RENTON — When the Seahawks re-signed tight end Will Dissly to a three-year contract worth up to $24 million an hour or so before the free-agent signing period began last March, many around the league were surprised.
They wondered why the Seahawks would want to pay so much for a player without eye-catching receiving numbers, especially after just acquiring Noah Fant as part of the Russell Wilson trade.
“This deal was truly shocking,” ESPN national writer Jeremy Fowler said at the time. “Even the player was shocked.”
Wrote CBSSports.com in a story calling it the fifth-worst signing of free agency: “Congrats to Dissly for fattening his pocketbook, but this is likely an overpay by Seattle.”
What Dissly did Sunday has the Seahawks thinking they’ve already been re-paid in full.
With special-teams captain Nick Bellore out for the game with a concussion, Dissly had to take over some of his snaps, including playing on the punt cover team. He had 15 special teams snaps, including covering on six punts. Bellore practiced fully on Wednesday and is expected back for Sunday’s game at Arizona.
Dissly worked on that team earlier in his career, with special-teams roles generally delegated to young players. He hadn’t done it this year until Bellore got hurt against the Chargers.
“Sometimes the starters got to jump in there to do something to come through, and Will did exactly that,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said.
Well enough to earn the NFC’s Special Teams Player of the Week for forcing one fumble by New York returner Richie James that led to a field goal and recovering another forced by Travis Homer that led to the clinching touchdown in the 27-13 win.
“Those two plays were really huge plays in the game, and it would have been a much more difficult day without that,” Carroll said.
Maybe even as big as what the plays meant to the game is the statement Dissly sent to the rest of the team by willingly taking on a grunt-work, unglamorous job when asked.
Coaches and teammates cited Dissly’s effort as emblematic of an unselfish and team-first attitude they say has spread throughout the locker room as the Seahawks have won their last three games.
“I think that is the epitome of this team,” defensive lineman Shelby Harris said. “The selflessness of the team of your starting tight end being like ‘I’m going to go out there and run down on punt. I can go help. I can go make plays.’ And that’s this team.”
Dissly, who played defensive end early in his career at UW, didn’t see what all the fuss was about.
“I think the easiest answer is I just love playing ball. I love helping our team win,” Dissly said of his reaction to being asked to cover punts this week. “So they need me to go and fill in (with Bellore out); I’m ready to go do that.”
Besides, Dissly said, “they should have given (the award) to Homer. He hit the guy harder than I did.”
No matter who deserved it, the bigger picture is that the hardware is piling up for the Seahawks who stand as one of the biggest surprises in the NFL as the season hits the halfway point. Linebacker Uchenna Nwosu, quarterback Geno Smith and cornerback Tariq Woolen have also won Player of the Week awards this year.
“I think our team has a mentality that if it needs to be done, why not me do it?” Dissly said. “So I think that’s really cool when you have a bunch of guys who are willing to go compete and do the little things to get wins and it’s showing. We’re playing really good ball right now.”
The Seahawks surely feel they are getting their money’s worth from Dissly at his “real job” of tight end.
Dissly is fourth on the team in receptions with 21, on pace for a career-high 45 (his previous best is 24 in 2020), and is tied for the team lead in touchdowns with three.
Dissly had another of Sunday’s bigger plays with a 3-yard gain on a shovel pass that converted a fourth-and-2 that set up the Seahawks’ first touchdown.
His 333 snaps are 16th most among tight ends, and the most for the Seahawks, who have increasingly used two- and three-tight end formations of late (or what are commonly called 12 and 13 personnel, the latter number denoting the number of tight ends on the field).
That includes 158 snaps as a run blocker, eighth most for any tight end in the NFL, for a Seahawks team averaging 5.3 per carry, third best in the NFL.
To cite one more number, Dissly has a season grade from Pro Football Focus of 72.1, seventh best among all tight ends.
All from a player whose contract, while seemingly eye-popping, ranks 18th among all tight ends in average money per year and that is also structured in a way that the Seahawks could get out of it before the final year in 2024 if they wanted, when Dissly has a non-guaranteed base salary of $6.49 million.
In other words, those criticizing the deal may soon find themselves reversing course, if they haven’t already, which also makes Dissly a fitting symbol for a Seahawks team that so far has also defied the skeptics.
“He’s everything,” Carroll said. “He’s a total team guy.”
The Seahawks had to work fast to keep Dissly away from a couple other teams who were interested, most notably Denver, which had just lost Fant when it acquired Wilson. Wilson undoubtedly was lobbying for Dissly, who consistently attended offseason workouts with Wilson the last few years.
Dissly said all things being equal, he didn’t want to leave, in part because he considered the Seahawks as a second home based on his time with the Seahawks and at UW, and that it’s close to his family home in Bozeman, Montana.
“I think people know now that Denver was in the mix,” he said. “… That was another situation where it’s close to my family, it’s a good city. … But I was really excited about where this team is headed, the future of this organization. I’m really grateful the way it worked out.”