According to Adam Scheffter at the NFL Network, Marcus Trufant has been tagged. This costs the team 9.5 mil against the cap if they are unable to work out a long term deal.
This obviously shows that the team believes reaching a long term agreement before tomorrow afternoon would be difficult. It could also mean that they are willing to let Josh Brown and Sean Locklear test the market. Overall this is a good sign, the defense remains intact from last year.
This is also being confirmed by profootballtalk.com and Seahawks.net (3:31pm)
UPDATE--(3:20) Currently this leaves the Hawks with a little over 110 million against the cap. And that doesn't include Wahle's bonus amount. At best it is less than 6 million of cap space. Hawk fans can expect some roster tinkering this week in an effort to gain some cap flexibility. At some point they will also receive a cap credit for last year too.
Woo Hoo! that is what i thought they would do!
ReplyDeleteIt sucks he will command so much cap space, but he's a solid player and our best corner. He will also perform better in '08 with a one year deal than otherwise if he were handed a big long-term deal. Sadly, that just the way it is with most people; probably any of us too.
ReplyDeleteWhow!
ReplyDeleteIt's like little pieces of candy
every time I check your blog..
Thanks!
Costs a lot but we needed him to make a run in 08. Draft another cb in the later rounds this year and we'll maybe be able to replace him next year.
ReplyDeleteThe defense is intact but that's not good enough... we need a fatass DT who can plug the run with force. That would open things up so much more for our speed guys. In the passing game, that fatass doesn't need to get sacks, just enough push to help out our ends.
ReplyDeleteIf Locklear is gone so be it. I'm pretty sure he'd have been a better guard than tackle anyway. I have been excited about Willis since we draftet him. Maybe he'll be the RT next season.
ReplyDeleteAs for Trufant sticking around........I just don't think it is a bad idea to have good corners these days. Especially since we have to blitz to get pressure on the QB.
Michael K.
This is good news. Smart choice for the franchise tag.
ReplyDeleteAlso- I'm sorry I don't have a link for this (I looked everywhere) but I saw who our home opponents will be for 2008 on the bottom ticker on ESPN.
2008 Home Opponents
Arizona
SF
St Louis
Redskins
Green Bay
New England
NY Jets
Eagles
Away
Arizona
SF
St Louis
NY Giants
Tampa Bay
Cowboys
Dolpins
Bills
Well now, that's one less thing to worry about. Locklear is solid enough that I'd like to see him stick around until the team is absolutely sure it has someone better, and Brown is money in the bank (provided he has a good long snapper), but of those two I would love to see Brown locked up more than Locklear.
ReplyDeleteI'd like to see Lock stick around mostly so we'd have a LT for the future.
ReplyDeleteI'm okay with Willis at RT if Lock moves on... I'm just worried then that we're screwed if Walt goes down. At least if Walt goes down, we'll still be covered with Lock.
Steffes,
ReplyDeleteGreat work with this blog, nice to have one source for fast offseason Hawks news.
$9M is tough to swallow for a CB that has only had one good year in the pros, but I wouldn't feel too good about rolling out some K Jennings/J Wilson/Cheap FA combo. Minimal risk with a franchise tag too, makes every year a contract year (that is, unless we lock him up to a more cap-friendly long term deal).
Good luck!
I love me some Tru but 9.5 is too much, we just overpaid out of necessity not worth. The scary thing is that his Market Value is probably higher than 9.5 with so few options this year. Smart to slightly over pay one year and forecast a better shot at a deal next year than to lock him in long term for more than he is worth. Also, worried about filling other needs with very little cap room, bye bye Faneca, Hackett, Crumpler...
ReplyDeleteI am going to leave the Trufant post up for a bit, but some news you all will see later is that Corey Williams was tagged (DT) and Bubba Franks was cut. Rotoworld.com speculates that Holmgren will bring him on as a backup at the vet minimum
ReplyDeleteWow! I never thought Ruskell would spend that kind of dough on Tru. I'm elated and horrified at the same time. No one is really worth 9.5 million bucks a year, but there really wasnt any way to replace him this year. I hope he signs a "reasonable" long term contract soon.
ReplyDeleteI thought Tru's first thru third seasons were great, and his play suffered in '06 due to losing Lucas (Herndon wasnt as good) and switching sides. Tru plays best on the defensive left side. He is getting better too, as he generally went wherever the top wr went last year, regardless of which side. Tru keeps getting better, I dont think he's a one-year wonder. I think he'll be a fine cb for 5-7 more years. As he loses speed, he'll make up for it with guile.
