afternoon. Eleven days, beginning to end, and the only surprise is that anybody was surprised.
Diggs is a vested veteran, which means he doesn’t hit waivers. He becomes a free agent immediately and can sign wherever he wants, which in practice means he can sign right back here. John Schneider told reporters the plan is to bring him back on the practice squad, and then he explained the whole operation out loud. “Having the six (potential) veterans on the practice squad has enabled us to not expose certain players to the waiver wire,” he said. “It’s a strategy for the initial 53 cut.”
That’s the trick, and it matters more here than anywhere else in the league. Seattle picks 32nd on waivers. Dead last. Every other team in football gets a look at a young player before we do, so the front office cut the guys who can’t be stolen and kept the guys who can. Eight vested veterans released, twenty-eight players waived, thirty-eight moves total. Half of those goodbyes were paperwork.
32nd
Seattle’s waiver priority — every other team in the NFL gets first look at any young player the Seahawks let go.
Schneider wasn’t cold about Diggs, either. “He came in a little bit late and he’s kind of just getting going,” he said. “He’s just getting ramped up as you saw the other night just getting his legs under him.” The man had one preseason quarter, produced a takeaway in it, and still didn’t have enough runway.
Getting released by the Seahawks on Sunday and practicing for the Seahawks on Wednesday is not a contradiction. It’s a filing system. Practice squads can be assembled starting today, and the roster you saw last night is not the roster that plays New England.
“
Half of those goodbyes were paperwork.
SOURCES →
Injury
Seattle Kept Three Safeties. Nick Emmanwori Is Still ‘Iffy.’
Keep Reading ↓
Which would be fine, except ESPN’s Brady Henderson reports Emmanwori is “iffy” for Week 1. He had arthroscopic surgery on his right ankle in July, passed his physical weeks ago, and still hasn’t practiced. Henderson flagged Bell’s release as the genuinely surprising one, and you can see why: Bell was the guy taking first-team reps while Emmanwori rehabbed.
Seattle’s own site put it plainly, noting the team looks light at safety by the numbers while pointing to the practice squad as the answer. Bell and Thomas II are vested vets who don’t need to clear waivers and can be elevated on game day. So the safety room isn’t three deep. It’s three deep on paper and five deep in the parking lot.
“
The safety room isn’t three deep. It’s three deep on paper and five deep in the parking lot.
Bud Clark broke his ankle on one preseason snap and went to IR. Emmanwori can’t get on the field. The one position group Seattle spent all camp sorting out is the one it’s walking into the banner game holding its breath about.
SOURCES →
AROUND THE COOP
Around the Coop
Seattle sent a 2027 sixth-round pick to the Chargers for undrafted rookie cornerback Avery Smith, a four-year Toledo player who spent camp breaking up passes in Los Angeles. When you pick last on waivers, the only way to get a guy you like is to buy him before the line forms. Yahoo Sports
Nick Vannett caught Seattle’s only touchdown of the preseason finale on Friday and was among the vested veterans whose contracts were terminated Sunday. Nine uniforms into a career, he knows exactly what a four-yard grab in a 9-9 tie is worth. Roughly forty-eight hours. NBC Sports
Zach Charbonnet stayed on the physically unable to perform list through cutdown, which under league rules costs him a minimum of four games. Eight months since the ACL tear, and the calendar finally stopped negotiating. Yahoo Sports
Special teams gunner Irv Charles went on injured reserve with a designation to return as part of Seattle’s 38 moves. Traded for in the spring, hurt before the opener. The special teams depth chart has been a revolving door since May. Seattle Sports
Three of Seattle’s eight draft picks made the initial 53: Jadarian Price, Julian Neal, and Beau Stephens, with Bud Clark on IR. For a class that was supposed to restock a championship roster, that’s a thin morning. Ask again in December. Seahawks.com
NFC WEST SCHADENFREUDE REPORT
RAMS
Aaron Donald is unretired. The Rams announced Sunday that the three-time Defensive Player of the Year is coming back at 35 on a one-year deal worth at least $20 million, lining up next to Myles Garrett. Two and a half years off, and he walks straight into the best defensive line in football. We have to play them twice, including Christmas Day, and one of those games now involves the guy who spent a decade living in NFC West backfields. Nobody in Los Angeles is pretending this is anything other than what it is.
CARDINALS
Arizona released BJ Ojulari, its 2023 second-round pick, who never got right after a training camp knee injury in 2024. They also put James Conner on injured reserve, costing them their veteran running back for at least four games. Cutting a second-rounder loose before he turns 25 is the kind of thing that happens when three straight drafts don’t stick to the wall.
SEACHICKENS TRIVIA
This 6-foot-7 tight end signed with Seattle as an undrafted free agent out of Maryland in 1981 after playing quarterback in college, spent eight seasons here before a detour and a two-year return, and later became head coach of the Minnesota Vikings. Who is he?
Tap to Reveal the Answer
Mike Tice. He finished his Seahawks career with 92 catches, 766 yards and nine touchdowns, and was Seattle’s Walter Payton Man of the Year nominee three years running starting in 1985.
THE GOLDEN EGG
🏆
Four years of credited service and you stop being waiver-wire property. Cut a vested veteran and he doesn’t go on the wire for thirty-one other teams to pick over. He becomes a free agent, walks out the door, and is legally allowed to walk right back in.
John Schneider spent Sunday afternoon using that rule like a crowbar. Eight veterans released, most of them expected back on the practice squad within days, and a bunch of younger players protected from a waiver process where Seattle sits dead last in line. Bell, Thomas II, Vannett, Hart, Igbinoghene, Velus Jones, Cody White, Diggs — that’s not a purge, that’s a holding pattern with a legal basis.
Nobody drafted it to be clever. It exists so veterans aren’t stuck being claimed by whoever happens to be worst. But a clause written to give players freedom has become the front office’s favorite tool for keeping everybody exactly where they were. The Golden Egg goes to a paragraph of labor law that got eight guys cut and probably not one of them gone.
8
Vested Vets Released
28
Players Waived
32nd
Waiver Priority
Got a Question? Ask It.
The mailbag runs on whatever you send. Roster math, salary cap grievances, unresolved anger about a 2014 play call — all of it is fair. Send it in and sign it with a name and a neighborhood. The dumber the alias, the better your odds.
Practice squads form today. Watch who comes back through the door. — The Rooster