Looking at Lucas?

by: Michael Steffes

Could the Seahawks be looking to bring back Kenny Lucas? Brad Briggs, who authors "Inside the Bears" for the Chicago Sun-Times is hearing that. The Bears had Lucas in for a visit today, and he mentions in this blog post that "it is believed that Seattle, Lucas' original team, also has interest in him." A very interesting development indeed.

Lucas left Seattle the year that Tim Ruskell arrived. It was a very difficult situation, if you recall. Walter Jones, Matt Hasselbeck, and Shaun Alexander were all free agents at the same time and Ruskell prioritized those core players, managing to keep all three. Lucas, however, took big money from Carolina in the first week of free agency. He was a quality player for the Hawks, and has been both good and bad during his stint in Carolina. Mostly, he mirrored the Panthers' performance--or more specifically, their pass rush's performance. As with every corner on that team, he has been hung out to dry in the years Julius Peppers (and with him the Carolina pass rush) was underperforming.

Clearly, Lucas did not get the interest he was hoping for since being released by the Panthers. If he is going to accept a lesser deal, it might as well be some where he is comfortable I suppose. A Bears writer saying it is "believed" Seattle is interested isn't even close to confirmation the Hawks want Lucas back, but this does open up an interesting line of discussion. So have at it, Addicts!

My thought is that Lucas is worth a look on a short term deal. I am in favor of the team putting its draft mostly to the offensive side of the ball, so getting a biggerish (made up word!), veteran corner gives the team another option if Kelly Jennings proves that an improved front seven doesn't help cure his falling down problem. Adding Lucas does that without using another high pick on a corner. However, if the team didn't bring him in, I wouldn't cry either. END