Locklear is easier to replace than Tru. We might allready have our RT on the roster, for less money. Still, Lock is pretty good, I'd love to keep him.
Now we cant Franchise Brown, and he just isnt the top kicker in football yet. I want Hackett back, injury risk bedamned, he's our only deep threat with experience with Branch out.
-leshthomas
Is TE such a hard job?! There has to be a better option than tired old geezers like Bubba Franks, Crumpler, and Pollard! Still, if Holmy thinks Franks has some gas in his tank, he's got to be better than Pollard.
ReplyDeleteCome on Ruskell, work your draft magic and get us a sleeper TE and RB!
Mike Steffes--So, what is your best estimate of cap space the Hawks will have this year, after Wahle's bonus and Tru and everything is taken into account? How much $ can they save by tweaking/reworking contracts?
ReplyDeleteSounds to me like they only have 2-4 million bucks to spread over Hackett/Lock/Bently/Brown/Etc or thier replacements. Doesnt seem to work out no matter how Ruskell tweaks contracts...
I was a long time advocate for Seahawk Insider with Mike Sando, but it looks to me like you guys are the replacement! Great work, something new all the time. An updated blog is so useful in the off-season, when we're searching for any/all Hawk news!
ReplyDeleteAgreed, we definitely need Hackett back, but let's all face the harsh reality that we're not going to be big players in the free agent market this year (unless some tough cuts are made - read: Shaun Alexander).
ReplyDeleteI think it's time to start building again through the draft around our core players to set us up for another nice run at it. I doubt we're not going to make a big splash on an offensive lineman or tight end. We'll add some depth and get a couple more solid vets, but some of our holes will have to be filled by next year's rookies.
Its good news, but I think i'd rather have Lock and Brown than Trufant. Hopefully we can sign at least Locklear. The one thing we absolutely cannot do is get worse at any positions on the O line, and I think that happens if we lose Lock.
ReplyDeleteI subscribe via RSS to all the Seahawks blogs, and this site was the first to hit my reader with the Trufant news.
ReplyDeleteI think this was the logical choice. If anything it makes us suck it up and focus on having a good draft instead of over-paying for some has-been FA's for our needs
I can see him running back that INT against the Redskins!! So glad he will be on our side next year as well.
ReplyDeletethis is good news. in terms of free agents that we cannot do without, marcus is unquestionably the most important. without him, we have jennings and wilson as our starters. upper echelon corners are dissappearing fast, and you do not want to start a rookie corner if you want to get to the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteit would be very financially beneficial to lock him up long term, but usually doesn't happen.
i sincerely hope we can sign brown, but if he really wanted to walk we could come up with something. it wouldn't kill the season.
locklear will cost a lot simply because he is a tackle. it would be great if he stayed, but not for 5 million a year.
and hackett is as good as gone. he's not a ruskell guy, and for all his athletic potential, he will continue to spend more time on injured reserve than the football field.
we have no legitimate #1 receiver, and i expect ruskell to get one. hackett is not him.
Crap, that is a lot of money for one player. I agree, he is good, but 9.5 million? Wow. I sure hope we get him to sign a long term contract that will give us some more cap space.
ReplyDeleteRe: Josh Brown
ReplyDeleteGreat kicker--better than the stats indicate; best tackler at kicker; many people in Oklahoma think he is the best running back on the Seahawk roster.
Garrett Hartley (University of Oklahoma senior) has a stronger leg; has been making pressure kicks at long range since he was a Freshman at OU. May not be a great running back nor a great tackler but for the difference between fifth or sixth round rookie and $2.6, probably a reasonable solution to the cap issues.
Just heard about this site by word of mouth. Pretty impressive and look forward to making regular visits. Very happy to see Trufant back next year. A solid corner can change defensive schemes completely. He is in elite company now and him leaving would have killed us. With the TE issue I think we just need to draft one. I would rather have a younger, most likely faster and eager to learn TE than a slow, older and on the quick decline veteran. I also agree with Kelphelper, if Josh Brown wants to be the highest paid kicker in the NFL then let him walk, it won't change the season too much.
ReplyDeleteJust like when you make a trade- you've got to give up something to get something. Well...we got something, we ensured that Trufant will be a Seahawk in 2008. However, we probably gave up something as well by not inking him to a long term deal- either J.Brown, Locklear or Hackett, or perhaps a collection of them.
ReplyDeleteThis is where the depth and drafting will be tested. Will Ray Willis be ready to play every Sunday? Are Obomanu and Courtney Taylor and the others ready to play and contribute as we've been lead on to believe?
