Seahawks are releasing WR Sidney Rice, per league source. Rice signed a five-year, $41 million contract in July 2011.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 21, 2014
This move frees up $7.3m in cap room. It won’t be the only piece of cost-cutting by Seattle.
Rice was an important capture in 2011, a key note signing after the lockout. The Seahawks were determined to make a splash, to get the rebuild moving. Adding Rice, Robert Gallery and Zach Miller was a big deal and undoubtedly helped create some momentum for the franchise.
Yet as they move forward after winning their first championship, there’s at least some chance none of that trio will be part of the future.
Miller is another potential cap casualty, although unlike Rice he’s stayed relatively healthy and had a big impact as a blocker.
But with a salary worth $7m — a year after earning $11m — it might be too much. Cutting him saves another $5m.
Nothing has been made official by the Seahawks on Rice, but this news along with the combine really kicks off an intriguing off-season.
So long Rice. You were a good soldier!
I appreciate Sidney, he probably helped out the young receivers who learned from him, but the time has come to say goodbye. He got a ring.
I enjoyed watching him when he was in his prime, jumping up and catching the ball above his head with two defenders hanging on his back. At least he got a big paycheck and a superbowl ring with the Seahawks. Nice going Sidney and good luck.
Part of me wants to see him come back to camp and try out as a veteran – telling the other receivers “you got to earn my spot on the roster”.
Rob,
With this new revelation, I gotta imagine Seattle is setting themselves up to take a stud WR at 32 (I imagine Davante Adams is their type of guy), unless a stud DT/DE/OL falls to them.
This draft is really setting up perfectly for SEA. There’s no question in my mind, that a quality WR, DT, or OL will be available at 32 who can contribute day 1, while also providing a nice buffer/building block going into the future.
I know I’m diggging deep on this, but this WR class is too good and some stud is bound to be available at 32. How far off do you think I am? Keep up the great work.
Draft and cap room could pay off well for the Seahawks!! We now have about $14m to work with in cap space, that should get some deals done
Exactly…and take advantage of getting a cheap stud WR to have for the next 4-5 years on a small contract. I just really think we will be staring at 2-3 studs at 32. Would hate to see us pass that up, especially thinking about how much RW could just abuse the RZ with another stud big body WR.
I really don’t think we will grab a WR in the first unless someone falls. There are too many WR needy teams ahead of us. If 6-7 WR are off the board, I think they will pass. Based off all of the mock drafts around (dubious at best) I think it’s looking like the best value at #32 is going to be DL. If so, I hope that’s what we go for.
Now if Tate is gone as well, then maybe not.
I could see you being right about this, but there’s also the opposite line of thinking that due to the deep class of WRs, teams picking higher with more pressing needs might pass on WR and wait til later to address that need.
Either way, my emphasis is that there will be a really, really good player sitting at 32. It could be DT/DE/WR/OL…I’m just putting my money that it is a WR who will be sitting there. Whether they draft it or not, who knows?
The nice thing about this draft, I think there will be a few no brainers at 32. Will be a fun year to see what happens.
Yeah, I can’t wait. I’m really hoping Donald or Hageman fall to us. I just think there are so many solid WR in the draft this year, it’s almost silly to grab one early, unless a top 4ish one falls to #32.
Oh yea…no way I could pass on Hageman or Donald. Exciting times indeed.
I would say offensive line is a greater need then defensive line. But we have had good luck picking offensive line in the later rounds.
I would definitely like some more OL depth, but I’m coming around to the line we have. If BG re-signs for a reasonable deal, we’d have a starting line of Okung/Bowie/Unger/Sweezy/Breno (maybe Bailey in for Bowie) with Carp/Bailey on the bench and maybe LJP if he re-signs too. That’s not a terrible line if they stay healthy, I think.
The key words are “if they can stay healthy”. I think your right that Carpenter will ride the bench next year. We will resign Breno. And we will have to recruit a replacement for Okung by 2015, unless he is willing to take a big pay cut from 11 million.
I think this is good for Sidney and the Seahawks. I believe by cutting him now, some of the cap hit goes against the 2013 season (instead of 2015 maybe, don’t quote me.) Also, we are smitten with 6’5″ or 6’6″ receivers, but there are a lot of options in the 6’3″ range. I’d love a Kenny Britt on a small to minimum contract, if he can leave behind his off-field issues and buy in to the Seahawks philosophy.
It also gives Sidney a chance to compete with the free agents for a new team.
To your point about the 6’3″ receivers, I’m thinking we might be better off having our 6’6″ receiver be a TE, like Crockett or Niklas, and then have a WR in that 6’1″ to 6’3″ ranger that excels either in brute physicality or pure speed. There are a lot of receivers in this draft that fit that description. I’m also kind of wondering if we don’t already have players like that on our roster.
The whole Phil Bates conversion to FB was fun to talk about last year, but at 6’1″ 220# I would like to see what he can do as a pure wide-out. If PC liked his physicality enough to try him at FB, I would think his run blocking at receiver would be at least respectable, if not dominant. And someone strong enough to play FB would likely be a good red zone target that would win a lot of contested passes in traffic.
And for the pure speed guy, obviously have a healthy Percy going into 2014, but for depth I would much rather see Lockette get a chance to blossom instead of bringing in a certified knucklehead like Britt. Like TYH taught us in the Indy game last year, speed kills, and it doesn’t have to 6’6″.
