FanPost

Balancing 'Win-Now' with 'Building Towards the Future'

Here is a link to all the team's transactions in 2010 on Seahawks.com:

http://www.seahawks.com/team/transactions.html

Pulling certain players from that page, here is my perspective on how they affect winning today vs. winning in the future.

Signed/Traded For:

Mike Williams (BMW): Win today, win tomorrow, win forever.

Ben Hamilton/Chester Pitts: Stop-gap today, no future.

Lawyer Milloy: Win today, while mentoring young defensive backs for tomorrow.

Chris Clemons: Surprising contributions, surprising health. 29 years old. Debatable future.

Brandon Stokley: Immediate Contributor. No long-term future.

Kentwan Balmer: Strongside DE today because of Red Bryant's injury. Could be part of long term rotation.

Marshawn Lynch: Please give him more time with a healthy Okung... YPC went way up yesterday. Fumbles as well. Better backfield partner with Force than Julius Jones.

Charlie Whitehurst: In my opinion, no. Not given enough time as of yet to prove either way.

Released/Traded Away:

Josh Wilson: Would have been better today, but trade paved way for Thurmond III playing time.

Rob Sims: Not seen as pure "ZBS" fit. Major loss in lieu of abandonment of pure "ZBS." Major loss regardless.

Kevin Vickerson: Confusing. How is Guitar God Craig Terrill better today or tomorrow?

Lendale White: No.

Seneca Wallace: Replacement level today. Nothing more, nothing less.

Darryl Tapp: Not a Leo(per se) and not big enough for strongside. Right guy, wrong scheme.

Deon Grant: Too small for SS, too slow for FS.

Draft:

Russell Okung: Right GD Now. Stay healthy for 10 years please.

Earl Thomas: Start Immediately. Make rookie mistakes. 10+ years.

Golden Tate: Spot duty. Needs to take his lumps and grow.

Walter Thurmond III: Amoeba, Bandit, crazy dime package participant. Larry Fitzgerald's nemesis. What a great gamble and potential success.

Etc, etc, etc.

This is obviously just a sampling. 250+ transactions, many with the same players over and again, is astronomical. My point here is to say, on the grand scale, that I have faith in this Front Office based upon their talent evaluation and willingness to take risks on players. Many of these players are part of the solution beyond this year and next. If you were to put Seattle on the spectrum of win now on one end and full rebuild at the other, they would fall somewhere in the middle. The risk of being in the middle? Mediocrity now to be followed by mediocrity later. The hope? Mediocrity now that maintains suppressed excitement among the fan base followed by success.

Sam Presti took the Seattle Sonics(sorry to bring them up) and gutted the team. They stockpiled top draft picks, took some great players, and suffered through a couple years of bad play. Their patience has been rewarded and they will be great for years. Maybe the Seahawks should have done that, like so many here want. It doesn't always work. Many cities do not have the patience to endure the few years of bottom-dwelling. OKC was the perfect fit because it matched a complete rebuild with a brand new city coveting a major team regardless.

There are several ways to skin the cat, and based upon team performance, must be adjusted just like a team would adjust at halftime. Forgive my optimism, but I like what I see.

Sea!