Great teams get unknowns to step up helping them win. Its time for the Hawks to take that leap of faith. I extrapolate that the Hawks have more faith in Willis and Obomanu/Taylor than they have in Josh Wilson/Babineaux to step up to the level of production from the predecessor.
That is their gamble. Is it wise? Time will tell.
I like keeping the defense together though. Trufant is certainly a core player on the D, and he's a good kid too!
Not sure if this has been mentioned here yet but the packers cut tight end bubba franks. I guess he's been hurt a lot recently right? He at least used be known as being pretty good. I haven't followed him much though. Might the Hawks be interested?
ReplyDeleteRelieved that tru stays on board.
ReplyDeleteI just hope that Ruskell doesn't think that Ashworth is the answer at RT.
ReplyDeleteBubba Franks is horrible. There's a reason he was released... and it wasn't b/c he was making $10 million this upcoming season...
ReplyDeleteI'd rather have Pollard and we all saw what a waste of space he was in the Green Bay game.
Dumb, dumb, dumb. There goes Locklear, and our right side. There goes the chance to sign a free agent DT and WR. Your poll must be using Dibold machines with no paper receipts of who was really voted for, like the ones tht stole the 2004 election for Bush. I can't believe only 5 people are sane enough to say that Ruskell needs to go.
ReplyDeleteJust because Trufant got tagged doesn't mean they still can't work out a more cap-friendly long term deal. Don't know how likely it is, but I also don't think a lot of people posting know that it is still an option.
ReplyDeleteToo bad the front pffice couldn't come to agreement with some of these guys before the franchise tag deadline.....but who knows, the dominoes may start to fall (hopefully)!
And that's going to happen in March, in the main free agency period? I don't think so.
ReplyDeleteThis front office, even before Ruskell somehow got hired, has never extended it's top free agents and only the last second Hasselbeck and Jones deals kept them from hitting free agency. And got Alexander Franchised,then signed to big bucks the next year. Lucky us.
If the "right side goes" that's partly a good thing, as Gray was as shitty as a stinky dump and our extention of an o-line (Pollard) was as good as a deadbeat loser pile-of-crap.
ReplyDeleteLock is nothing special in the running game but at least he was okay in pass protection. As far as I'm concerned they can blow the entire right side up and start over.
I know Lock is a good player and that it's not his fault that Ruskell isn't smart enough to get someone decent on either side of him to play.
Think about it, was there any Seahawk FA more worthy of the Franchise Tag? It's not like last year when they placed the Tag on Brown. Tru is worthy of the Tag. Hopefully, they can convert the Tag to a cap-friendly long term deal like they did last year with Josh Brown. Oh yeah! Oooops.
ReplyDeletewould cutting ashworth free up some money?
ReplyDeleteHorrible move. Trufant had his best year simply because of the pass rush. Our biggest problem the entire year was the o-line. Now they are going to let the 2nd best player on the line walk away? The better get Lock signed or this is going to be another frustrating year. For those who can think Willis can just start playing, look at Spencer and Sims...
ReplyDeleteGray was gone this year no matter what, certainly as a starter. Now there's talk of moving that turnstile Sims over to RG. Oh goody, we can watch him get thrown around like a rag doll and bull rushed on the other side of the line, with a such a real proven commodity as Ray Willis, the guy would couldn't beat out Gray for guard when Holmy threw the whole right side open for competition last off season, now starting at right tackle. Hasselbeck better pay up his Blue Cross, he's going to need it.
ReplyDeleteLess than $6 million? Hell, we couldn't even fix Steve Austin for that, even if we had the technology. And here I thought we had about $8.5 mil. That flushing sound you hear is the 2008 season.
ReplyDeleteJeez mysticseachicken... you are the positive one aren't you? everyone relax for a few days.... you might be surprised by what the Seahawks and yes Ruskell come up with. I think Ruskell is doing a good job!
ReplyDeleteReally like PapaHawk's input!
ReplyDeleteMysticchicken, breathe, in - out
Like the move, but it cost too much.
I think that Holgren was going to play Gray no matter how the others played.
Can someone correct me if I am wrong, buy are all Offensive Lineman categorized the same in regards to franchise tags? If so, why would we give Locklear Walter Jones money? I agree he is good but really I think this move was the right thing. If this is the case then franchising Locklear was not an option.
ReplyDeleteAlso, signing Franks or Crumpler is a mistake - we just get older. Draft the USC tight end in the 1st, then pick up a RB in the 2nd. One of the top 5 RB's will drop to us in the 2nd or Ruskell can trade up - this year's draft is deep at RB and we can plug two out of three holes - TE, RB, OL - in the first 2 rounds.
