If there is a Henry Melton signing with the #Cowboys, doesn't sound like it'll happen tonight. Vikings in it, Seahawks not as much.
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 17, 2014
The opportunity to sign Henry Melton was just that.
An opportunity.
The Seahawks haven’t gone after free agents since 2011 — during the early stages of a major rebuild.
Now it’s just about seeing what’s out there.
I’ll understand if there’s a tinge of disappointment at this latest development (if we can call it that). At one point a report suggested both parties were “deep” in negotiations.
So what’s changed?
Melton’s coming off an ACL injury and there’s a few character concerns that need to be checked out.
On a one or two year ‘prove it’ deal, Melton would’ve made a lot of sense.
But if the Cowboys and Vikings are talking long term — and if that’s what Melton prefers — what are you going to do?
Dallas only really has the option to offer a multi-year deal. They have virtually no cap room in 2014. They have to back-load contracts and mortgage the future on the present.
You could say it’s an astonishingly reckless way to run a franchise.
Yet that’s no real concern of Henry Melton or his agent.
The Seahawks aren’t going to go chasing these players.
They’ll just wait for the next opportunity.
It’ll be the same with Jared Allen. It’s highly unlikely they open the cheque book for him either. He’s going to have to compromise if he wants to play for this particular challenger.
Personally I’d choose Allen over Melton anyway. Less injury risk, less character risk. In a perceived weaker season he still had 11.5 sacks. He plays a ton of snaps.
Soak it in. This is what it feels like to follow a Championship team with a switched-on front office.
***Update***
Clarence Hill reports Melton is actually looking to sign a short term contract to prove his health in 2014.
That’s interesting.
Hill also suggests such a deal might be too costly for the Cowboys.
This is no surprise when you consider what we talked about above. Dallas has to back-load deals because of their lack of cap space. Signing a one-year contract with Melton won’t work unless he’s willing to play for about three million bucks — max.
Seahawks interested in Kenny Britt?
Adam Schefter seems to think so…
Titans WR Kenny Britt had completed visit with New England, now will travel to Washington. Panthers, Seahawks, Rams are interested as well.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) March 18, 2014
Here’s another opportunity.
Britt had so many chances in Tennessee and wasted every single one.
His career’s dangling by a thread. Which means he’s cheap.
Which means the Seahawks will show interest until the moment he stops being cheap.
Meanwhile Ian Rapoport believes Seattle also showed some interest in new Oakland receiver James Jones:
James Jones considered #Steelers, #Browns, #Panthers, #Seahawks. In the end, source said, “He grew up wanting to play for the #Raiders”
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 18, 2014
Marcus Smith tape
Even if the defensive options early in the draft aren’t great — the middle rounds could provide some relief.
Marcus Smith at Louisville is one to monitor. Dan Quinn was at his pro-day today.
See for yourself:
Same thing we thought with Bennett, Just have to wait and see…
Eh, oh well. No stone left unturned and the we have a lot of young DL waiting for a chance.
Meh well another pass rusher would be nice but we may have to do with what we have. In some ways I wouldn’t mind especially if it helped us extend our own guys.
Ill be doing a jig around my house if we don’t sign anyone and then one of our depth guys really shows up this year. Mayowa Scruggs or Hill are my bets if that happened. Then we just shift around the Avril, Bennett pieces where we have need because those guys are so versatile.
I think they’ll add another pass rusher, it’s just a case of who. Personally I’d rather have Allen. If it’s not Melton or Allen, there are others they can look at.
Perhaps Will Smith? Another prove-it deal candidate.
Yep. He’s a short-term option too.
If I had to choose between having KJ wright in the future or signing some FA pass rusher for 7 mill per year (all these older gents are making at least that), then I would choose re-signing wright.
Just doesn’t seem like any of these pass rushers are available at incredible value. Last year we got Avril and Bennett at awesome value.. Im hoping we don’t fork out major cash…
So Rob doesn’t noting how many snaps Allen played mean he is likely to get way less sacks in a situation where he gets less snaps and other guys are flat out beating him to the QB?
He could very well find himself with Clemmons like numbers on our defense but at twice the cost of what Clem signed at Jax.
“So Rob doesn’t noting how many snaps Allen played mean he is likely to get way less sacks in a situation where he gets less snaps and other guys are flat out beating him to the QB?”
Not necessarily, no. 11.5 sacks in that team is no mean feat.
