> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Taking Path Less Traveled, D’Anthony Bell ‘Really Comfortable’ With Seahawks - URL: https://www.emeraldcityspectrum.com/taking-path-less-traveled-danthony-bell-comfortable-seattle-seahawks/ - Published: 2025-08-05T20:01:51.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-08T06:18:54.000Z - Author: Corbin Smith - Tags: Features, Seahawks, D'Anthony Bell ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1d/f2/1df2f77b-83dd-4bc0-a6d2-6d1bb5df89a3/content/images/2026/10/img_5265-5b1-5d-jpg-format-original.jpg) RENTON, Wash. - Stating the obvious, college football players who star on Saturdays at the Division II level or lower face tremendous obstacles when it comes to being noticed by NFL teams. For one, though teams now have more access than ever to smaller programs as a rare positive coming out of the COVID-19 pandemic with the emergence of virtual meetings and easier access to All-22 film, few scouts will be descending upon a tiny Division II or Division III campus in person during the fall. Secondly, while there have been exceptions, it’s rare to see prospects from those levels re receive a nibble from the Senior Bowl or East/West Shrine Bowl to present a premium opportunity to show what they can do against top competition from the FBS ranks. However, what used to be an extremely rare occurrence has become a bit more common in the NFL. If you have talent, the league will find you. Look no further than the Seattle Seahawks current roster, as the franchise has invested two draft picks in the past four seasons on Division II players in receiver Dareke Young and tackle Mike Jerrell. In addition, at the start of free agency in March, they moved quickly to sign fourth-year safety D’Anthony Bell, who starred at Division II West Florida before playing the past three seasons with the Cleveland Browns. Hitting the market after Cleveland opted not to tender him as a restricted free agent this spring, Bell reconnected with one of his former coaches in Jeff Howard, who previously coached him at the East/West Shrine Bowl as well as with the Browns during his rookie season in 2022\. That familiarity led to the veteran safety signing a two-year deal with the Seahawks and helped ease his transition to a new team. “It's been nice. I already knew a couple of guys on the team, so I felt welcome,” Bell said prior to Seattle’s ninth training camp practice. “My first time coming, I just felt welcome. So all the guys been making me feel very comfortable here. I already knew Jeff \[Howard\] when I came, so I've been really comfortable here.” Before ever stepping foot on an NFL practice field or signing his first free agent deal with the Seahawks, Bell took a quite atypical route to the league. Coming out of Alcovy High School in Georgia, he initially enrolled at Albany State, a Division II program. But after redshirting his lone season at the school, he transferred to Iowa Central Community College, recording 57 tackles and a sack in 11 games. Choosing to step away from the gridiron for a year, Bell didn’t play college football in 2017, choosing to take on a construction job working for his father to make the money needed to afford his tuition, as junior colleges don’t offer scholarships. Hauling wheelbarrows full of rocks and doing difficult cement work paved the way for his return to the sport in 2018, as he enrolled at Butler Community College and earned Second-Team All-Jayhawk Conference honors after recording 57 tackles and three interceptions. The following year, he performed at a high level again with 77 tackles and two interceptions. All of those difficult days manning the wheelbarrow paid dividends for Bell, who transferred to West Florida with a scholarship in hand after the 2019 season. Unfortunately, he didn’t get to play a single snap again in 2020 due to the pandemic, which canceled the Division II season. But considering everything he had overcome, Bell wasn’t rattled by this latest adversity, coming back with a vengeance in 2021\. Immediately emerging as one of the best players in Division II for the Argonauts, he racked up 60 tackles, two interceptions, including one returned for a touchdown, and a tackle for loss, drawing significant attention from NFL teams. In fact, per the player, 30 out of the 32 teams sent representatives to Pensacola during his lone season with the program. “I think I did something pretty well that season,” Bell laughed. “But you know, it's definitely difficult coming from a smaller school. The main part about it was getting into bowl games. That's what helped me a lot. Yeah. Being into those bowl games, you get to compete against these other guys that scouts are seeing and could possibly eye above you in the draft or in free agency being picked up. So being able to compete against those guys, show that you're available, that you can be trustworthy, and that you can compete \[is key\].” Ultimately, Bell went undrafted in the 2022 NFL Draft, but the Browns signed him as a priority free agent. Seizing his opportunity, he impressed throughout OTAs into training camp and the preseason, earning a spot on the 53-man roster and becoming the first player in West Florida history to make an NFL roster. After mostly playing special teams as a rookie, injuries thrust him into action on defense in 2023 and he cashed in, intercepting two passes and producing three pass breakups while allowing a 39.8 passer rating in coverage. Last season, Bell only played 92 defensive snaps with a healthier defensive backfield ahead of him on the depth chart, limiting his chances. But he continued to star on special teams, tallying 11 combined tackles on kick and punt coverage, and those skills in the third phase of the game coupled with his stellar play in limited opportunities on defense stood out to the Seahawks as they courted him in free agency. Excited to reunite with Howard and play for a defensive-minded coach in Mike Macdonald, Bell picked Seattle over a couple of other interested teams, fired up for the opportunity to play in a demanding scheme that asks a ton out of safeties. Having played 90 or more snaps as a free safety, strong safety in the box, and in the slot in his career, he felt his versatility fit in perfectly as part of a group already featuring starters Julian Love and Coby Bryant. In April, the unit was further bolstered by the selection of second-round pick Nick Emmanwori. “I just love that he \[Macdonald\] puts a lot of the load on the safeties, you know what I'm saying?” Bell explained. “A lot of the safeties have to know a lot of stuff and give the calls to a lot of the guys. So just having the responsibility of knowing everybody else's job helps you know how to do your job even better. So just having the load on all the safeties, it just helps us out.” Now midway through his first camp as a Seahawk, Bell has loved his experience in the Pacific Northwest thus far, learning all he can from the likes of Love and Bryant while offering his own advice to Emmanwori, who has been soaking up information like a sponge on and off the field. The group as a whole has been “feeding off each other,” making the most of time on the practice field and in the film room to bring out the best in one another. While Emmanwori’s arrival has cut into Bell’s reps with the first-team defense since returning from summer break, the veteran has enjoyed a strong camp, regularly getting his hands on the football in coverage for interceptions and pass breakups and showing up as a willing and capable run defender playing near the line of scrimmage once the pads came out. In addition to being a core special teams player who likely will play on most - if not all - of the team’s units, Bell anticipates the Seahawks will mix him in as a sub-package defender with Macdonald having a history of deploying three and even four-safety looks in dime and bandit groupings. Paired up with Love, Bryant, and Emmanwori, the defensive maestro will have no shortage of options with a quartet of interchangeable chess pieces to move around out of those looks, which will undoubtedly make life tough on opposing offenses without a clue where everyone is truly lined up in a position-less scheme. From Bell’s perspective, as Seattle continues to evolve and dig deeper into Macdonald’s playbook, he’s most excited to see how that flexibility pays off in the latter stages of the season, which could be a difference maker for an already talented defense with an NFC West title and potentially more in sight. Taking a road few have traveled to get to the league, he can’t wait to leave his mark on that success. “I think it'll make it difficult for a lot of teams because all of us can line up anywhere. Everybody got different versatilities of being in many different spots. So it'll help us down the stretch when we get into those deeper games later on in the season where we're able to do multiple jobs.”