David Hawthorne Leaves Seattle For Saints

David Hawthorne finally got a decent offer from a team, and it wasn’t the Seahawks. The team’s former starting MLB is off to New Orleans on a 5 year deal.

The Seahawks were never really in the picture to retain Hawthorne. Reportedly, they didn’t even make him a contract offer until about 2 weeks ago, and were never offering more than a 2 year deal. It’s clear that the Seahawks viewed him as replaceable, and weren’t going to overpay.

The Saints, on the other hand, are looking at the possibility of having many of their defensive players suspended as a part of the bounty program. They were clearly desperate, otherwise they wouldn’t have given a 5 year contract to an undersized and injury prone LB that no one else was all that interested in signing.

For the Seahawks, this move does increase the odds that Seahawks use an early pick on a LB. Luke Kuechly is going to be the obvious choice at 12, and will be the player that the Seahawks are link to most pre-draft, but don’t be surprised if the the Seahawks move back and look at Donta’ Hightower, Zach Brown or Lavante David as well.

Another option could be to trade the 12th pick to Oakland for Rolando McClain and picks, possibly next season’s first round pick.