I really like Melton, but to be frankly honest, a one-year prove-it deal never made much sense to me (if that was what in fact was discussed). If, as the saying goes for everyone but AP, it takes two years to fully recover, I’d rather have him on year two and three than on year one. He would be a nice bonus, but I won’t be heartbroken if he goes somewhere else- and it is nice to be rooting for a team where I can say that confidently.
If he is willing to take a one year prove it deal for 2014, he is obviously confident he will play well enough to command the huge long term deal come 2015 he really wants. He is the one who stands the most to lose by being wrong about this, so you gotta figure he feels like he can pull it off.
I’m good without signing Melton if that’s how this all works out.
I’m guessing the sticking point for Seattle (and Melton for that matter) is the amount of the guarantee. Seattle wants to be able to bail in a year if things don’t work out with his injury and Melton wants security for longer than that for the same reason. That’s a lot of risk for Melton to expect Seattle (or any team) to assume. After all if it wasn’t, he wouldn’t currently be on the market.
No matter how this all plays out, big credit to our front office for not caving.
As a fan, sigh, but as a businessman it’s fantastic.
Dallas will go 8-8 again or worse, and they have mortgaged their future to achieve this.
Just like the surprise of Bennett last season, next man up, go Hawks.
It now looks like we would have been better off keeping McDonald and Clemons.
Nah save cap; sign ET
maybe not Clemons but McDonald at 3 mil a year with only 3.75 million guaranteed might have been a smart re -sign for rotational depth and interior pressure. he would not have made the difference between being able to re sign Thomas and not.
He might have wanted to play closer to home though since his family’s from Jacksonville.
They have guys on the team that will perform to what those guys would have, for much more cap friendly numbers.
Okay, the FO obviously has a number they are not going over. The way I figure it – if they aren’t going over their number, they are not as worried about this as we all might be. We have Bennett and Avril and there were guys last year who showed promise. Maybe they feel like there are guys there that can rotate in and make a difference. Allen and Melton would have been nice, but I think they were luxury acquisitions. Bennett was the one guy we had to get and we got him. They also must think there are guys in the draft that they can get with their picks.
Oh, and don’t forget, after training camps guys will get cut again and maybe then we’ll pick up someone.
I don’t think it’s really indicative of how worried about it they are or not just because they didn’t happen to overspend.they can be plenty worried about it but not so worried that they’re about to sacrifice any players from their core that are going to be coming up for contracts in coming years.
good point cc
I like Smith. If a player like him is there for us in the fourth, or even late third if we move back from 64, then he could be gold.
The more I think about it, I couldn’t be upset with beefing up the offensive and defensive lines in R1 and 2(Bitonio/Lawrence for instance) and resigning Rice for less. I know he’s banged up, but man I’m all for paying the guy who is willing to absolutely wear one crossing the goal line in Soldier Field if he has to in order to win a game. How much is that worth? The guy is 6′ 4″ what else can you ask for. There are always rounds 4 and on to do whatever you want if you really need WR or TE help. What’s wrong with Rice harvin Baldwin Lockett as a bare minimum heading in to draft.
I guess it really just comes down to Rice’s price
Agree with you on Rice – if we’re talking $2m or under great – over that, I think we let him be. He’s made a lot of money the last few years being injured. I know he is only 27, but we can’t over pay him again.
I agree with you, even if they don’t sign a Rice or a Britt — definition of draft depth is that you can get good deals in later rounds, so wouldn’t be surprised that they wait on WR until 4th — if they sign Finley, then I hope they don’t burn a pick on TE given the four we already have
Also, I know people have been saying TE is a need – me included, but with McCoy and Zach back, I think we’re just fine. There has been a lot of talk about ASJ, CJ Fedwoski (sp?) Amaro, Lynch – but I went back and checked McCoy’s combine numbers and he is right there with him and he is a pass catcher. I don’t think we need to use a high rounder on a TE if at all. I remember last year thinking how much better McCoy was looking – he’s sort of a combination of Zach and Finley – good not great blocker, good not great pass catcher. If Finley doesn’t join us – right now, I’m okay with the guys we have.
I think they are ok with what they have as well but I wouldn’t put it past them to drop a few spots into the 2nd and shock everyone with an ASJ pick like they did last year with their top pick.
ASJ screams the opposite of ‘Seahawky”
I agree fully. The common thread, in my mind, in “Seahawky” is not athleticism but love of football and competition.
