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Evan Mathis Update: Cryptic Messages

By Alexis Bravo

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Evans Mathis’ visit with the Seahawks on Saturday came and went with no aroma of fresh ink drying. Whilst this may leave many fans worried for the sanctity of “Seattle’s little angel” Russell Wilson, and the the thought of even smaller holes for Lynch being forced to run through.

There is one glimmer of hope to cling to for many of us wanting Mathis to come here. Later that Saturday—around evening time—there was a discussion on Reddit (click here) about Mathis having a “good” visit with the Seahawks, and will “remain an option for team.”

This brought forth several comments by fans (and even opposing fans alike) of their opinion of the situation. While many of the comments were just Seattle fans essentially praying for someone of Mathis’ talent to grace Seattle’s offensive line looking for some form of consistency that it just hasn’t been there since the days of Walter Jones.

Others were giving Mathis extra offers – like one fan offered a whole 5 dollars from his pocket if he signed with Seattle. Something tells me that Mathis isn’t likely to accept that particular offer.

However, there was one interesting comment made by Reddit user f_gooner during the slew of comments. One user referenced that Seattle is playing a bad negotiating game. If they made him an offer, they surely would be outbid by another team because Seattle didn’t make a worthwhile offer. F_gooner then replied:

"“[the other user] are assuming that a vet wouldn’t consider possible success as extra value. I’m not saying he would give the Hawks a discount. But I’m not sure if Mathis has been on a team that will give him what he deserves on the field. He’s had a couple contracts. Maybe he wants to go out with a bang, but he could go the other way too and just want the most money.”"

F_gooner is correct. Sometimes players will forgo the fact that financially they could’ve been better off somewhere else, for the chance at solidifying their career with the ultimate prize—a Superbowl.

The alternative is to wallow amongst the lowest echelons of the league’s supremacy food chain (Browns, Raiders, Jags). It’s very similar to Kevin Williams last year; he took an extremely cheap contract for the chance of battling for a championship.

What makes this whole reddit comment thread interesting (and news worthy) though is that Evan Mathis left Hawk fans with a very cryptic message. Immediately following F_gooner’s comment, Evan Mathis left us with this simple two-word response: “bang bang.” What that means, though, that’s up for discussion. Your guess is as good as the next person.

The only way I see him signing with the Seahawks is if they find ways to free up cap room, like extending Mebane’s (who’s having an excellent pre-season) contract to lower his overall cap hit, but if the Seahawks find ways to move money around to make room, there’s still another sizeable problem.

Mike Rob has made it known that Kam Chancellor  is willing to holdout well into the season, Mike Rob says that, “[Kam] really feels that [the Seahawks] have the ability to pay him.”

That’s what makes the Mathis signing tricky. Does Seattle really need someone like Mathis considering how much better the line looked with just the moving of a few players around against the no-joke Kansas City pass rush?

What about making sure Kam is out there week one. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but either way, these next few days will be interesting to say the least.

(Update: Mathis hinted that 3.5 million with incentives are a good starting point.)

Next: Richard Sherman, future coach?

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