Getty The Seattle Seahawks are moving on from safety Ryan Neal.
The Seattle Seahawks are moving on from one of their key starters from last season.
According to Field Yates of ESPN, the Seahawks are withdrawing their restricted free agent tender offer to safety Ryan Neal. The decision means the 27-year-old will now become a free agent.
“The Seahawks have withdrawn the restricted free agent tender from S Ryan Neal, making him a free agent and eligible to sign with any team,” said Yates on Friday, March 31. “He stepped up for the team with a career season in 2022, posting 66 tackles and 8 passes defensed.”
Why the Seahawks Are Withdrawing Offer to Ryan Neal
Neal’s tender was worth $2.6 million. Michael-Shawn Dugar of The Athletic explains that while Neal’s number isn’t high, the fact that Seattle has current contract commitments to fellow safeties Jamal Adams, Quandre Diggs and Julian Love is what makes Neal expendable.
“Ryan Neal’s tender was worth $2.6M,,” said Dugar. “That’s a workable number but not as much when Jamal, Quandre and Julian are accounting for more than $40M this year. Ryan’s a starting-caliber safety. Be interested to see what happens next.”
It’s worth noting that the Seahawks extended their offer to Neal prior to signing Love in free agency. Seattle signed Love to a two-year, $12 million three days after Seattle tendered Neal as a restricted free agent.
Neal is coming off of a breakout campaign that saw him post 66 tackles and one sack in 10 starts and 14 games. As Sam Robinson of Pro Football Rumors points out, Neal ranked as one of the top safeties in the NFL last season, according to Pro Football Focus.
“Neal will almost certainly generate immediate interest on the open market,” Robinson says. “Pro Football Focus graded his 2022 work quite well, slotting the 6-foot-3 cover man as the No. 4 overall safety last season. Neal, 27, made 66 tackles (four for loss), deflected eight passes an intercepted another during a season in which the Seahawks played 16 games without Adams. PFF graded Neal as the No. 3 overall safety in coverage last season, which represented by far his most favorable marks from the advanced metrics site.”
Seahawks Could Add More D-Linemen After Ryan Neal Move
Neal originally latched on with the Seahawks’ practice squad during the 2019 season before eventually being promoted to the active roster by the end of the season. During his four seasons in Seattle, Neal posted 160 tackles and three interceptions in 19 starts and 47 appearances.
As Brady Henderson of ESPN reports, the Seahawks will now likely make a move to beef up its defensive line, which was a weak area of the team last season.
“My read: This is combination of the Seahawks feeling really good about their safety depth and wanting to add more D-linemen but being tight against the cap,” Henderson said on Friday, March 31. “They’ll free up the $2.627M that Neal was counting on the cap and could still bring him back depending on his market.”
As arguably the top safety on the free agency market at the current moment, Neal should have little trouble finding his next team.
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