Cliff Avril on injured reserve
Cliff Avril headed to injured reserve as he faces "big decision" https://t.co/A6lkgnswHX
— ProFootballTalk (@ProFootballTalk) October 18, 2017
This is sad news and certainly not the way you’d want Cliff Avril to potentially end his career.
Thankfully, it doesn’t appear that’s the case:
Spoken at length w/Cliff Avril via text today. He tells me he is NOT thinking about retirement at all right now. @cliffavril #seahawks
— Jordan Schultz (@Schultz_Report) October 18, 2017
Avril has long been under-appreciated and underrated not just in Seattle but in the NFL overall. He’s had an extremely consistent and productive nine-year stretch for the Lions and Seahawks. Between 2010 and 2016 he played in all but four games, recording 62.5 sacks. Always there for his team, always making plays.
He’s also an exceptional athlete. At the 2008 combine he ran a 1.50 10-yard split at 253lbs. Anything in the 1.5’s is considered elite. Avril nearly cracked the 1.4’s.
At only 31 years old hopefully he will make a full recovery. His cap hit next year is a ridiculously team friendly $8m. In the modern market a player of Avril’s quality might cost double that amount.
It’s also possible he could still return this year. The Seahawks can call back two players from injured reserve and haven’t got another candidate at the moment. It seems unlikely due to the serious nature of the injury — but at least the option is there.
More importantly though this is about a man’s health. Avril has done so much for charity during his career and was an integral addition as the Seahawks won their first Super Bowl in 2013. The time where they added Percy Harvin, Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril in an incredible triple move will go down as one of the more exciting weeks in franchise history.
This is a big opportunity for Frank Clark. He had an exceptional game against the Rams and is eligible for a new contract in the off-season. We’ll see if Marcus Smith expands his role and hopefully Dion Jordan can have an impact down the line.
Avril is one of the best pass rushers this franchise has had. Period.
They can only dream of finding a player in the future with equal stature who will provide so much quality at such great value.
If you want to donate to the Cliff Avril Family Foundation, or if you want more information on the great work they do, here’s the link.
Offensive tackle problems
The knee injury for Trey Adams — and the reports since suggesting he will now return to Washington in 2018 — has left the offensive tackle draft class looking pretty thin.
We’ve had this discussion before…
There will be some nice O-line options in the draft next year (Quenton Nelson, Mike McGlinchey, Billy Price) but there’s no getting away from the fact the tackle numbers are light yet again.
Tony Pauline sums up the problem:
That leaves just two potential first-round tackles: Mike McGlinchey of Notre Dame and Oklahoma’s Orlando Brown.
People I’ve spoken with tell me they expect Brown to enter the draft but that he doesn’t grade out as a top-25 selection — an opinion I share at this point.
Several scouts are enamored with Chukwuma Okorafor of Western Michigan, but I haven’t heard any first-round grades on him since the season began. The recent ankle injury to Martinas Rankin, which I’m told is worse than what’s being reported, also negatively impacts the position.
The projected crop of free-agent tackles for next March does not look very promising either. This means teams needing an offensive tackle in the offseason could be in a bind.
That last paragraph really does ring true. A league lacking adequate talent at left tackle is facing another barren year in the draft and free agency.
Nate Solder, recently struggling with the Patriots, is arguably the best prospective free agent set to hit the market next year. Then you have the likes of Luke Joeckel, Justin Pugh and Jack Mewhort. There’s no Andrew Whitworth next year.
This is possibly why so many teams spent big money on O-liners in free agency in March — anticipating an even weaker crop of veterans in 2018.
This might be one of the reasons why the Seahawks have been pursuing the likes of Branden Albert and Duane Brown. At the very least they’d get some veteran security on the left side of the line and some insurance for 2018. They wouldn’t need to pick at the limited options available on the open market.
It’s only October and a lot can change over the next few weeks — but the injury to Cliff Avril and the continued issues with the O-line make it increasingly likely we’ll be focusing on the trenches again come draft time. It’s looking like there’ll be a very attractive crop of defensive line talent available. And at the very least a handful of good O-line options (Nelson, Price, McGlinchey).
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