Three trades Seahawks should make to make 2021 better
By Lee Vowell
Akiem Nicks
Jake Heaps totally hit on this. The Seahawks have a big question mark at depth at defensive tackle behind presumed starters Poona Ford and Bryan Mone (both undrafted free agents when they came to Seattle) and veteran Al Woods. Does Seattle need to add another veteran to add in the mix? Yes.
The problem is now if Ford or Mone get hurt, Seattle is going to be forced into moving a player like L.J. Collier or Kerry Hyder inside to play a lot more snaps along the interior than maybe they would normally want or be required to. Collier and Hyder are both likely capable of playing decently on the inside but their strength lies in the versatility to play at defensive end and at defensive tackle. Ideally, they would only really play inside when it was a pass rushing opportunity.
Akiem Nicks is a massive human being at nearly 350 pounds but he still has the power and agility to create chaos to opposing quarterbacks with interior push (37 career sacks). He will turn 32 years old during the 2021 season so a team isn’t going to overspend to get him when his best pass rushing days are behind him and he is due to make $10.5 million this season.
But if Seattle can work out the same kind of deal they used to bring Carlos Dunlap into the fold in 2020 then Nicks would likely be good with the trade and Seattle could re-work some of Nicks deal where it wouldn’t eat up all the $7-plus cap space they have left.