Hunter Henry, L.os Angeles Chargers (Photo by Jeffrey Beall, via Wikimedia)
Sunday, the NFL wraps up another season. The next important date 12s have to look forward to is March 27, when free agency starts. Unfortunately, the Seattle Seahawks don’t have much money to spend due to a lower salary cap. It will take some tough decisions for the Seahawks to bring back their internal free agents, not to mention adding talent from the outside.
Because of the pandemic, the cap should drop a little over 11 percent or somewhere around $22.2M. That means depending on who you believe; the Seattle Seahawks have between $2.84M (overthecap.com) and 3.59M (spotrac.com) to work with. It’s not what they estimated when they put the 2020 team together.
With key players such as Chris Carson, Carlos Hyde, and David Moore about to hit the open market, the Seattle Seahawks have some big holes to fill. Our recent articles addressed filling the roster.
The offensive line is in worse shape. Incumbent starters Mike Iupati (left guard) and Ethan Pocic (center) are free agents. To make matters worse, two key backup interior offensive linemen Jordan Simmons, and Phil Haynes, also hit free agency when the league calendar turns to the new year.
Some of our recent article Seattle Seahawks articles focussed on rebuilding the roster in 2021.
Today, we turn our attention outside the organization with a wish list of offense external free agents the team should consider.
Corey Davis – Why go after a wide receiver when there are more important needs for this team? Well, GM John Schneider has only four picks in the 2021 draft. Not nearly enough to help fill the holes on the roster. This brings trading away of Tyler Lockett. Lockett has one year left on his current deal, at which point he’ll be 29 years old.
He’ll be expensive, but then so will D.K. Metcalf. Moving Lockett will bring back some impactful draft picks. Corey Davis had a breakout season in 2020, but maybe it’s just the classic player having a good year for his next contract. Or perhaps he’s figured out how to be successful at the NFL level. If it’s the latter, that is a big duo at wide receiver for Russell Wilson to throw to every game.
Hunter Henry – An alternative route to getting a wide receiver is getting an impact tight end. Seattle thought they might be getting one with Greg Olsen, only to have Olsen play a few more games than a cardboard cutout in the stands.
If he reaches it, Hunter Henry is most likely to be the top tight end available. He had some success with rookie of the year Justin Herbert. Wilson can take Henry to the next level.
Marlon Mack – This is the Chris Carson replacement I’ve been championing. I thank Carson for his service in Seattle and wish him a financial fortune for his next deal. That is most likely to be with another team.
Carson has been fantastic for Seattle. But like most running backs, his NFL shelf life is short. Almost all of them are underpaid. The ones who do, get paid have to either hold out, threaten a holdout or be at the right place and time.
Marlon Mack was pigeonholed as a two-down back. However, in his first two years NFL seasons, he caught 64 percent of his targets on an average of 29.5 targets. Mack has a career catch percentage of 69 percent, but he pulled in 85 percent of the passes thrown his way over the last two years. His numbers are comparable to Carson’s 80 percent catch rate. Mack isn’t Carson; however, he’s a great replacement, and better than Carlos Hyde, to pair with Rashaad Penny.
David Andrews/Matt Skura – Both guys play center. Ethan Pocic did well last year as Seattle’s starting center. I have no doubt he’ll be brought back as his next contract being too expensive.
The thinking here is to move Ethan Pocic back to his normal position and bring an upgrade at the center spot. Although he was a good run blocker, Pocic often needed help from a guard to handle a tough pass rush. The best way to stop Aaron Donald is to get stronger up the middle. Bringing in a new center and moving Pocic back to guard is the way to do it.
Joe Thuney – It’s no secret that the offensive line needs help. As mentioned earlier, Seattle has several of its own offensive linemen on the market. They are either injury prone (Mike Iupati) or good (Pocic and Cedric Ogbuehi). I believe Iupati’s price tag will be too high for Schneider, considering the handful of games he played last year. Getting a younger and arguably better option in Thuney while retaining Pocic to play center strengthens the interior offensive line.
Kelvin Beachum – It was obvious last season that Brandon Shell can’t hold down the right tackle job with any consistency. Backups Jamarco Jones and Cedric Ogbuehi are not the answer either. At this point, Beachum is the best affordable option, but it might be better to wait on a cap casualty.
So, there you have it, 12s, a free agent wish list for the Seattle Seahawks offense. This article will look genius when these players make it to the market. Or it’ll look not very smart when none or almost all do not. I’ll gladly settle for somewhere in the middle or even just getting one of these signings correct. Who’s on your wish list?