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The Seattle Seahawks pretty much signed Tom Johnson to be a cheaper replacement for Sheldon Richardson, who went to the Minnesota Vikings on a much more expensive one-year deal than Johnson’s.
Guess what? The Vikings now have Richardson and they brought Tom Johnson back.
The #Seahawks won’t be able to re-sign Tom Johnson after all. The #Vikings swooped in after the veteran DT’s release became official Monday and are expected to re-sign him to a one-year deal worth up to $1.5 million, source said. “Sebastian Thunderbucket” rides again.
— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) September 18, 2018
You may recall that due to the numerous injuries the Seahawks have suffered, including to safety Delano Hill, they needed some bodies on special teams. This meant releasing their starting defensive tackle to make room for Shalom Luani. It was reported and then confirmed by Pete Carroll himself that they wanted to re-sign Tom this week, but he was the odd man out due to depth concerns.
Any guesses as to how many snaps Luani played on Monday night against the Chicago Bears?
Lost in the madness: the Seahawks cut Tom Johnson (whose 2018 salary is already guaranteed and who started for them in Week 1) to promote Shalom Luani for last night's game. Luani dressed and didn't play a single snap on defense or special teams.
— Alistair Corp (@AlistairCorp) September 18, 2018
At least Johnson won’t cost the Seahawks some salary cap money into 2019. Oh wait...
Tom Johnson will cost the Seahawks just over $1.8m towards the salary cap over the next two years, since he was cut after Week 1 rather than before.
— Alistair Corp (@AlistairCorp) September 18, 2018
$1.8m for 39 snaps and one tackle.
Congrats on the double dip, Tom!
This ranks comparatively low on my list of grievances with John Schneider and Pete Carroll, but they made a complete debacle out of this situation. They’ve made the defensive line depth worse, cost themselves some cap room, all of this for Luani to not even play at all.
If there’s any positive out of not getting Tom Johnson back, it’s that we’ll surely see more of Poona Ford on the field. He had 15 snaps to Nazair Jones’ 12. Johnson is 34 and a bit of a late bloomer, but he was a quality contributor on that Minnesota defense, and he’ll be back there once again. Hopefully Ford and Jones can step up and show themselves as the future of the Seahawks front.