Seahawks caught in Dolphins’ Tyreek Hill Trade Rumor fantasy

Why the Seahawks are NOT interested in Tyreek Hill, and other answers

It would not be shocking if the NFL eventually got rid of the trade deadline. The league loves that we’re living in a social media age in which every little nugget by an NFL insider is trusted, unquestioned, and then spread like wildfire to every blog on the Internet. And who can blame the fans for believing it?

Wild things do happen in the league all the time. Just recently, Jalen Ramsey was traded for Minkah Fitzpatrick. Less than six months ago, the Seahawks traded two of their biggest stars and most important players. Many of these moves were preceded by rumors.

But most — almost all — rumors do not become moves.

In today’s Super Joes Q&A, I’ll address a Seahawks trade rumor du jour and do more. Upgrade to the Super Joes plan at a prorated annual rate to be a part of the next question session!

Scott M: Are we seriously looking into T Hill? That seems like bad idea to me...can we get a SSJ why /why not go after the cheetah?

I read “T Hill” and assumed you must by talking about Taysom. As far as I can tell there are absolutely zero rumors of the Seahawks being interested in Tyreek Hill. So I would say that if you had any concerns about Seattle going through with a “bad idea” that there is nothing to see here:

On August 10th, Jeremy Fowler said he had “talked to a few teams that are at least monitoring (Hill’s) future a little bit”, which already is not a story.

Then someone at Bleacher Report speculated that the Seahawks would make sense for Hill, which means that the Internet has already stretched a “barely-rumor” nugget into click-fodder for countless blogs that want to link it to the team that they cover for page views.

I would point you to one more piece of relevant information:

• Hill is due a $15.85 million roster bonus by the end of August.

• Hill is not worth that roster bonus to anyone, including Miami

• All of a sudden, an “NFL insider” has rumors of teams interested in Hill?

Which team makes the most sense as far as who is giving Fowler information of “teams interested” in Hill right now? The Miami Dolphins.

That tells me teams aren’t interested. A 31-year-old receiver who fell off last season, just returned to practice, and is due $25.85 million this season ($15.85+$10m salary) can’t be traded unless you’re GETTING a first round pick WITH him. The “why not” answer is every reason and the “why” pile is empty.

Cavmax: Interested in our new LB and Husky. Is he speedy, good tackler? Always hoping for the best for our local additions.

The Seahawks signed Alphonzo Tuputala, an undrafted free agent from Washington who had a tryout with Seattle in May, as a precautionary measure for training camp while Tyrice Knight deals with an undisclosed medical issue unrelated to his previously reported knee injury. Mike Macdonald expects Knight to be ready for Week 1.

We can easily look up the history of undrafted free agents in the NFL, but I’m curious about the history of undrafted tryout players in the league. Players signed immediately after the draft are typically higher-rated than tryout players, which I mention out of curiosity rather than as a criticism of Tuputala.

Can you remember any notable Seahawks tryout players from the past?

It would be perhaps the biggest shock of training camp if Tuputala were anything more than a practice squad player. Given how far behind he likely is compared to Josh Ross and D’Eryk Jackson, to say the least, he may not even come close to making the practice squad right now. It’s difficult to find significant differences between someone like Knight and Tuputala in terms of size, athletic testing numbers, or the respect they earned from college teammates and coaches. Tuputala was as respected at UW as a football player could be.

I think we all grew up knowing someone from our high school who was the best athlete we ever knew. Maybe that person played Division I football, and maybe we have a story about them almost making an NFL team once. I bet Tuputala is that guy for a lot of people at Federal Way High School.

But making the Seahawks this year is a stretch.

Dave Wyman sees Patrick O’Connell and Drake Thomas as the obvious choices to fill-in for Knight, if needed:

“I think that O’Connell could hold it down for a while,” Wyman said on Seattle Sports’ Wyman and Bob. “I’ve just seen lots of really good things from him. He’s quick. He gets off of blocks. … And I’d say the same thing about Drake as well. Drake Thomas also gets off blocks. He’s quick. So I feel pretty good about that.”

Going back to Tuesday’s article about special teams, Thomas is as high on Jay Harbaugh’s pecking order as anyone for a potential captain there. O’Connell is clearly high on the depth chart as the next man up. You’d need a compelling reason for Jackson or Ross to be demoted. With likely only four linebackers making the roster, Tuputala is at least two spots short, barring something unexpected happening in the next two weeks.

Rusty: We’re pretty clear where we still have some holes in the Seahawks (continuing O line concerns, inside LB depth, etc). What obvious holes do our division foes have at this time?

Rams: I’m updating my July 27th article about Matthew Stafford’s injury from “this is something to watch for” to “The ceiling for starts by Stafford might be 13 games”. I don’t expect him to go the entire season without an IR stint.

Aside from that, I don’t think the Rams have the same confidence in their offensive line as they’ve had the past two years (LT A.J. Jackson is out with blood clots, C Coleman Shelton is just a journeyman, and RT Rob Havenstein is 33 and somewhat injury-prone). Their run defense was also abysmal last season, and I didn’t see them do much to address it. The Rams have Super Bowl blood in their veins, but with these injury concerns, there’s a chance they could bleed out.

49ers: There is more pressure on Robert Saleh* to fix the defense than there is on Kyle Shanahan. I think it’s difficult for anyone to say how much better San Francisco’s defense will be with Saleh or what the Niners’ weaknesses might be on the side of the ball because they’ve made a lot of changes:

• The 49ers had the inverse version of Seattle’s all-offense draft: Six picks on defense, including one first (Mykel Williams), one second (Alfred Collins), and two third round picks (Upton Stout, Nick Martin)

• Not a ton of moves in free agency, but you will see former Seahawk Tre Brown competing with Stout at nickel

Like Stafford’s situation, we’re talking about a team that is pinning their hopes on some “old” players (Trent Williams is 37, Christian McCaffrey is RB-old 29, George Kittle is 32) and players not in camp because of injuries like Brandon Aiyuk.

