Report: Seahawks to release Carlos Dunlap

It’s been a busy week for the Seattle Seahawks, in particular on the defensive side of the ball where they have made several moves. The moves have included retaining their own free agents, adding outside free agents and releasing Benson Mayowa. Late Friday, however, the Hawks made a move to release a second free agent signed just a year ago.

Carlos Dunlap, of course, was added at the trade deadline in 2020 from the Cincinnati Bengals, and helped the defensive unit improve during the second half of the season. That led into being released last spring prior to the start of free agency, only to then return to the Seahawks on a two year contract that included three void years beyond the actual two years the contract covered.

The void years are important, as they will allow the Seahawks to push much of his dead cap hit onto the 2023 league year through the use of a post-June 1 designation.

Thus, the release of Dunlap frees up $5.1M of cap space for the 2022, with the dead money charges from his contract hitting the cap to the tune of $1.4M in 2022 and $4.2M in 2023.