AP

Wide receiver Sidney Rice didn’t contribute much to the Seahawks’ run to the championship last season and it appears he won’t contribute anything to their title defense in 2014.

Adam Schefter of ESPN reports that the Seahawks will release Rice in the near future. The writing on the wall for this move started long before Rice tore his ACL in October. He was moving steadily down the depth chart as the team looked to other wideouts and his contract had him set to make $8.5 million with a cap charge of $9.7 million.

Releasing Rice will clear over $7 million in cap space for the Seahawks to use to bolster the team in other areas. Rice had a total of 97 catches and 12 touchdowns over 33 games for Seattle over the last three seasons.

With Rice gone and Golden Tate headed for free agency, the Seahawks have Percy Harvin and Jermaine Kearse as their top receivers currently under contract. Doug Baldwin is set to be a restricted free agent and should be back as well.