Seahawks getting older, and not better

The Seattle Seahawks have broken their tendency this offseason of only bringing in young players. Thus far, it hasn’t led to an improved roster. 

The Seattle Seahawks rise from mediocrity to Super Bowl Champions was accomplished by creating one of the youngest rosters in the NFL. This season, they seem intent on reversing that course and getting significantly older.

Some of the change in age will come as the Seahawks keep their core intact over multiple seasons. The problem this season is that the Seahawks seemed to have dropped their desire to avoid old free agents.

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This might be ok in the sort term if they were bringing in quality players that are upgrades on the players who have left. Unfortunately, that hasn’t been the case.

Seattle let Bruce Irvin (29) go, and brought in a rapidly declining Chris Clemons (34). Seattle let multiple offensive linemen go, including Alvin Bailey (24), would could have been kept with a relatively tiny salary. They then brought in J’Marcus Webb (27), who has been nothing short of terrible and is now on his fourth team.

Then came the news yesterday that Seattle has brought back Brandon Browner (31). Browner has been declining since every year since peaking in 2012. He’s also had three teams give up on him in three seasons, including the Seahawks.

The Seahawks currently have 8 players on the roster that are 30 or older. That is a lot, and he most in the Pete Carroll era.

Of course, there is no guarantee that any of these older players, except for maybe Webb and punter Jon Ryan, are going to be on the roster when the season starts. In the case of Browner and Clemons, the odds are clearly stacked against them.

The Seahawks enter the draft with nine draft picks. Given John Schneider’s tendency to trade down, they’ll like be adding at least 10 players in the draft, as well as 8-10 undrafted players once the draft is complete.

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Any improvement by Seattle will have to come from those players. The ancient veterans signed this offseason are only making the Seahawks older, and not better.