Seahawks creating turnover before season even starts

Published on July 31, 2011 by     

There is only one player on the Seattle Seahawks roster with a longer tenure on the team than Lofa Tatupu. That’s Marcus Trufant.

Columnist Jerry Brewer used the nine-year pro as a window to look at the transformation of the Seahawks roster, and it’s really astounding.

There are 89 players currently listed on the team’s roster at Seahawks.com. Of those players, only 18 were first acquired by Seattle before the arrival of GM John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll. Two of those 18 — G Mike Gibson and Brandon Coutu — spent time off the roster before being brought back.

That turnover is simply astounding pace.

As recently as last season there were still more than half a dozen players who were part of Seattle’s Super Bowl team. If Tatupu is released — as is now expected — there would be two: Trufant and linebacker Leroy Hill.

The past week has shown that Schneider is clearly more aggressive in free agency than Ted Thompson, the Packers GM. It’s also shown that the Seahawks are very attuned to the Packers’ model of being one of the younger teams in the league.

That helps explain why — when Trufant was asked about having the longest Seahawks tenure after training camp open — he jokingly shushed everyone. Seahawk veterans are becoming an endangered species.

Jerry Brewer: 206-464-2277 or jbrewer@seattletimes.com

Tags: Astounding Pace, coach pete carroll, Columnist, Endangered Species, gm, Half A Dozen, John Schneider, Leroy Hill, Linebacker, Marcus Trufant, Mike Gibson, Packers, SEATTLE SEAHAWKS, seattle seahawks roster, super bowl, Tatupu, Ted Thompson, Tenure, Time Off, training camp, Transformation, Turnover