For The Seattle Seahawks, “Winning” Free Agency Is Meaningless
By Keith Myers
Dec 9, 2012; Seattle, WA, USA; Seattle Seahawks celebrate with fans after Seahawks special teams player Malcolm Smith (53) recovered and returned a Arizona Cardinals punt return fumble for a touchdown during 1st half at CenturyLink Field. Mandatory Credit: Steven Bisig-USA TODAY Sports
One of the overarching trends we’ve seen recently in the national media is the near universal declaration that Seahawks have won free agency. A few of the guys at ESPN have taken it one step further and said that the Seahawks have won the entire offseason. Clearly some people specialize in adding hyperbole to their analysis.
First of all, I think its silly to say that the Seahawks “won the offseason” at this point. Free agency might be fun and everything, but any NFL “winning” thats done this time of year happens in the draft. Any attempt to declare an offseason winner now is a fruitless and pointless exercise.
Plus, what exactly does “winning the offseason” even mean. Last season, the “winner” of free agency was supposedly the Buffalo Bills, who spent big in free agency and added impact players like Mario Williams. The Bills ended the season at 6-10 and fired all of their coaches.
The year before, the so-called “winners” were the Philadelphia Eagles. The self proclaimed “dream team” went 8-8 and set the stage for their coaches to be fired a year later after yet another disappointing season.
Before that it was… you know what, I think we can just stop there. You can already see the trend, and it isn’t a pretty one. The truth is that the team that “wins” free agency usually doesn’t win much of anything once the games begin.
With that in mind, I’d rather lose the offseason.
I’m as excited about the 2013 Seahawks team as anyone is. This team was a legitimate contender in 2012, and did nothing but get better so far since the season ended. I understand why the national media is suddenly on the Seattle bandwagon. But come on…
Declaring the Seahawks “winners” right now; it’s nothing but noise.