Tyrel Dodson claimed off waivers

The Miami Dolphins have gotten pretty good production from a former Seattle Seahawks starting linebacker already this season, and now they're going for a second.

The team has claimed veteran Tyrel Dodson off waivers after the Seahawks let him go Monday in what was considering a very surprising move by Seattle media. A five-year veteran who spent his first four seasons with the Buffalo Bills, Dodson started Seattle's first nine games this season and led the team with 71 tackles, including two sacks.
Dodson, who played collegiately at Texas A&M, started 10 games for the Bills last season.

Listed at 6 feet, 237 pounds, Dodson is more of an athletic in the mold of Jerome Baker than a thumper. The Dolphins will have to create a roster spot for Dodson once the waiver claim is processed.

DODSON'S SEATTLE SEASON
Dodson became the starting starting linebacker the Seahawks jettisoned this season, the first being — ironically — Baker, who had signed with Seattle as a free agent in the spring.

Baker was traded to the Tennessee Titans for Ernest Jones in a linebacker swap.

Jordy Brooks, meanwhile, went from Seattle to the Dolphins in the offseason and leads the team in tackles while playing every single defensive snap so far. Dodson was close to that mark as well, having played 98 percent of Seattle's defensive snaps.

"We really appreciate T Dot," Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald said Monday. "He's worked extremely hard and rehabbed throughout the offseason here. I think it was an opportunity for us when we kind of sat and took a step back and realized where we were at, it was really the best thing for us to move forward that way. Give the other guys in the room an opportunity to step up. I hope those guys grab that opportunity by the horns and take it and run with it. And then it gives Tyrel an opportunity to find another spot somewhere else so he can finish the year strong. So that was the thought behind it."

 

Linebacker Tyrel Dodson was waived by the Seahawks on Wednesday despite being the team’s leading tackler. He is confused as to the reason.

“We’re still trying to figure that out,” Dodson said Thursday after the Dolphins claimed him off waivers, via David Furones of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. “Emotionally, I’m still going through ups and downs of it. I’m pissed off. I’m very pissed off, and I’m going to probably stay pissed off until my career ends, years down the road. I’m pissed off. That’s the word.”

Dodson said he won’t carry it as extra motivation, though.

“Nah, I’m always pissed off when I step on the field,” he said. “That’s just how I play.”

Dodson leads the Seahawks with 71 tackles and, while starting all nine games, also made five tackles for loss, two sacks and a forced fumble. He said he is a “baller” and the Seahawks “are losing a good one.”

“I think I played pretty well,” Dodson said. “Led the team in tackles. There’s a new culture over there. A lot of the guys leaned on me. I leaned on them. I was a leader.

“(One) man’s trash is another man’s treasure. It is what it is.”