RENTON - D’Anthony Bell didn’t just get a Super Bowl ring from the Seahawks. He got it because the people inside the building wanted to make sure he had one.
That matters here, because Bell wasn’t even on Seattle’s roster when the Seahawks finished the job in Super Bowl 60 in February. He had been claimed by the Carolina Panthers on New Year’s Day after Seattle kept trying to move him through waivers and back to the practice squad. He played the NFC wild-card game for Carolina, then watched the Seahawks keep rolling without him.
Still, when the Seahawks won it all, the locker room voted to include him.
“They reached out to my agent and said I’ll be getting a ring,” Bell said this week.
“I was super-excited about that.”
Bell’s path to that moment already had plenty of detours. He was a former Division-II player at West Florida and two junior colleges.
He spent all of 2017 out of football, working for his dad’s construction company and volunteering at his church in Georgia. And now he’s back in Seattle, back in a place where the trust runs deep.
The Seahawks made sure of that, too.
Bell asked Carolina to release him after last season because he wanted another shot with Seattle. The Seahawks signed him back in March, and now he’s in position for something bigger than the role he had a year ago. With Nick Emmanwori still sidelined after arthroscopic surgery this month, Bell has been working with the starters in training camp in Emmanwori’s “big nickel” spot.
That’s a real opportunity. It’s also a familiar one, just with more weight behind it.
Bell played 14 games last season mostly on special teams, and he got only 11% of Seattle’s defensive snaps at safety. But he still made a mark, including a blocked punt against New Orleans in October after special-teams coach Jay Harbaugh identified a weakness in the Saints’ punt protection.
He also kept getting shuffled through the waiver process as Seattle tried to preserve him on the practice squad. John Schneider and Mike Macdonald have used that roster maneuver to keep 70 players ready, 17 more than the standard 53-man group.
It worked eight times with Bell. The ninth time, Carolina got him.
Macdonald said Monday, “I remember being bummed that he wasn’t going to be here,”
Julian Love said the same feeling was shared in the locker room.
“Honestly, all of us were hurt and we’re pretty bummed that he wasn’t with us down the stretch there,” Love said this week. “It was very real.”
Bell had stayed in the Seattle-area home he used last season, so when the Seahawks won the Super Bowl in Santa Clara, California, he watched from Seattle while his old teammates finished the job. He texted with the defensive backs after the title run, and Love said Bell remained part of the group even while he was wearing another uniform.
“He was with us for most of the journey. But then for the fun parts down the stretch, he wasn’t there,” Love said.
“But he was with us in spirit.”
When the ring vote came up, Bell got the nod.
“No, they didn’t have to. They chose to,” Bell said, proudly.
Love said that was an easy call.
“Yeah, we love D-Bell. He’s real, he’s raw, and he’s authentic with who he is. He’s a true pro,” Love said.
“They ask him to do a lot. ... He’s doing everything.
He has to know every position. He’s smart enough to do that.
He’s a dog enough to do that. He’s a playmaker enough to be on the field for us.
“It was talked about, so it was cool that he still got a ring. It’s cool that he’s still really part of this thing.”
Now Bell is trying to turn that connection into a bigger role.
He turned down a Browns contract offer for 2025 because Seattle was the place he wanted to be, even though Cleveland’s deal paid more. Bell said Jeff Howard, Seattle’s safeties coach, helped shape that decision because Howard had coached him in Cleveland.
“Yeah, the Browns gave me a higher offer than coming here,” Bell says now.
At 6-foot-1 and 211 pounds, Bell has built his reputation as a hard-hitting, reliable tackler. In Seattle’s defense, he’s been lining up in a role that asks him to do plenty, especially when the Seahawks go with five- and six-defensive-back looks. Bell says the system is no longer new to him.
“You know, I was doing a little bit of all of them, safety, dime, you know, big nickel (last season),” Bell said. “So it’s not new.”
The difference now is the stage.
Through the first four practices of camp, Bell has been one of the players flashing in the backfield, getting into the starting offense’s space as a blitzer and making plays near the line of scrimmage. Macdonald said Bell’s athleticism and strength stand out, even if he isn’t built exactly like Emmanwori.
“He’s done a good job. He didn’t have many opportunities during last season, but I remember in the preseason he did a good job when he got those opportunities,” Macdonald said.
“He’s an athletic guy. He’s powerful.
He’s not as big as Nick, but he’s dang strong, too.
“And he can run. He’s good near the line of scrimmage.”
Bell says the second year in the defense has him much farther along than he was last season, and he knows the next step is earning even more trust.
“Just get better at the position,” he said. “Get better, and get more trust - as far as the teammates getting everybody to trust me more, and more opportunities to do my job the right way and learn.
“Oh, (I’m) definitely, way further. Second year in the defense, I’m way further ahead than I was before. But you know, that’s what comes to being in the defense the second year.”
For Bell, the Seahawks already gave him something rare. Now they may be giving him something even better: a real chance to matter again.
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