With Finley, I agree that there isn’t room for him at TE. But I do wonder if PC/JS aren’t thinking of him as a Graham-like flex guy. Finley is a much better blocker than Graham, so he adds depth and flexibility as a possible inline guy but I am guessing that the team’s vision is a role that hasn’t previously existed. Finley isn’t as dynamic an athlete as Graham but he is a good enough athlete to exploit his size advantage. Put differently, I suspect Seattle is more confident that Finley could contribute in such a role next year than a guy like Kelvin Benjamin could, even though Benjamin has better straight-line speed.
If we do sign Finley, which by all accounts it sounds like the deal is more or less done, I think he’ll be more of a pure WR on our team than a TE. He can be split out off the line to create mismatches. He could do very well doing everything Zach Miller doesn’t do, which is winning jump balls and creating explosive plays consistently. He could line up on the line occasionally, but more often than not he’ll be standing up.
What do you guys think of Smiths tape?
Seemed like he has a good motor, pretty quick, not much power.. between as much power as Irvin has and avril. good moves.
Im no great football talent evaluator. What do you see?
He didn’t seem like a high ceiling type of guy.
I would agree on all points. Except Irvin had crazy power. His bull rush was devastating.
If Marcus Smith is there at pick number 64, I think the Seahawks will grab him. He qualifies in every check box for a LEO: tall, long arms, big hands, good speed, good jumping ability, good lateral movement burst. Plus he has spectacular production this past year at Louisville. I think he’s the best OLB/DE in the draft outside of Clowney. I like him better than Mack and Barr. And it would make sense that it took until his senior year to break out: he was a quarterback learning a new position. I think he has the capability to follow in Elvis Dumervil’s shoes. I can see Smith having a better NFL career than the Louisville quarterback, assuming he’s picked by a team that has the right position for him.
I liked how he was lining up in coverage as well in that tape. Tells you it would give the addes scheme benefit of a lot more zone blitzes and being able to drop him into coverage and disguise things even more. Only bad thing is it looked like he lacked a little bit of the ability to anchor and have success at bull rushing but i see a lot of versatility and upside in him.
I think we are right on track. Rice, Clem, Red, Golden, Breno, Thurm, McDonald. Miller pay cut. Everyone we let go was either overpaid or other teams made offers we couldn’t match. I wanted Clem for one more year but whatever, we have to pay ET, etc…Bennet, McDaniel signings are so great…still could land a FA and the draft and the cuts…PC/JS are Jedi masters
Marcus Smith and Jonathan Newsome from ball state look like the most natural LEO fits in this draft. Tape below against Moses LT from Virginia he got the edge on him a couple times.
http://draftbreakdown.com/video/jonathan-newsome-vs-virginia-2013/
Crazy fact. Bruce Irvin is one of the oldest players on the Seattle Seahawks.
Well so much for Melton.
Schefter reporting he’s signing with Dallas for 6y/58m!!!!!
Oh Dallas, you silly.
Not seen anything on his Twitter account to suggest this.
Oh twitter and your fake accounts. False alarm.
The news of Melton being sued for biting a man doesn’t help… I personally think we made him an offer, told him to go see what else is out there and we probably won’t end up with him. I think Greg Scruggs/Jordan Hill will be the likely replacement for the departed McDonald.
I think the possible re-signing of Rice is a good thing. While he was shown to not remain healthy throughout his career, he knows the system, is a complete plug-in anytime and is a good presence in the locker room. If Rice does sign elsewhere, the news of interest in Britt fits our mold of talent search. Talent is buried somewhere in that kid and maybe we could help him channel it.
If we do bring back Rice or add Britt on a low-cost short-term deal, it’ll be interesting to see how it impacts the draft. To my mind there’s only room for one WR on the roster who doesn’t contribute on ST. If we went after a Benjamin/Coleman/Bryant/Moncrief/etc. type in the draft, is that guy going to come in ready to compete with Lockette as a gunner on our coverage teams? Because if not he’s going to be in a training camp battle with Rice/Britt for one spot.
In fact in general our ST units will be interesting to watch. We lost Maragos, Schofield, and Tate from ST units already and could easily still lose many/most of Farwell, Morgan, Davis, and Robinson (all key contributors). Plus we probably want to reduce Maxwell and Lane’s ST snaps (4th and 5th most on the team) with them playing a lot more downs on defense.
I’d look for pretty much every prospect we meet with pre-draft to get a series of questions about their desire to play on kick coverage units and for mostly those guys who convincingly seem gung-ho about it to end up high on our board.
Great stuff. Big opportunities for young guys this year. It will be interesting to see if this changes draft focus of if it is UDFA territory.