It was the kind of move that makes you do a double-take at your phone. In November 2024, the Seattle Seahawks waived linebacker Tyrel Dodson. On the surface, it looked nonsensical. He was the team’s leading tackler. He had played roughly 98% of the defensive snaps. Usually, when a guy is that deep into the rotation and leading the stat sheet, he’s a cornerstone, not a casualty.
But football is rarely just about the box score.
If you were watching those mid-season games, you saw a defense that was leaking oil. The Seahawks were getting gashed on the ground, ranking 26th in the league against the run. Mike Macdonald, the young defensive mastermind brought in to fix the post-Pete Carroll era, wasn't seeing what he needed. The "Tyrel Dodson Seattle Seahawks" experiment wasn't failing because Dodson was a bad player—it was failing because the fit was essentially a square peg in a round hole.
The Problem with the Stats
Stats can be liars. You’ve probably seen it before: a linebacker has 10 tackles in a game, but 8 of them are five yards downfield after a running back has already moved the chains. That was the quiet frustration brewing in the Pacific Northwest. While Tyrel Dodson was racking up numbers—finishing his Seattle stint with 71 tackles, two sacks, and five tackles for loss in just nine games—the unit as a whole was struggling with "explosive runs."
Macdonald’s scheme is notoriously complex. It’s built on disguise and very specific gap integrity. If one guy is a half-step out of place, the whole thing falls apart. By the time the Seahawks reached their Week 10 bye at 4-5, Macdonald decided he’d seen enough. He didn't just want a tackler; he wanted a specific type of discipline at the second level.
"Holistically as a defense, we weren't getting it done," Macdonald told reporters at the time. "We put a lot on our linebackers... sometimes you’ve got to make these decisions and do what you feel is best for our defense to take the next step."
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It's a polite way of saying the chemistry was off.
Moving from Buffalo to the Emerald City
To understand why Seattle took the swing on Dodson in the first place, you have to look back at his 2023 season with the Buffalo Bills. He was essentially a PFF darling. He finished that year with a 90.2 grade, which is elite by any metric. When Bobby Wagner and Jordyn Brooks left Seattle in free agency, John Schneider saw Dodson as a high-upside, cost-effective replacement.
They signed him to a one-year, $4.26 million deal. It was a "prove it" contract.
Honestly, he did prove he could play. He wore the green dot. He called the plays. But being the "quarterback of the defense" in a new system is a massive ask. When the Seahawks traded Jerome Baker (the other big linebacker signing) for Ernest Jones IV in October, the writing was on the wall. They were rebuilding the plane while flying it. Dodson was moved from the middle to the weakside, and shortly after, he was just... gone.
Why the waiver wire?
People wondered why they didn't just bench him. Why cut him outright?
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Macdonald actually addressed this. He felt that keeping a veteran starter like Dodson on the bench wouldn't be fair to the player or the locker room. By waiving him, they gave him a chance to go somewhere else and actually play. It was a "best for both parties" situation, even if Dodson himself was understandably "pissed off" about the move. He felt he was a leader. The team felt they needed a different direction.
The Miami Redemption
If you thought Dodson’s career was over after the Seattle exit, you haven't been paying attention. He didn't stay on the wire for long. The Miami Dolphins snatched him up, and frankly, he made the Seahawks look a little silly for a minute.
In Week 17 of that same season, playing for Miami, Dodson went absolutely nuclear. He recorded 15 tackles and an interception against the Cleveland Browns, earning AFC Defensive Player of the Week honors. It turns out, when you put him in a system that allows him to play downhill and rely on his instincts, he’s a high-level NFL starter.
By the time the 2025 offseason rolled around, Miami knew what they had. They didn't let him walk. They signed him to a two-year, $8.25 million extension. He rewarded them with a career-high 120+ tackles in 2025.
What We Can Learn From the Dodson Era
The Tyrel Dodson Seattle Seahawks saga is a case study in NFL scheme fit. You can have a Pro Football Focus grade in the 90s and still not be the "right" guy for a specific coach.
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For the Seahawks, the move actually worked out in a weird way. After Dodson left, rookie Tyrice Knight got more snaps, and the run defense actually tightened up, allowing under 100 yards per game over the final stretch of 2024. Sometimes addition by subtraction is real, even if it hurts to lose a talented veteran.
Key Takeaways for Fans:
- Scheme Over Stars: A player’s value is entirely dependent on the system they play in.
- The Green Dot Burden: Calling plays in a Mike Macdonald defense is one of the hardest jobs in the league for a first-year player.
- Leading Tackler Isn't Everything: If a linebacker is making tackles far downfield, the defense is still losing.
If you're looking at the current Seahawks roster and wondering why things feel different, remember the 2024 mid-season purge. It was the moment Macdonald truly took ownership of the locker room, proving that no matter how many tackles you have, if you aren't playing the scheme to his standard, you won't be in Seattle for long.
Moving forward, watch how the Dolphins use Dodson in 2026. He's currently under contract with a cap hit of about $3.7 million. For a guy who can flirt with 130 tackles a season, that's a bargain. Seattle's loss was very clearly Miami's gain, but it’s a rare NFL trade (or waiver claim) where both sides can arguably say they got what they needed in the end.
Check the Dolphins' defensive rotations this Sunday—you'll see #25 right in the thick of it, probably making the same plays Seattle thought weren't quite enough.