SEATTLE _ When I was the Seahawks' beat writer for this newspaper in 1996 _ hello, Rick Mirer! _ I remember being assigned a story on why there wasn't more trading in the NFL, particularly at the trade deadline.
I dutifully sniffed around, talked to some general managers and analysts, and got consistent answers: Because that's the way it has always been. Because draft choices are too valuable, players too unpredictable, and playbooks too complex to learn in the midst of a season. And because that's the way it has always been.
That was one area, at least, where baseball had football stone-cold beat in owning the news cycle. The lead-up to the MLB trade deadline was filled with non-stop conjecture, rumors and speculation, building up to rapid-fire wheeling and dealing. The results often meant the difference in deciding pennant races _ and jump-starting the rebuilding process for the downtrodden teams. Fans ate it up (and still do).
Well, guess what? Somewhere along the line, the NFL has jumped on board, and co-opted yet another portion of the sporting calendar _ right in the middle of the World Series, no less. The NFL's October trade deadline used to be a general snoozefest, interrupted only periodically (and spectacularly) by the likes of the Herschel Walker deal from the Cowboys to the Vikings in 1989, and the Eric Dickerson deal from the Rams to the Colts in 1987. They were blockbusters made even more stunning by their sheer rare nature. And they served as a cautionary tale for more such dealing by the way they backfired on the team acquiring the superstar.
For a variety of reasons, however, the league has slowly come around to the notion that not only is the trade market an acceptable and valuable form of team-building, but doing so in midseason makes all the sense in the world. And that holds true if you're gunning for a Super Bowl, as the Seahawks are, or punting on the season, as the Miami Dolphins did long ago, and other teams are on the verge of doing.
Just as in baseball, NFL general managers have become more progressive in trying a variety of previously neglected methods of either revamping or rebuilding. The fact that fewer executives are given the time and leeway to succeed that they used to has hastened the process, as has the rise of analytics. So, too, it must be said, has the increase of players agitating for a trade and trying to steer their own fate, a la their NBA brethren.
The upshot is that the next few days before Tuesday's deadline will be buzzing with trade scuttlebutt, and probably action. Nowadays, the NFL trade deadline has become a valuable method for teams to fill holes that have emerged in the first half of the season. And more and more, the NFL is emulating the MLB model for bottom-feeders who have determined that contention is not in the cards. Just as baseball teams dump their high-priced veterans for prospects, so too are NFL teams shipping out vets � not for prospects, but rather draft picks.
That's good news for the Seahawks, who at 5-2 still have aspirations of contending for a title this year. As Russell Wilson said Thursday, in the wake of Seattle's disappointing loss to Baltimore, "Everything is still in front of us." The Seahawks' weaknesses have certainly revealed themselves _ and you can count on Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider to be aggressive over the next 72 hours or so in trying to fix them.
The Seahawks, in fact, have always been ahead of the curve in this regard. And I'm not just talking about Monday's acquisition of safety Quandre Diggs from Detroit (part of a flurry of deals already this month and last that has seen valuable players like safety Minkah Fitzpatrick go from Miami to Pittsburgh; cornerback Jalen Ramsay from Jacksonville to the Rams; cornerback Marcus Peters from the Rams to Baltimore; wide receiver Mohamed Sanu from Atlanta to New England; and wide receiver Emmanuel Sanders from Denver to San Francisco). In virtually every case, the team with its eyes on the playoffs got a player to plug into the lineup; the other team got draft picks they hope will put them there soon, in a league designed for quick turnarounds.
There's surely more of that to come, too. Eight teams already have five or more losses through the seventh week of the season, and another six have four losses and some serious soul-searching to do. All the rest consider themselves serious contenders. That's a pretty even mix of teams looking to add and those possibly willing to subtract _ a perfect formula for a frenetic Monday and Tuesday.
The Seahawks could obviously use help at tight end with the season-ending injury to Will Dissly. I'd suspect that's where Schneider would (and should) concentrate his efforts, particularly if the Duane Brown injury is serious enough to keep stealing George Fant away from his preferred role as a blocking tight end. The tight-end names being thrown around as potentially on the market include Tampa Bay's O.J. Howard, Cincinnati's Tyler Eifert, and Atlanta's Austin Hooper. There are surely others.
It's possible the Seahawks could look to beef up their wide receiving core, or tinker with their defense. Schneider showed long ago that he's not one who is shy to pull the trigger on a trade at any time of the year. He is the one, after all, who acquired Marshawn Lynch from Buffalo in October of 2010, and Duane Brown from Houston in October of 2017. Six days after the Lynch trade, Schneider undid one of the Seahawks' worst-ever midseason trades; wide receiver Deion Branch who had been acquired from New England by previous GM Tim Ruskell for a first-round pick in 2006, was sent by Schneider back to New England for a fourth-round pick. That pick turned into K.J. Wright, still a Seattle defensive mainstay. Similarly, Schneider traded the previous regime's biggest draft bust, linebacker Aaron Curry, to Oakland in October of 2011 for a seventh-round pick that become guard J.R. Sweezy, a starter on Seattle's Super Bowl-winning team.
A lot of good work can be done in October, coming and going. And look for the Seahawks to try to get another piece of the action.
