Seahawks say goodbye to Malik McDowell, but the fallout continues
The Seahawks waived defensive tackle Malik McDowell today. Hindsight is 20-20, and at the time this looked like a good pick. But Seattle will pay for this.
In a move that was a long time coming, the Seahawks waived Malik McDowell just before training camp opened today. He was expected to wreak havoc on opposing teams, and anchor the defensive line for a decade. Instead, he never even made it to training camp, let alone play a down for Seattle. Injured in an ATV accident, it certainly seems his NFL career is over without ever taking the field. The ramifications of his draft will live on for quite some time, unfortunately.
The Seahawks biggest need heading into the 2017 draft was generally considered to be the offensive line. I don’t think you’ll find many people would dispute that. You probably remember that Seattle traded down about 16 times before finally settling on McDowell with the 35th pick overall. Okay, they only traded down three times before they finally used their pick. The moves down made sense, as there was a lot of value in after the first round.
It’s a shame neither Pete Carroll nor John Schneider are clairvoyants. Had they seen the future, they would have known their starting left tackle George Fant would blow out his ACL in a preseason game that summer. They wouldn’t have made that final trade with Jacksonville, and could have taken Cam Robinson after all. Or they could have traded down again and still managed to get defensive tackle Dalvin Tomlinson. Instead they spent $4. 4 million, McDowell’s guaranteed money, and have nothing to show for it.
Seattle Seahawks
What’s much worse is the chain of events that resulted from McDowel”s situation. Again, not blaming the team, and certainly not blaming McDowell. I’m pretty sure he’d much prefer to live out his dream of being part of a great defense on a playoff caliber team.
I’d go through every link of this awful chain, but Matt Ufford has already crafted a great piece for Forbes. You can read it here. Believe me, it’s worth your time to see how this one decision affected the Seahawks far beyond one position.
Often, people say there’s plenty of blame to go around. Not this time. There’s no blame at all. The Seahawks made a good pick, one many thought was a great pick. McDowell was simply out to have some fun one day.
Do people get injured on ATVs? Sure they do. They get injured driving cars, taking showers, and just living life in general. We wish Malik McDowell a full recovery, and the Seahawks better luck in all their future drafts.