*Reminder: Saleh was brought back to his old job to replace Nick Sorensen, a one-year flop as the defensive coordinator in 2024…think of it like their version of replacing Ryan Grubb with Klint Kubiak

The 49ers ranked 31st in red zone defense last year, 29th in points allowed, and had arguably the worst defense in the league during the second half of the season. Can you fix that by changing coordinators? Seattle is asking a similar question about its offense. A more glaring weakness for the 49ers is at wide receiver, despite their significant investments in the position.

Cardinals: This has to be the make-or-break season for Kyler Murray.

“Murray’s dead cap number almost halves after this season,” Orr wrote. “The former No. 1 pick is not a bad quarterback, but the Cardinals will likely conclude that the club has maximized Murray in Arizona and that it’s best to recoup some kind of draft asset before pivoting. Murray had a six-game stretch at the tail end of last season in which he failed to top 100 in quarterback rating, and he has played just one fully healthy season since 2020.”

Simply put, I think the Cardinals will blame Murray if they miss the playoffs. They might even turn to Jacoby Brissett if the team struggles early in the season, as the coaches would likely argue they have a strong roster if the quarterback executes the game plan. Any head coach or GM who didn’t draft the quarterback will want a chance to replace them if the inherited quarterback fails to deliver wins.

I would put Murray in the “not that guy” category right now based on the past three seasons. Agree or disagree?

MTSeahawksFan: The strategy behind how to place kick-offs is fascinating to me...what are the pros and cons of kicking short/kicking into the end zone/squib kicking/kicking out of bounds/etc? What skill sets should special team'ers have? I can't wrap my head around the new rules or how to best exploit them.

Grant: How big a deal is the K-ball preparation rule? What even is the rule now and did it change this season? Also, missed field goals of 60+ yards will result in massive field-position advantages. I can imagine we miss a 68 yard field goal attempt, the defense goes out and gives up zero yards, then the opposing kicker nails a 68 yarder of they're own. How much more valuable will great place kickers become in the next couple years, especially if they can also master the "dynamic kickoff?"

I happened to address some of this on Tuesday and recommend the videos from Isaac Punts that are linked in it. As a matter of fact, I just recommend all of Isaac Punts’ videos. Here’s one that reviews a lot of what happened in special teams during the first preseason week and this may answer most of your questions:

Grant makes a great point about the cost of missing long field goals.

One study shows that drives starting at your own 40 or better result in a score about 50% of the time (35% TD, 15% FG), which means that any field goal try miss of 50 yards will result in giving up a touchdown about 1/3 of the time. This of course does not include tries at the end of halves, which would be safe to try from any distance assuming you don’t get blocked.

If a team misses a 60-yard attempt, then they’re giving up field position at midfield. But the data on these kicks is limited because 60+ yard attempts are still a new phenomenon:

• It looks like kickers went 4/14 from 60+ last season — it appears that this more than doubled the number of 60+ attempts in NFL HISTORY

• Cowboys’ Brandon Aubrey (2/4) is the only one who seems trusted or capable of these kicks so far

• The new K-ball rule could change these numbers…but it’s all speculative right now

I would also say that most of these attempts came at the end of a half. Even if Jason Myers is growing confident in 60+ yard field goal attempts due to the new rule, I doubt Mike Macdonald will start kicking field goals from midfield just because it’s 13-10 with five minutes left in the second quarter or 14-0 at the start of the third quarter. Those remain punting or go-for-it situations.

We’ll likely see a new record for 55+ and 60+ yard field goal attempts in 2025, but I don’t think it will dramatically change strategy from midfield. However, if a team gets the ball with 30 seconds left and is down by three points or fewer, they might try to reach their own 45-yard line and attempt a kick from there, which is wild but possible.

Chuck Turtleman: There are a lot of guys who we will need to sneak onto the practice squad. Any chance Drew isn't a "Lock" to make the final roster? He rarely looks even backup good.

In 2019, the Seahawks cut Geno Smith to free up a spot on the initial 53-man roster and then re-signed him the next day. If it’s a roster spot you’re after, that’s likely the only way Drew Lock wouldn’t make the final 53. He’ll be the backup.

Being good is almost beside the point. The backup is either the guy you want to start but think he isn’t ready (ex: Jaxson Dart) or a guy you don’t want to start but he’s attached to the starter at the hip. Lock is the guy that Seattle has been preparing to step in for Sam Darnold if needed and Jalen Milroe is the guy you want to start someday but isn’t ready.

During OTAs, Klint Kubiak said “nobody’s asking him to do that” when referencing Milroe’s effort to learn the playbook, because the staff has stressed “developing technique as a passer” and pushed preparation for game day to the side for now.

"The number one thing that stands out, the guy’s a worker," Kubiak said after Wednesday's practice, per Bob Condotta of The Seattle Times. "You see him in there at 4:30 in the morning on the field going through his plays. Nobody’s asking him to do that, but he’s out there putting in extra time. Seen him grow a lot from rookie minicamp to now, so been impressed with the kid."

If it wasn’t Lock, the team could have gone for Mac Jones, Cooper Rush, Nick Mullens, Gardner Minshew, Jameis Winston, Jacoby Brissett, Desmond Ridder, or some other veteran who also wouldn’t look that good compared to the top-20 or top-25 starters in the league. But they’re all backups because almost anyone who would look good in a game is being used as a starter.

The difference is that no one else has spent the entire offseason with Kubiak and Darnold, so Lock will be the backup.

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