The Seahawks cut punter Jon Ryan on Monday after 10 years of Ryan punting for the team. Ryan, who served two years of his four-year, $10 million contract, took issue with the Seahawks moving up to draft a punter in the draft this year. General manager John Schneider, however, has apparently seen enough to move on from a decade-long era in Seahawks special teams.
Ryan, who leads the Seahawks franchise in close to every punting category, bade farewell to the team in a tweet Monday.
When the Seahawks moved up to draft Michael Dickson in the fifth round, the writing was on the wall for Ryan. After Dickson was drafted, he said that "this is the business. If all the players got to pick who was on the team every year, we'd still have the Super Bowl team from five years ago."
However, it didn't mean he approved of the move.
"If you let me, I'm going to compete my ass off, harder than you've ever seen," he told Schneider at the time. "I love you. I have so much respect for you. But one way or the other, I'm going to make you look really dumb."
It only took two preseason games for Schneider to decide that Ryan would have to make him look dumb elsewhere.
There are always teams in the market for a better punter, so Ryan, 36, might have another shot left in him. But the Seahawks felt it was time to move on, so Ryan must now do the same.