No reason for the Seahawks to release Malik McDowell yet

Seahawks found another silver lining in this cloud

What that boils down to is, no one is sure of what will happen. The biggest deadline for any relief is June 1st. As Condotta notes, in the past the Seahawks didn’t waste any time cutting their losses with Matt Flynn or Percy Harvin. There are some key differences though. Those two had $10 and $12 million signing bonuses. And they weren’t on the NFI, obviously. As for why we haven’t heard more details of McDowell’s accident and his injuries, it’s still possible the Seahawks could go to arbitration to recoup some of his signing bonus. It isn’t likely they’ll do so, but it’s certainly smart to protect your financial interests, just in case.

The biggest difference is that McDowell could still pan out for the Seahawks. It certainly doesn’t look likely, but there was no way either Matt Flynn or Percy Harvin were going to contribute to the team. McDowell still has that chance, as slim as it is.

You know, there is another silver lining here. As John Clayton wrote a couple of days ago (you knew we’d get to Clayton, right?), the Seahawks gambled on McDowell. But they also protected themselves by following him down in the draft as his stock fell. Instead of just getting McDowell, they added defensive back depth in Delano Hill, Tedric Thompson and Michael Tyson. I suppose it’s important they landed their starting running back, Chris Carson.

The biggest issue of course is that McDowell regains his health. If he’s able to play for the Seahawks in the future, well, that would be an absolute burst of sunshine through the clouds, now wouldn’t it?