by Irish Greg 2.0 » Mon Dec 18, 2017 11:49 am
Regarding draft picks we gave up... this front office has a different view on it than most fans. We look at it like, "we gave up picks." They look at it like, "we were not going to find a Duane Brown caliber or Sheldon Richardson caliber player in the draft at those spots."
In essence, we drafted Duane Brown in the 3rd round in the 2018 draft and we drafted Sheldon Richardson in the 2nd round of the 2018 draft. With the Lane trade snafu, we then had to sweeten the deal and cough up our 2019 2nd round pick as well. But, hard to argue with the value.
The problem is, this franchise does not have a good track record with trades. Lynch is the obvious exception...but, rarely do trades pan out the way we hope they will. Harvin, Graham, even going back to Deion Branch - all examples. They felt that Brown would make the O line better, and he has - but not to the level they expected. They felt Richardson would create an unblockable front 4, but it hasn't worked that way. The huge problem with evaluating Sheldon right now is he was envisioned to fit WITH Avril, Bennett, and Clark around him. He lost Avril right away, Bennett is 75% with his foot, and Clark is inconsistent. They are not seeing the full concept of how Richardson was supposed to fit in.
He will command $10 million plus on the market. It says a lot to me that they have not signed him to a deal. If he gets to free agency, he is gone IMO.
PS We actually have 3 7th rounders...we got one from Philly for Matt Tobin, one from the Jets for Jermaine Kearse, and one from the Vikings for Tramaine Brock (even though he was only on the team for like 40 minutes).
I think we will see a lot of changes. They will not re-sign Graham, Paul Richardson, Lacy, Rawls, Aboushi, Garvin, Walsh, or Joeckel. Cliff and Kam will retire, I think - neck and nerve issues are not something you mess around with. I think they will try and trade Bennett, who is more interested in social causes and his brand than he is in football now - but the dead cap with that move is substantial. The Bennett and Kam extensions look pretty bad at this point. I don't begrudge their loyalty, however.
I think they move on from Jon Ryan, the longest tenured Seahawk. He is expensive and can be replaced, and has really fallen off this season. He is also 37.
I think they would like to keep McDougald, but he may get a lot more elsewhere.
They need to build the offense around Russell Wilson and the defense around Bobby Wagner. I would also not be shocked to see Sherman moved, but that is less likely with him coming off his injury and being owed a lot of money. Regardless, 2018 is probably his last season in Seattle.
On the plus side, we have Chris Carson coming back and Carson + Davis isn't a bad running back group, plus a young buck in the draft.
It is going to be an interesting off-season at VMAC.