Seahawks release 27-year-old TE

The Seahawks’ new coaching staff is parting ways with a few Pete Carroll-era cogs Tuesday. After the team released its two highly paid safeties — Jamal Adams and Quandre Diggs — word emerged the club is also moving on from one of its tight ends.

Will Dissly will be released as well, Tom Pelissero of NFL.com tweets. The move will save the Seahawks $6.97M in cap space. Signed to a three-year, $24M deal in 2022, Dissly was due to make $6.49M in base salary next season.

Seattle has effectively cleared the decks at tight end. With Dissly gone, the team has to fill out this position group. Noah Fant and Colby Parkinson are days away from free agency; both players played out their rookie contracts in 2023.

Dissly played out his rookie deal in Seattle back in 2021, but despite a pattern of injury trouble during that time, the Seahawks still re-signed him in March 2022. Dissly, 27, seemed a bit surprised when he received that offer — which came as the Broncos (who had just acquired ex-Dissly QB Russell Wilson) pursued him as well — but he rewarded the Seahawks by avoiding major injuries on his second contract.

Valuing Dissly’s blocking, the Seahawks gave him $10.34M fully guaranteed. He ended up receiving more than that on this contract, playing two years on the pact. But Mike Macdonald and OC Ryan Grubb are moving in a different direction. While Dissly played at the University of Washington, his college run came well before Grubb became the Huskies’ OC.

Fant led the way in terms of TE production over the past two seasons in Seattle, but Dissly made an auxiliary contribution to Geno Smith‘s Comeback Player of the Year award by catching 34 passes for 349 yards and three touchdowns in 2022. He finished that season on IR but returned to play 16 games in 2023. Last season, Dissly’s numbers dropped; he totaled 17 receptions for 172 yards. Dissly, who missed 24 games over his first four seasons, only missed three contests over the past two. Dissly also should command some interest on the open market; Pro Football Focus graded him as the NFL’s third-best run-blocking tight end last season.