Seahawks News: Could NFL’s Deepest Roster Afford Andre Johnson?

Dec 5, 2013; Jacksonville, FL, USA; Houston Texans receiver Andre Johnson (80) carries the ball against the Jacksonville Jaguars at EverBank Field. The Jaguars defeated the Texans 27-20. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

Much like he did in Houston, Johnson would immediately turn any fringe-squad such as  into a playoff contender but based on his original reasoning he would relish going to a place like New England or Seattle much more than Cleveland, Carolina or Oakland. Making it viable for a team in the upper echelon of the league to take him on in year one to go after a ring is something he would apparently be willing to do, as long as he gets everything he is owed. For Seattle to pull him out, it might take a little more charity on the side of the Texas-sized superstar.

Miguel Benzan of Patsfans.com did a nice piece up for New England on what the possible contract scenarios would be for the Patriots to acquire Johnson. Seattle has more younger pieces than NE that they could center the trade around too, if this restructure thing were to be an option for Pete Carroll and John Schneider. They’d pay pretty heavily in 2015 and 2016 but by letting a couple high-priced non-priorities go, they might be able to swing it.

The biggest issue with any potential deal is of course that Houston really doesn’t like the dead-cap situation. At the moment isn’t willing to give up $12 million and their best player, though a huge pot of return goods would definitely cause a stir. Right now the Hawks may be one of the only teams deep enough to create and throw together such a pot that Houston couldn’t refuse if they’re serious about winning the AFC.

Another issue, in the Hawks’ case, is that Pete Carroll has built his offense on toughness and athleticism and he absolutely loves Marshawn, which likely puts Lynch out of the trade picture this season (at least I would assume) as he is the identity of everything they do offensively.

This isn’t quite like the Klay Thompson/Kevin Love saga between Golden State and Minnesota, after all. While the Warriors want to re-sign Klay for big money and really center their offense around him, the Seahawks soon won’t be able to afford Lynch’s contract, he has to go at some point. But he still might be Pete Carroll’s favorite chess piece.

If it were next season, this would be a better scenario to trade the RB away and dump his contract (though they wouldn’t save any money in the long run doing that), but this season might not work at all that way. Adding Johnson would definitely replace the athletic loss on the field, but it would also change the offense at least somewhat. You can’t have all those elite weapons running around and not throw the ball more, you just can’t.

Finally, the other big issue is two-fold; that the Seahawks don’t need an Andre Johnson to be Super Bowl (repeat) contenders and that the team is already fashioned in such a way that they will be able to deal with the massive and vital future contract of Russell Wilson after next season. It already won’t necessarily be easy as-is. Adding another huge multiple-year contract just makes that even more difficult, maybe too difficult.

Bottom line it would be sweet to see a Russell Wilson to that ridiculous pairing of receivers in Seattle, but the ramifications are likely pretty severe if Seattle has any shot of pulling the trigger because they have so much cap space tied up in their Defense right now. The deal would be a Madden-gamer’s dream, but it’s likely just not feasible on paper unless the Texans take on at least two, possibly three pretty large contracts from Seattle as well as their $12 million dead-cap space.

All that said, Andre Johnson to Seattle probably won’t happen, but we’ll keep our ears to the ground just in case.