Mike Macdonald fuels speculation over Seahawks veteran’s abrupt exit

We all thought we knew why this player is no longer a member of the Seattle Seahawks. It appears Mike Macdonald had his own reasons for their departure.

Typically, when a player is traded or released, it's due to one of two issues. You may have a good to great player who will hit free agency soon, and they're expecting a serious pay raise, more than the Seahawks are willing to pay. Remind you of anyone, 12s?

The other reason a team may move on from a player is simply a decline in their skill level. This is often coupled with their current contract situation. There's a reason the Seahawks' second-place receiver of all time is now playing in Nashville, Tennessee.

Now, before you haul out your Jump to Conclusions mat - there's a deep cut for all you Mike Judge fans - no, Coach Macdonald was not talking about star receivers DK Metcalf or Tyler Lockett. But he was talking about a guy who used to catch passes. Just not enough.

Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald apparently throws shade at Noah Fant

Of course, I was referring to former Seattle tight end Noah Fant. He was released in a move that was only surprising in the timing. Consider these two issues. Fant had the second-highest cap hit on the team for 2025.

He also managed to pull down just one touchdown pass in 80 receptions over the past two seasons. That is the classic combination of overpaid underperformance. John Schneider must have wondered why he wasn't a guard.

I expected Fant to be traded long before the start of training camp. Clearly, the Seahawks found no takers for any potential deal. There's been some noise to the effect that Seattle disrespected him by not releasing him early in the off-season process, as they did with Dre'Mont Jones and others. I'd argue that Schneider believed that Fant had considerably more trade value than the others. He was reportedly working the phones, as the wonks say.

Since his release, we were told that Fant was let go due to his cap hit. Now here comes the intrigue. As quoted by Gregg Bell for The News Tribune, when asked why the Seahawks released Fant, Macdonald said: “We released him a few days ago. I’m not going to tell you exactly why. There are multiple reasons.” Um...what?

So according to their head coach, it wasn't just the cap hit. Nor was it that the Seahawks nabbed a player with a similar skill set, and probably better, in second-round draft Elijah Arroyo. And it apparently goes beyond that fact Seattle would have to pay him over $8 million if he were injured in camp.

I can't imagine why Mike Macdonald couldn't say any of that, as John Schneider already had. The head coach is a very smart guy. He knows that comment opened up an institutional-sized can of worms. So now it's all about, what other reason could there have been? Did Fant complain about not getting enough targets? Did he and Kubiak not connect? Did he not shower after practice?

That last is a joke; don't turn that into a Robert Pattinson meme, okay? At some point, the details will come out. For now, we wish Noah Fant the best. By the time you read this, he may have already signed with the Bengals. So, good luck, stinky.