UPDATE: The Rams made a trade, sending veteran safety Wil Witherspoon to the Eagles for former WSU receiver Brandon Gibson.
To be perfectly honest, I would have to say to the question above. “Really, there’s a trading deadline? Why is it so early? And really it is today?” Since I cover baseball primarily for the TNT, I will say that it’s vastly different. In baseball, it’s like a month build-up and ESPN has seemingly around the clock coverage.
In the NFL its different. There just isn’t as much action. Why? Well Andrew Das of the NY Times offers some thoughts on that. Will there even be any trades today before the 1 p.m. deadline?
If a trading deadline comes and goes without any trades, is it really a trading deadline?
This year we’ve had some trades around the league — Richard Seymour early on, Braylon Edwards getting dealt after he upset the Godfather of Cleveland and Gaines Adams.
But ESPN’s John Clayton – a TNT alum – does offer some analysis of the trade deadline, Yahoo’s Jason Cole is also offering up some thoughts.
And of course, you can’t leave out Jay Glazer of Fox when it comes to this stuff.
If you notice in those columns, the Seahawks are not mentioned, though that’s really not surprising. Then again, I was trying to think of players that teams would covet and that the Seahawks wouldn’t mind getting rid of. Can you? Sure the guy pictured above has been mentioned. But he’s out at the VMAC practicing right now as I type this.
Let’s get to the NFC West links …
Arizona Cardinals
Anquan Boldin’s status for this week’s game against the Giants is still up in the air. The Cards believe that playing the NY Giants on the road is a much more difficult task than beating the Hawks in Qwest, but they do know the recent win will help them in road games in the future.
San Francisco 49ers
Matt Maiocco of the Santa Rosa Press Democrat is reporting that rookie Michael Crabtree could be starting for the Niners this week. San Jose Mercury News columnist Tim Kawakami is a bit surprised by that news. John Crumpacker of the SF Chronicle has this feature on Crabtree’s progress.
St. Louis Rams
No matter how bad you think you have it as a Seahawks fans, you could always be a Rams fan. Head coach Steve Spagnulo is being second guessed for one of his decisions. Columnist Bernie Miklasz wonders about the Rams offense. Here’s a notebook leading with the status of Donnie Avery’s hip.
Around the NFL …
In the category of I can’t believe any of this is happening, the Denver Broncos are now 6-0 with a win over San Diego last night. I don’t know what’s uglier, their uniforms or Kyle Orton.
or
Former Seahawks wide receiver and current Patriots receiver Joey Galloway was cut today by the Pats along with a few other players.
Well, at least you got the location of the Cardinals right in this article, Ryan.
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Jay Glazer is useless.
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I’d like to read a headline like “Branch traded to ??? for 4 round pick in 2014.” That would be a great deal.
Or that we’ve traded for Branden Albert and gave up our Denver #1 to make it happen. Or that we’ve traded our #1 for Joe Thomas. I doubt any team would like to trade a 2nd/3rd year stud OL but I’d like to dream it can happen. And if a new regime is in place (see KC/Cle) they sometimes like to get “their” guys instead of players from the previous people. Even though I think KC/Cle are smart enough NOT to deal a franchise OL still coming into their own… stranger things have happened.
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It’s unlikely that a young tackle will be dealt, because if those teams are rebuilding, then they would just need to go out and draft another young tackle.
And since, even with a top-10 pick, the bust rate on a lineman is over 50%, they would never take the chance unless the player is a headache who is making trouble for the team.
Really, Seattle probably needs to think about being a seller, not a buyer. I don’t see 1-2 trades propelling this team into contention. Seattle should be collecting picks to arm the GM for next season (be that Ruskell or a successor) with the ammunition to rebuild. The window for reloading has ended.
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I agree with you there, Freedom. If there were to be any trades now, I would hope they would be for draft picks but I don’t see it happening. I do think however, there will be a fairly significant turnover on offense after the season, but not now. But this team’s not throwing in the towel now, nor do they think they are only a player away (at least I hope they realize that). So they’ll fight hard with what they’ve got, for good or ill.
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Ruskell needs to use both first round picks on LBs Brandon Spikes and Sean Lee. A team can never have enough good LBs.
I think the O line will be ok. Jones, Locklear both healthy. All the experience gained by Unger, Williams, Wrotto, Frye and Vallos. They will dominate in 2010. There are other areas of much greater need.
Yeah, right.
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If Seattle were to try and rebuild – what players would have value to other teams right now? (it will be moot in 20 minutes though.)
As Bobby says – Deon Branch. How about Cory Redding? Has Kelly Jennings rehabed his rep enough to have value? (probably not.) Ken Lucas? Or Daryl Tapp.
I guess it’s a sad state of affairs when I can’t actually think of that many players that have value and are tradeable. Branch, Redding, and Tapp are the main ones I can think of. Everyone else either has too big a contract, is too injured, or a combination of both. (not counting the guys who can’t play.)
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Even our stars, Lofa/Hill/Tru – not saying deal ‘em, but if you did now they have diminished value due to health concerns.
oceanic – I almost spit my coffee at my monitor when I read yours.
This might sound funny, but I would never put Jennings on the table. He is in a contract year. Next year we could re-up a new contract reflecting his 2nd string value. He is young, and can play through pain (see last year).
Jackson is in the same. The dude is young, and just coming into his own.
They could deal Housh and Branch. Package them up.. Housch is 32, and obviously has value now not later. As much as I like him, this team can’t take advantage of his skills this year.
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I don’t know the structure of Housh’s contract, but it’s usually pretty hard to deal someone who has just been signed to a big multi-year deal. I think the cap hit is really high? That’s why some of Seattle’s trade candidates aren’t really candidates.
Tatupu might be tradeable (though I think he’s only 1-1/2 years into his new deal) but the injury takes him out of the picture. Hill just signed his new deal, too, so he probably has a big cap hit too if moved.
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Well it’s now past the deadline so we can put all this to rest until the offseason.
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Ryan Divish: “In the category of I can’t believe any of this is happening, the Denver Broncos are now 6-0 with a win over San Diego last night. I don’t know what’s uglier, their uniforms or Kyle Orton.”
Ooooh! Nasty!!!!
I don’t know what’s worse, listening to Gruden and Jawarski try to sound tough or watching Denver in their gay pride pajamas for the second week in a row. It doesn’t matter. I can never watch those Monday night games for more than five minutes at a time any more anyway. Sheeesh, those guys sound like a couple of 1960s roller derby announcers.
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