The Seattle Seahawks’ answer at edge rusher is reportedly 12th-year NFL veteran Dante Fowler Jr., who has agreed with Seattle on a one-year contract, per NFL Network insider Tom Pelissero.
Seahawks sign veteran edge rusher Dante Fowler Jr., per report
Fowler would move into the spot vacated by Boye Mafe, who left the Super Bowl champions for the Cincinnati Bengals in free agency earlier this year. In Seattle’s pass rush rotation, the 6-foot-3, 261-pound Fowler joins Derick Hall (6-3, 260), Uchenna Nwosu (6-2, 265) and his former Dallas Cowboys teammate DeMarcus Lawrence (6-3, 254).
Shortly after the news of Fowler joining the Seahawks broke, longtime FOX football analyst and former NFL quarterback Brock Huard shared on Seattle Sports’ Brock and Salk how he sees Fowler fitting into head coach Mike Macdonald’s defense.
“There’s kind of a good mix of, I think, DeMarcus Lawrence and Uchenna Nwosu. Kind of in between those two,” Huard said of Fowler. “… Even though the numbers – height, weight – are probably very similar, DeMarcus just feels enormous. He just feels like a monster. His arms are so long. And Uchenna doesn’t feel like as long as that, right? But he’s super, super strong. And I think Fowler at his best is kind of a cross between those two guys.”
DANTE FOWLER JR. PICK-6!
📺: #CARvsWAS on CBS/Paramount+
📱: https://t.co/waVpO8ZBqG pic.twitter.com/JTuzB4p55Q
— NFL (@NFL) October 20, 2024
The 31-year-old Fowler has twice had double-digit sacks in a season, including in 2024 playing under Washington Commanders head coach Dan Quinn, a former Seahawks defensive coordinator who previously coached Fowler when he was Falcons head coach in 2020 and Cowboys DC in ’22 and ’23.
Last year in Fowler’s return to Dallas, he had just three sacks. However, he had a career-high 14.1% pass-rush win rate per Per Pro Football Focus, which was 30th among the 93 edge defenders who had at least 200 pass-rush snaps in the league.
Huard related that to a term that appears to be a mantra for the Seahawks: process over results.
“Yeah, the result’s just three sacks… even though he had double-digits the year before, playing for the guy that he’s played a lot of football for in Dan Quinn. But the actual process, when you study it, the actual twitch, the actual explosion – that’s kind of what you want, right?”
Catch Brock and Salk from 6-10 a.m. weekdays on Seattle Sports.
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