What Mike Salk has in common with the DK Metcalf fans who hate him
2 opposed sides, both overrating DK Metcalf, and neither willing to budge
Mike Salk is at it again. Eight months after the Seattle Sports radio show host first DK Metcalf trade proposal, to which I responded with “I just want to explain the salary cap to Mike Salk”, Salk took his previous double-down on a poorly calculated idea and decided to bet the farm on it.
Then: Explain the cap to Mike Salk (to which he said, “No thanks, ignorance is bliss”)
Now: Explain trade value to Mike Salk
In February, Salk went on the radio or Twitter or the Seattle Sports website, one of those, and said that maybe the Seahawks should trade Metcalf to save a bunch of money so that they could emulate the success of the Kansas City Chiefs by building a similar cap structure. What I was “explaining” to Salk then was twofold: Trading Metcalf at the time would cost the Seahawks cap space, not save, and the Chiefs are actually not frugal at receiver and receiving tight ends at all.
They just did a poor job of spending money on receivers and that’s why it appeared as though Kansas City was “cheap” on receivers as they were winning the Super Bowl. They had overpaid Marques Valdes-Scantling and expected too much of Kadarius Toney. In fact, the Chiefs were middle of the road on receiver spending in 2023 and they are again in 2024, but when you factor in Travis Kelce’s sole responsibility to catch passes from Patrick Mahomes, Kansas City is well above average in WR/TE spending because the Chiefs are currently spending $24.3 million at tight end, by far the most in the NFL.
When I wrote that article, which is easily one of the most popular Seaside Joe newsletters of 2024, some people got it in front of Salk and his response was essentially, “Well, it doesn’t matter, those are not important details.”
I respectfully disagree.
Someone who has the responsibility to be knowledgeable about the Seahawks before talking to tens of thousands of people on the radio should have an awareness of how to use websites like OvertheCap.com and Spotrac, both of whom make it EXTRAORDINARILY EASY to find out what it would look like for Seattle to trade DK Metcalf or anyone else. You don’t need to get accepted to MIT, you just need to have an Internet connection and if you don’t have a sports radio show in Seattle, then this might not matter. If you do, it does.
So for Mike Salk—by all accounts a nice person, which is not relevant—I think the excuse of “Well, I didn’t know” can only be used once in this situation.
Here we are eight months later and he’s doing the exact same thing with the exact same player. My take on his comments on Wednesday is that he’s essentially saying, “I don’t know if this is accurate, but I wanted to do it anyway.”
You’re not someone’s uncle. You’re not a casual fan. You’re supposed to be informing thousands of Seahawks fans how the Seahawks work. And not only are you openly admitting to not being that knowledgeable about how midseason trades work or where DK Metcalf’s value probably stands right now, you’re saying you don’t care that you’re not knowledgeable. Is that the best possible radio show about the Seahawks that Seattle Sports can come up with?
Maybe this is why I’m only tuning in to their show on coach day.
Daniel Jeremiah was on the Brock & Salk show on Wednesday and this was the interaction, which I’m going to follow up with explaining to Mike Salk (again) why his poll is absurd:
Brock Huard to Salk (smirking): Why don’t you ask him your poll question?
Salk: I did put up a little poll this morning, DJ. If you could trade DK Metcalf right now for a first and third round pick, would you do it? That’s the AJ Brown deal. That’s my basis for it. I don’t know if that’s fair or not. Maybe you couldn’t get quite that much. I don’t know the exact value, but I’m just taking AJ Brown as a rough equivalent.
Jeremiah: I’d be tempted. That’s a big haul at this point in time.
Where do we even begin to explain how NFL transactions, recent history of trades, and comparing DK Metcalf to A.J. Brown has put Salk into a corner (again) of having to prove that he has more knowledge about the league than the Seahawks fans who call into his show?