The Seahawks still haven’t agreed to terms with any outside free agents heading into the first official day of the new league year. Perhaps it’s tough to sell potential signees on a winning vision when you just got rid of your two most important players and have a reputation for disrespecting every single one of your franchise legends on their way out the door.
Whatever the case, it’s been a quiet couple of days on the free agent front for Seattle and what little news there’s been has mostly been bad outside of bringing back free safety Quandre Diggs. Thus far their biggest loss is cornerback D.J. Reed, who was their highest-graded starting defender by PFF last season. He’s agreed to a three-year, $33 million deal with the team that shall not be named that Jamal Adams came from.
Our friends at Touchdown Wire gave them an A+ grade for the signing.
“So, Saleh and the Jets absolutely stole former Seattle cornerback D.J. Reed on a three-year, $33 million contract. That’s chump change for a guy who can come in and be the team’s top cornerback right away, and Saleh is familiar with Reed from his San Francisco days.”
Allowing Reed to walk doesn’t make a whole lot of sense for a team that just went through a major cornerback turnover just before last season began. Reed had more than established himself as a worthy long-term starter and while it may not be ideal $11 million per year is a perfectly reasonable number to keep him around.
Instead, the Seahawks will now likely use one of their early-round draft picks trying to find a replacement for Reed – perhaps as early as the No. 9 overall selection. In our most-recent seven-round mock draft we have them taking Cincinnati’s Ahmad Gardner with that pick.
Whatever their reasoning, Pete Carroll and John Schneider certainly have some explaining to do. The media is scheduled to hear from them at 2:30 p.m. today Pacific Time. Hopefully they’ll have something to show by then.
