Duane Brown talking contract with Panthers?
Seaside Joe 1113: Plus Seahawks 7-round mock draft, why Tyler Lockett wasn't traded, QB contract demands, and more
It was reported on Sunday morning by ESPN’s David Newton that the Carolina Panthers are coming after Duane Brown. While the Seahawks have already met with Trent Brown, most likely a right tackle for whoever signs him, there’s been nothing said about Seattle and Brown forming a new pact. I didn’t expect them to, now it’s a matter of finding out who the Seahawks do see as their 2022 left tackle.
Seattle can still re-sign Duane Brown, they have over $30 million in cap space left (let’s call it ‘more like $24 million’), but consider what it will cost them to pay a 37-year-old tackle upwards of $16 million per season: No compensatory draft selection in 2023, no chance to draft and start the tackle prospect coming up in today’s 7-round Seahawks mock draft for premium subscribers, and probably at least $30 million in guaranteed salary. All to protect… Drew Lock?
If the Seahawks haven’t heavily pursued Brown at this point, it may not be because Pete Carroll is ‘rebuilding’. A premium pass protector at left tackle to ‘watch the QB’s blindside’ is great and all, but Carroll is talking to Brown because Seattle’s needs are more focused on running the damn football. Not every roster is meant to look the same or have the same needs, so the Seahawks’ moves should reflect: RUN.
Seattle’s next left tackle could be the upcoming rookie or a veteran stopgap like Eric Fisher, if not even maybe Stone Forsythe.
Today is “Seaside Sunday” and that means I’ll be covering a few more Seahawks-related topics for every free subscriber. Then at the end, a full seven-round Seattle Seahawks mock draft where I made all eight picks for the Seahawks, filling needs and setting the table for 2022 and 2023, that goes exclusively to ‘Regular Joes’ subscribers.
My landlord says that if I don’t hit 500 subscribers by the 2022 draft, I’ll be “living in the crawlspace with the other people under the stairs.” I’m terrified of sharing feeding bowls with the people under the stairs, so give Seaside Joe a hand. Smack one:
Seahawks and Baker Mayfield? Not even for cheap, please
The somewhat controversial Mary Kay Cabot reported on Sunday that Baker Mayfield was never intending to play for the Browns next season, even if the Deshaun Watson trade didn’t go down. Even more reason to avoid Baker and I’ll tell you why…
Baker Mayfield thought he was actually going to holdout for a new contract from the Browns. Now that we saw Cleveland was willing to sacrifice THE LARGEST GTD CONTRACT IN HISTORY, it emphasizes how unimpressed they’ve been with Mayfield over four years. Not one, not two, but four.
Yet Mayfield thinks he’s good enough to holdout, if Cabot’s report is true.
Many Seahawks fans have asked, “But why not Mayfield, if you want Seattle to get a player with a one-year contract?” Mayfield’s one-year, $18m remaining is reasonable but I always feared that he wouldn’t play on that deal and this basically confirms it.
The only way Seattle should get involved with Mayfield is if he is outright released by Cleveland, which is unlikely unless every team refuses to trade for him, and then realizes that he has to sign a one-year prove it contract.
I know, he won the Heisman trophy, he was a number one pick, he had a few good starts in his NFL career. That’s better than the majority of first round quarterbacks, actually. The genie has come out of the bottle. There’s no more genie in that bottle.
Matt Ryan doesn’t want to “come cheap” either
Apparently Lance Zierlein has reported that Matt Ryan won’t do anything else until he gets a new three-year contract. All the hype over, “Go get that QB! He’s affordable!” ignores that QBs are humans, and humans want money.
Why did I advocate so hard for Jared Goff and Nick Foles?
They have zero room to leverage.
“I hate Elway”
I opened a survey for Seaside Joe readers only moments after Russell Wilson was traded to the Broncos and at the end was a box for you to write out your immediate feelings. I have over 200 of those comments and I’ll gradually spread them out.
Here are three comments that were short, to the point.
“I think it sucks. Drew Lock? Give me a break.”
I wonder if fan opinion on Lock has turned at all in the last 10 days?
“I hate Elway”
Popular sentiment. Really popular.
“Ahhhhhhhhhh!”
This may sum up the trade better than any of the other 200+ comments.
More reasons why Seahawks haven’t traded Tyler Lockett
I conceded before free agency that actually no, Seattle shouldn’t and wouldn’t trade Lockett. When the Packers lost Davante Adams, this didn’t move the needle for me. I even saw many fans contemplating a DK Metcalf trade, even though they were the same fans who criticized a Russell Wilson trade?
Then on Saturday, the Rams traded Robert Woods to the Titans and only got back a 2023 sixth round pick. I was surprised that LA got anything though.
A 2023 sixth is the same as a 2022 seventh. Woods is great and he might be great next season, but at 30-years-old, coming off ACL surgery, and costing $10 million in base salary, how many teams were in the market? Lockett isn’t coming off injury and that’s a major distinction when comparing the two, but everything else is relatively the same.
They’re valuable 30-year-old receivers with a $10 million base salary.
Lockett’s a big deal to the Seahawks and they sure as hell didn’t sign Allen Robinson, so no move was going to happen without being blown away. A seventh round pick—or even a fourth round pick—is not going to blow Seattle away for Lockett.
Where’s Rashaad Penny?
I told Corbin that I was going to use this projection to base how I feel about all of his projections for the rest of time. Fairly or not. On one hand, he may lose me forever. But if the Seahawks sign Rashaad Penny on Sunday, think of all that LOYALTY!
Speaking of loyalty, here’s a seven-round Seahawks mock draft for Regular Joes subscribers. If you’re not subbed, I get it, but I think you’re missing out on some fascinating potential connections in the draft on days one, two, and three.