Seahawks add veteran defensive back K’Von Wallace, tackle Johnathan Hankins
Seattle Times sports staff
SEATTLE – The Seahawks entered the free-agent signing period with big holes to fill in their defensive backfield after releasing Quandre Diggs and Jamal Adams on March 5.
Tuesday, the Seahawks appeared to take the last step – for now, anyway – toward filing them, agreeing to a one-year deal with K’Von Wallace, who started 12 games last year splitting time with Arizona and Tennessee.
They also filled out their defensive line, reaching agreement with veteran Johnathan Hankins. The 6-foot-3, 320-pound Hankins, 31, started 12 games last year with the Dallas Cowboys.
A league source confirmed the expected signings of both players to The Seattle Times. Wallace also appeared to, as well, taking to the social-media platform X to state simply “12s’!!!!!”
Details of the contracts were not available. Wallace’s agreement came after he visited Seattle last Thursday.
Wallace will join a Seahawks safety corps that also includes returner Julian Love and veteran free agent Rayshawn Jenkins, most recently of Jacksonville, who signed last week.
Between those three, they have three safeties on their roster who started a combined 41 games last season.
That likely means that any door that may have still been open for the return of either Diggs or Adams may be closed.
There has been no indication that either would return, but the team’s president of football operations, John Schneider, said on an appearance on Seattle Sports 710 the week that each was released along with tight end Will Dissly that, “we haven’t shut the door on any of them to come back.”
There doesn’t appear the need now for either of the safeties, who each remain unsigned. Dissly has since signed with the Chargers.
Wallace was a fourth-round pick out of Clemson, where he was part of the 2018 national title team, by the Philadelphia Eagles in 2020. He spent three seasons there before splitting last year between Cardinals and the Titans.
Wallace was waived by the Cardinals after starting five games last season and was picked up by the Titans, where he started seven more (though he missed a Christmas Eve game against the Seahawks because of a quad injury). He has 110 career tackles and one interception.
Wallace played 807 snaps last season in 17 games with Arizona and Tennessee. He split his time fairly equally between free and strong safety, playing 349 snaps at free safety and 326 in the box, according to Pro Football Focus.
He saw most of his time with the Titans at free safety, playing 36 or more snaps in the last six games he played last season lined up deep, filling in for injured veteran Amani Hooker.
He appeared to perform well in that role earning an above average coverage grade of 77.9 from PFF during his time with the Titans, and allowing just 7.5 yards per reception.
Hankins entered the league as the 49th-overall pick in 2013 by the Giants out of Ohio State, where he was a first-team All-American in 2012.
He spent four years with the Giants, one with the Colts and four with the Raiders before being traded to Dallas at the trade deadline in 2022.
Hankins has 134 starts and 152 games played.
He was coached during his time in Dallas by Aden Durde, who was the Cowboys’ defensive-line coach the last three seasons and is now Seattle’s defensive coordinator under new head coach Mike Macdonald.
The Seahawks list Jarran Reed, Cameron Young and Matt Gotel as its three nose tackles. They cut Bryan Mone, who missed last season while still recovering from a knee injury, earlier this month.
Reed was their primary starter at nose tackle last season but often plays a more traditional defensive-tackle role. And they will surely look for ways to use Reed and Hankins together, or in a rotation, with Young – a fourth-round pick last year out of Mississippi State – in a reserve/rotational role.