Clueless in Seattle

Time for a look at the off season moves of the Seattle Seahawks that have been questionable to say the least.

Seattle made a trade with Philadelphia that sent starting defensive end Darryl Tapp to the Eagles in exchange for defensive end Chris Clemons and a fourth round pick.
Tapp was a second round pick in 2006 and had 18 sacks in his four seasons in Seattle,but fell to only 2.5 sacks last season.
To me,that could be explained by the lack of pass rush from the opposite side that had been there in the past,but with Julian Peterson being traded and Rocky Bernard allowed to leave via agency and their replacements not quite replacing them,Tapp's production was clearly going to be hurt.
The fourth rounder is fine,but I don't see Clemons as being anything more than rotation depth.

The biggest move was the one that brought the most questions as Charger third string quarterback Charlie Whitehurst was obtained for more than they had to pay.
Seattle swapped second round picks in this years draft with San Diego,which dropped them roughly 20 spots and sent them their third round pick in the 2011 draft.
Had the Seahawks signed Whitehurst to a contract and the Chargers not matched,he would have cost just a third rounder,although it would have been a 2010 pick.
Instead,Seattle gave up more and then signed the former Clemson Tiger to a two year 8 million deal that could be worth more with incentives.
Apparently,Seattle had to have Whitehurst,who in four seasons with the Chargers has never thrown a regular season pass.
Quoting John Morgan at Field Gulls-"Seattle became the first team I can remember that signed a tendered player and agreed to trade more than the original tender in exchange."
This seems really excessive in my opinion.

Seattle signed former Jet and Patriot tight end Chris Baker to a deal for two years and 4.75 million to back up John Carlson.
Baker was a decent player at one time,but his production has dropped in each of the last two seasons and his time looks to be past.
I fail to see how this upgrades the position when you consider the cost that the Seahawks paid.

The final move was the waiving of veteran safety Deon Grant.
This means that Seattle will need a safety either in the draft or in the later free agency period.
Grant was not an All Pro of anything,but he was a starter with no one around right now that seems capable of replacing him...

So far,color me unimpressed with the new regime and I didn't even mention using the franchise tag on kicker Olindo Mare instead of Nate Burleson.
Burleson was the first name player signed in free agency and tagging him might have at least brought a draft pick in return.
Seattle has two first rounders in the draft and they need some home runs to make me feel even mildly optimistic for 2010.....

Photo Credits
Whitehurst-Getty Images