In the next week or two, we’re going to find out a whole lot (OK, at least a little) about the Seahawks’ offseason plans.
Today is the first day of the two-week “tag” window, which may or may not be pertinent to the Seahawks.
A lot of people expect John Schneider to franchise Sheldon Richardson. We think the transition tag would be better (unless Schneider plans to trade Sheldon). And it’s still most likely that Schneider won’t use a tag at all.
Any day now, NFL teams will begin the Purge — the annual pre-league-year dump of overpaid and/or underperforming players.
The Seahawks haven’t been a part of the Purge since 2014, when they cut Red Bryant, Sidney Rice and Chris Clemons. But they will be part of this one, expected to at least release Jeremy Lane and Cliff Avril.
And then John Schneider will play the comp game, bargain shopping among other street free agents.
In December, we suggested the concept of Seattle using the franchise tag on Sheldon Richardson in order to then possibly trade him. John Clayton and Joel Corry recently talked about the move as an option, too.
But, the more we think about it, the more the transition tag seems like the better option for John Schneider and the Seahawks.
Yeah, we know, the last time the Seahawks used the transition tag, it was a disaster. But there are no more poison pills. And Schneider obviously would be fine with losing Richardson if he did use the transition tender.
Here’s why it might be better:
Of course Richard Sherman is going to play next season. There was never any question about that. He merely confirmed it Thursday night.
There probably isn’t a question about where he will play either — not with him coming off an Achilles injury. Even he said he had no doubt he would be a Seahawk in 2018.
The Seahawks certainly will not cut him, as we said in November after he was injured. And, due to the injury, he probably won’t draw any good trade offers. So the Hawks will be content to help him rehab and prove his mettle again at age 30. And then decide whether to re-sign him in 2019.
But, worth considering: If some team were willing to offer a second-round pick or even a third, would John Schneider take it?
Continue reading Sherman will be a Seahawk in 2018, unless …
The third bird was a charm.
The Eagles managed to do what their feathered NFC friends the Falcons and Seahawks could not — finish off the Patriots in yet another high-flying Super Bowl. And now we are officially on to the NFL offseason (which has started with a bang thanks to Josh McDaniels).
The Seahawks, of course, have been finished for a month — enough time for Pete Carroll to perform a major shakeup of his staff (eight coaches gone, five arrived). Now it is John Schneider’s turn.
As former Seahawk Steve Hutchinson waits for the Hall of Fame to come knocking this weekend, it is a reminder of what the Seahawks once had — and what they need to build again.
The big question some fans have: Will John Schneider do what Tim Ruskell would not and pay an All-Pro guard?
As longtime fans (pre-“12s”) will recall, Ruskell (Seattle’s GM before Schneider) chose not to franchise the All-Pro Hutchinson in 2006 and ended up losing him to Minnesota.
Hutch and Hall of Famer Walter Jones keyed the best line in Seattle history in the early to mid-2000s, but Seattle has not been able to field a strong line since Ruskell’s huge mistake. We’ve called it the Curse of Hutch.
No matter what the Seahawks do before or during free agency, their top needs in this draft will be their lines.
They need to replace Cliff Avril and, eventually, Michael Bennett on the defensive front. And they need to add a good guard to an offensive line that now has a coach who should get the most out of the talent.
So, it figures that two guys the Hawks reportedly showed high interest in during Senior Bowl week were versatile linemen: Nevada blocker Austin Corbett and Alabama defensive lineman Da’Shawn Hand.
Both of Seattle’s star safeties are at career crossroads — one seemingly talking about walking out, the other about holding out.
The short of it: Yeah, it looks like Kam Chancellor is done, but Earl Thomas is not going anywhere.
Chancellor’s Instagram post Friday was seen by most as a message that he is leaning toward retiring — or at least not playing again. Unlike Cliff Avril, he has been silent about his neck injury, but all signs point to the No. 1 Legionnaire of Boom likely being finished.
The only question has been whether he would make the team put him on injured reserve so he could collect his injury guarantees, which amount to $12 million over the next two years.
Meanwhile, there is no question that money is at the heart of Thomas’ concerns. Late in the season, he started rumbling about his contract and possibly playing for Dallas. This week, at the Pro Bowl in Florida, he doubled down on the contract talk with a subtle threat of a holdout.
“People talking about retirement. I ain’t old enough to think about retiring.” — Pete Carroll
On the last game day of the season, Jay Glazer reported Pete Carroll was contemplating retirement. Carroll quickly shot down that report with the above quote, but it turns out there was a little more to it.
A week before the season ended, Paul Allen apparently asked Carroll what he was thinking, and Carroll assured his boss he was “all in” on building the Seahawks back up.
According to Davis Hsu, the sneakily sourced Seahawks Twitter champion, Allen was worried Carroll would retire and was ready to go “big game hunting” to replace him. If Carroll had said he was going to retire, Allen apparently would have gone after Jon Gruden, Jim Harbaugh and Nick Saban.
Also, if Carroll had retired, John Schneider would have left for Green Bay, per Hsu. But Carroll wanted Schneider to stay with him, so Allen formally blocked the Packers from talking to Schneider.
Carroll, 66, is signed through 2019, and it’s possible he decides to retire after that. With the big coaching shakeup he has performed this week, he is either trying to finish strong or build up another five-year playoff run.
There was lots of scuttlebutt — real and perhaps imagined — around the Seahawks’ football staff over the weekend.
John Schneider is staying, Gus Bradley might be returning and the Seahawks also might be looking for a new offensive coordinator and/or assistant head coach.
The Seahawks rebuffed the Packers’ request to interview Schneider, leading to speculation that the Packers might try to trade for him. But that was quickly quashed when the Pack stayed in-house to replace Ted Thompson.
Continue reading Schneider’s staying, but other staff changes could be coming
