Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider provided some insight into this week’s release of veteran defensive tackle Al Woods during his weekly radio show on Seattle Sports 710 am.
“Al’s situation was really cash and cap,” Schneider said, simply. “Everybody has a cash budget in the NFL that you need to work within, and every team is probably slightly different. Although it may show if you go to like websites or whatever and say, ‘Hey, where are the Seahawks with their salary cap?’ There’s a lot of budgeted items that fall into that as well when you talk about incentives, premium roster bonuses, injuries.”
Woods isn’t the only defensive lineman from last season Seattle parted ways with this year. The Seahawks also cut Quinton Jefferson and Shelby Harris, allowed L.J. Collier to join the rival Cardinals and have yet to re-sign Poona Ford.
Still, there remains a chance Woods could return to the Seahawks for his fourth stint in Seattle.
“So there’s a ton of different accounting mechanisms that go into this thing, and we just felt that at this time while we wouldn’t shut the door on Al coming back, we needed to create some space to try to get something done,” Schneider continued. “We’re still working through some of those issues in how we can use that cap room and the cash effectively.”
Schneider and Co. did manage a huge get during the first wave of free agency, securing former Bronco Dre’Mont Jones on a three-year deal and bringing back a familiar face in Jarran Reed. Perhaps the next reunion could be with Woods for the right price.
“We were aggressive, so you have to balance yourself out,” Schneider explained. “And Al’s an amazing person, amazing player, great leader. Those calls are not fun. Those are the tough decisions that we have to make in order to just keep moving this thing forward.
“And like I said, both (Pete Carroll) and I spoke with Al and we won’t shut the door on his return.”