The Seattle Seahawks could be changing out players along the defensive line this offseason. Leonard Williams and Byron Murphy II are going to be around in 2025, but the rest is a mystery. Jarran Reed and Johnathan Hankins are free agents. Roy Robertson-Harris will likely be. Seattle needs to find replacements for one or three of them.
One player who could be a good fit for the Seahawks is Dallas Cowboys unrestricted free agent defensive end Chauncey Golston. He isn't the biggest end in the league at 6'5" and nearly 270 pounds, but he is versatile. He is also an unrestricted free agent who hasn't seen a ton of snaps in any season but 2024.
In his first three years in the league, including working with current Seahawks defensive coordinator Aden Durde in Dallas from 2021 through 2023, Golston did not get more than 41 percent of the snaps in any year. In 2024, that changed. His snap count jumped to 72 percent, and his production jumped along with it.
Cowboys' Chauncey Golston would be a great fit in the Seattle Seahawks' scheme
In 2024, Golston had a bunch of career highs. That includes 5.5 sacks, five tackles for loss, eight quarterback hits, and 30 run stuffs. Those are certainly not Pro Bowl numbers, but Seattle does not need to try to sign a Pro Bowler along its defensive line. The team already has Williams, and Murphy should be expected to make a leap in production in his second season.
Sure, bringing Jarran Reed back would be wonderfully nice as he provides interior quarterback pressure that would be missed if he does not return. Reed might not be the best run-stopper ever, but few DTs can get to the quarterback the way he can.
Let's assume Seattle makes re-signing Reed a priority, adding him back to a defensive line that includes Williams and Murphy. Depth is key along the D-line, as keeping players fresh obviously makes a defense better. Golston could rotate on the outside in a 3-4 defense, but he also has the ability to slide inside of obvious passing downs.
Golston does need to be a better tackler, though. He has missed at least 13.8 percent of his tackle attempts in three of his four years. That is quite poor for an interior defensive lineman.
Still, he does offer the kind of versatility that would work well in a Mike Macdonald system. His addition would allow Macdonald to disguise pre-snap alignments even better. As Aden Durde would know Golston's strengths and weaknesses, a move from the Cowboys to the Seahawks for the defensive end would appear to be a natural move.