Hey dude, this is a great site. I am a HUGE Hawks fan living in Canada. I think Tru's franchise tag is a good move. He's a quality corner and my hope is that they work out a long term deal with him to allow them some flexibility to fill other needs. Would love to see a kick### DT.
ReplyDeleteHey, any word on Shaun Rogers? Is there a chance that we can still land him?
ReplyDeleteOK, I'm done freaking out. But nonetheless we're in a real cap mess as I see it. Tagging Trufant still appears to be a mistake. If he'd had numbers even remotely close to Nate Clements, yeah. But he's done nothing before last season. Is it because of better coaching, a better pass rush, better safties around him, all of the above? I don't know. I do know that he has not had a career that justifies a $9.5 mil Franchise Tag cap hit. So where do we recoup this amount of money? Does cutting Ashworthless, Tubbs, Darby, Pearman and a few others recoup it?
ReplyDeleteWell Dallas Clark just signed a 6 year deal with the Colts, after he got Franchised, so maybe there's hope.
ReplyDeleteAnon, Locklear would have gotten Jones type money if he'd been Franchised because he's a tackle, and they go by the average salary of the top 5 highest paid players at your position if Franchise Tagged, or top 10 if Transition tagged. At least that's the way I understand it. Hutchinson would not have gotten tackle money if Numbskull had Franchised him, he'd have gotten the average of the top 5 highest paid guards at the time.
If we have to choose between losing a combo of two of three between Locklear, Hackett and Brown I'd rather lose Hackett and Brown. Hackett has been on the field so little his presence (or lack thereof) won't be missed, and kickers are not irreplacable no matter how good Brown has done at Qwest. Locklear gets no love here, but I think he is highly important. Did a study of one game last year, using the play-by-play from NFL.com on a game (I forget which at the moment), and we did as well or better running around right end as we did left end. The one play that went over right guard was a disaster. If I have the time this weekend (and I probably will, I'll do a study of all 16 games and compare the yards running over left tackle/end, up the middle, and running over right tackle/end and post the results. So there.
We are not in any particular bad shape with cap room people...the reason we don't have much is because we have a pretty decent team NOW. The teams with tons of cap room are the ones who are rebuilding for the most part...they dumped a bunch of players and so they have a bunch of money. I would rather be in our situation with a darn solid team and just a little money to play with. The one move that's killing us is the Alexander deal, because his performance is worth $zero. The Deion Branch wasted money is just one of those things that happen when injuries occur. Some of you act like we are the only team with a finite pie of money...we aren't. We've spent our money fairly wisely I would say. Ruskell isn't a financial moron. We have plenty of talent, there's no excuse for us not to play at a very high level..now it's up to the coaching staff to work with what they've got. The Giants are a great example of that, as in GB.
ReplyDeleteTezzer21
I must disagree. We may be a "decent team" or even "pretty darn solid" but we're not a team that can compete for the NFC Championship as is. We still need to improve guard and center, we need to retain our starting right tackle, we need another big DT because Tubbs is done--he will never play another down, and we need a RB to replace Alexander. Not to menion a real tight end. And if Ruskell were not a financial moron he would extend players contracts BEFORE they got to free agency, he would not have tied up so much money in Alexander and let Hutchinson get away in the process, and he wouldn't have blown half or more of the teams cap on Franchising a very average cornerback.
ReplyDeleteSupposedly Trufant and his agent want a 5 year 8-9 million per year deal. They also want at least half, or 20-22 million, to be in bonuses, so don't be looking for any long term deal from this 'show me the money' guy any time soon. I forsee a long hold out before/if he ever signs the Franchise tender.
ReplyDeleteAlexander is a waste and a bad decision, but Branch is an injury and an ok deal?! That is anti-logic.
ReplyDeleteSA looked pretty good in '06 when not injured. Last year SA had three injuries and the worst OL in the history of the game. He is not the player he was, but he may still have some gas left in the tank.
Branch is the same deal--he has underperformed even when healthy, and has been hurt a lot.
As much as I have bashed Ruskell in the past, Branch and Alexanders deals didnt look so bad until they got injured. Sure, paying SA that kind of money at his age was risky, and it didnt pay off. But most of us were howling for Ruskell to sign him.
Paying Branch M. Harrison money when he is 5'8" tall and has never achieved 1,000 yards in a season was a mistake. But Branch could have been a fine player for us. Hindsight is 20/20. Without those injuries, Ruskell looks a lot smarter. Injuries are just the breaks.
Tubbs has one last chance to stay healthy, and he isnt that expensive. IF he stays healthy, the Hawks defense should be freaking monstrous.
-leshthomas