Seahawks should take a serious look at Gerald McCoy

Pro Bowl defensive tackle Gerald McCoy was released on Monday. The Seahawks should think about possibly signing him to a multi-year deal.

The Seahawks need defensive line help. Seattle needs players who can pressure the quarterback and stop the run. Gerald McCoy was released by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday. He is a six-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle. If the money is anywhere near right, Seattle should think about signing him.

McCoy will be 31 years old during the 2019 season. This is not old for a interior defensive player. After Bruce Arians became coach of Tampa Bay this offseason, he made the comment that McCoy had not been as productive the last few years. Arians is wrong and McCoy’s statistics prove Arians to be incorrect. McCoy has a combined 19 sacks over the last three seasons to go with 24 tackles for loss and he has missed just four games.

Of course, a big reason McCoy was let go by Tampa Bay was that he was due to earn $13 million in 2019. That is a lot of money to spend on one player for a team that isn’t going to the playoffs this coming season. Or the season after that and probably the season after that. McCoy being let go might be bad financially for him but if he wants to win games, he was given a gift.

Seattle currently has quite a bit of cap space left for 2019. According to Over The Cap, the Seahawks have $25 million left for 2019. Seattle isn’t going to pay McCoy the $13 million he might have earned with the Buccaneers, but they might be able to pay him more than a lot of other teams right now.

Seattle, of course, traded Frank Clark this offseason and replaced Clark with the oft-injured Ziggy Ansah. Jarran Reed was fantastic in 2018. So if Seattle were to sign McCoy, they might be able to lure him in with a multi-year deal giving him some stability. If Reed were to leave in free agency after 2019, McCoy would still be on the roster to add quality to the line.

If McCoy were to sign, Seattle would have basically traded Clark, saving some money, and replaced him with Ansah and McCoy. For a team that has struggled with consistency of an interior pass rush the last few seasons, Seattle would have defensive tackles Reed and McCoy on the inside to help Ansah and L.J. Collier and others on the outside. Signing McCoy isn’t likely for the Seahawks, but it is still a really nice thought.