Seahawks should take a long look at these free agent pass rushers
The Seahawks would have to pay big bucks here
Brandon Graham, 6’2″, 265 pounds, 30 years old. Unlike the previous gentlemen, Graham is no kid. He’ll be 31 before the season starts. The good news is that he’s exceptionally durable, as he’s only missed one game since 2011. His stats fell off a bit last year, but the Eagles rotated players through their defensive line quite a bit. Graham still had four sacks, nine tackles for a loss and eleven quarterback hits.
Pro Football Focus ranked him as the eighth best edge defender for 2018, just ahead of Jadeveon Clowney and Demarcus Lawrence. Despite his age, he doesn’t have that much wear and tear, as he only had 13 starts in his first five seasons. So far so good, right? So what’s the bad news? He’s probably going to be pretty expensive; spotrac.com lists his market value at $15.8 million. That’s a lot of change for a player who’s only tallied more than seven sacks once.
Trey Flowers, 6’2″, 265 pounds, 25 years old. C’mon now, how funny would it be to hear “Tray Flowers with the tackle”, and nobody knows who made the play? There are 45 better reasons for the Seahawks to go after Flowers. That’s how many quarterback hits he’s delivered over the past two seasons. He only got into one game as a rookie with New England, but in the last three years, Flowers has 21 sacks and 164 total tackles.
Pro Football Focus has Flowers rated as the best of the free agent defensive ends, sixth overall. He can move inside, too, and you know how much the Seahawks love flexibility. So what’s the problem with Flowers? Money is the only issue here. Like Graham, Flowers is a guy who will break the bank. He’s listed by spotrac.com with a market value of $15.3 million. A player with better stats and five years younger? I’d certainly go with Flowers.
Next. Four free agents the Seahawks should target. dark
As to why the Patriots might let him go, it’s all about the salary cap. New England has less than $21 million in cap space. I haven’t seen anything about the Patriots fighting to bring him back, unlike the Cowboys and Marcus Lawrence, the Texans and Jadeveon Clowney, or the Seahawks and Frank Clark, for that matter. For my money, Flowers is the prize pass rusher in free agency that Seattle could actually land.