Going with height at TE and shorter speed or power at WR would allow us to draft more to the depth of this draft class and free us up to take the BPA early rather than possibly reaching for a guy like Martavis Bryant just because he is a WR who is tall, or even worse moving up in the first round to get a Coleman just because he had a ‘wow’ combine/pro day.
Hate to see Mr. Rice go. He has been a helluva football player and a class act all the way. I have been very proud to call him a Seattle Seahawk … he earned the respect.
I don’t know if he’d come back on a reduced contract. If not, I hope he does well in the FA market and gets himself a nice gig somewhere away from the NFC West. 🙂
Hope you stay healthy, Sidney! Thanks for your contributions and on and off the field!
Rice is still needed in Seattle he has great hands & runs great routes.
This is business yes but chemistry in the team is very important, I would like to see him help develop other players but he’s still worth $ in the free agent market.
The Seahawks should not get rid of Rice no doubt he will
Land in San Fran. Could come back to bite us.
Love Rice, he is an amazing receiver & still valuable.
Get rid of Turbin, Tate, Miller, TJack, Clemons & more not rice
Sidney? Is that you…?
uhm so keep rice an injury prone receiver and release miller, tate, and others? hmmm, i dont know this might be SIdney haha.
kelvin Banjamin weighs in at 240lbs 6’5 10 1/4 hands seems a bit heavy slow 40 and this guy might drop a little.
Benjamin worries me as another BMW, just a guy who is a big fat ass who won’t amount to much in the NFL.
Davante Adams 6’1 212 9 hands smaller than the previously listed 6’2-6’3.
Anquan Boldin is probably right around 6′. Adams will jump over 40″ and is powerfully built.
Don’t get caught up in the numbers, people. Get caught up in how well they play football.
Us Seahawk fans should know this better than anyone else. See: Wilson, R.
Glad Adams has small hands, maybe he will slip to the bottom of the 4th round and we can get him. I watched him make a one handed catch on high lite reals. His hands are fine!
Alternatively, a good 40 makes him the winner of the combine.
He wears that 240lbs very well to be fair.
Benjamin’s issues are more the consistency and route running from the tapes that Rob has put on here. Are these issues coachable? Probably, but we’ll need to see. Personally, I think a red zone target is needed, but the way Kearse and Baldwin played in the playoffs, this may be less of a need. Image this team in 2014 if we can start turning undrafted guys like Lockette, Baldwin and Kearse into stars like we have done with low draft pick CB’s.
Not surprised. He was never going to have a huge impact in this offense. Needs to stay healthy and go to a higher volume of passes offense. His production is fairly easy to replace, but he had some great moments here.
Interesting that Tony Pauline said that Seahawks brass love Aaron Donald…a man can dream right?
Not enough is being said about Jordan Matthews , WR from Vandi. I like him better than Be.njamin or Coleman. Hypothetical question, if David Yankey, Taylor Lewan, Xavier Sua-Filo , Coleman, Donald, Hageman and Benjamin are available… Then who do we pick at 32?! I’d like to see us trade down for more picks if a DT or Xavier are not available.
Aaron Donald…no doubt in my mind. He could take this defense to another level. That’s scary.
Matthews has Seahawks measurables too. He’s 6’3″, 212, with 33.25 inch arms and 10.25 inch hands. I would love to get him if Donald isn’t there.
This is just my take and I know everyone’s opinions are different — but scraping 6-3 and 33 inch arms IMO is not the kind of difference making specimen Seattle would look for. For me, Matthews is in the late second/early third round range. But again, that’s only my view.
Out of that group it’s a no brainer. Donald.
And on Matthews, he is a player we’ve covered previously but I’m not a massive fan. Solid #2 guy for me, not a ‘dominate the red line’ type in terms of his size or potential. I think he’s a solid R2/3 guy.
I still wonder if they bring back Sidney for much less money in a prove it type deal. I would feel very good about a Harvin/Rice/Baldwin/Tate/Kearse and then add an elite TE like ASJ at 32 to set up Wilson for a long time.
Rob, how likely do you think it is that Brandon Coleman will be there at 64? Seems like many mock drafts have him falling to the 3rd round… but I have a hard time seeing that with him checking in at a legit 6’6”. If he runs in the 4.5s, there’s probably no way he drops further then the early 2nd. Sort of hoping he clocks in, in the mid 4.6s so we’d have a better shot in the 2nd round.
Sunday is huge for Coleman. If he runs well with that size, I think it’s very likely he’ll be long gone by #64.
Interesting. This guy Chris Matthews we just picked up from the CFL ran a 4.5 40 at 6’5 and went undrafted because his game had all kinds of holes like Coleman’s does… Why wouldn’t Coleman drop?
Something I’ve been pondering, with the complete domination the seahawks defence rained down ( a little N.w. Flavour) all over the consensus worlds best offence it got me thinking. Defence is back in vogue in a big way now as I’m sure teams will be stumbling all over themselves to copy the seahawk blueprint. My point is , that this first round could be predominantly defence oriented. If two players, an offensive and a defensive play maker are sitting there with similar grades on them and teams are truly drafting BPA, I have a hunch that the def guy is gonna come off the board first. Pass rushers, cover backers, press corners could all end up being slightly overvalued and as teams look at the obvious depth at WR and TE they will be content to think that value could be picked up in the later rounds. I believe that there will be some shocking tumbles available in these positions when the 32nd selection rolls around.