Seahawks Free Agency Grade: A-

Published on March 15, 2009 by T.C.     

So far in free agency the Seahawk’s have address there top needs perfectly. Those needs being a top WR and DT.

The Seahawks signed Bengals WR T.J Houshmandzadeh to a five-year 40 million dollar contract with 15 million guaranteed.

Green Bay Packers DT Colin Cole (five years 21 million with five million guaranteed), TE John Owens (unknown) and RT Ray Willis (two year deal).

DT could still be addressed in the draft along with WR (Crabtree), DT (B.J Raji), LB (Aaron Curry if available), OT (Eugene Monroe, Jason Smith, Andre Smith etc).

They still have needs at OT, S/CB and something they can’t draft also, which is HEALTH.

What the Seahawk’s and Tim Ruskell did in free agency puts them in the greatest position for the draft because basically whichever way they go, if they went offensive tackle like Jason Smith or Eugene Monroe it would be a good pick.

Walter Jones is going to retire this year or in 2011 but either way he could play at RT until then.

If they wanted to draft a WR in Michael Crabtree that would help out the WR core a lot and they probably have to cut Deion Branch or restructure his contract, he would be like a Wes Welker.

Now that they have traded LB Julian Peterson to the Detroit Lions for DT Cory Redding that takes them out the possibility for drafting DT B.J Raji, but it does put them in a great position to draft LB Aaron Curry to replace him.

I don’t think they would draft a QB with the forth overall pick but if they drafted Mark Sanchez and he would do what Brady Quinn did in Cleveland for a year and sit and learn, that would still be a great pick. I don’t see the Seahawk’s drafting a CB with the 4^th overall pick because there’s no top five CB’s in the draft or a safety for that matter.

Off-season moves:

1) Franchised Leroy Hill (LB)-8.3 million

2) Signed T.J Houshmandzadeh (WR)-five years 40 million. 15 million guaranteed

3) Signed Colin Cole (DT)-five years 21 million. Five million guaranteed

4) Signed Ray Willis (OT)-two year deal

5) Signed John Owens

6) Traded LB Julian Peterson to the Detroit Lions for DT Cory Redding and a 5^th round pick

So for all of those moves, the players they brought in, and all of the key holes  they filled via trade or free agency, (DT,WR, LB) I have giving the Seahawk’s free agency grade an A-.

If the Hawks draft OT Jason Smith in the first round, LB James Laurinaitis in the second round, QB Nate Davis in the third round, SS Michael Hamlin in the forth round, OT Alex Boone in the fifth round and the best player available in the sixth and seventh round, that will set this team in the right direction. Then they hopefully won’t have to draft in this position again for a LONG TIME.

Tags: Brady Quinn, Colin Cole, Cory Redding, crabtree, Deion Branch, Detroit Lions, Dollar Contract, Green Bay Packers, Jason Smith, John Owens, Julian Peterson, Leroy Hill, Mark Sanchez, Qb, Raji, Ray Willis, Seahawk, Season Moves, T J Houshmandzadeh, Tim Ruskell, Walter Jones, Wes Welker