4 worst Seahawks free agent signings under John Schneider

Seahawks’ worst free agent signing No. 1: Running back Eddie Lacy

2017 was simply a bad offseason for John Schneider. Not only did he sign Joeckel but he also made the serious mistake of adding running back Eddie Lacy. I would never say John Schneider is a lazy person because he is definitely not, but his specific evaluation of Lacy prior to bringing Lacy to the Seahawks seemed a bit lazy. Lacy was coming off a serious ankle injury in 2016 and it wasn’t clear if he was going to be right for the 2017 season, plus he had major conditioning concerns.

Lacy didn’t seem to want to be in shape. Therefore, one might question how badly he wanted to play football. The Seahawks, especially Pete Carroll, like to have players that play with the proverbial chip on their shoulders. Lacy was the complete opposite.

The way Schneider had to structure Lacy’s contract should have been a red flag to Schneider. The running back was signed to a one-year deal worth up to $4.25 million with $2.86 million of that being guaranteed. Most of the rest of the contract were built-in incentives to make sure Lacy stayed under a certain weight. Lacy didn’t make most of those guarantees. If you are having to pay a player to try to be in shape, you probably shouldn’t have that player on your team.

Lacy ended up playing in nine games in 2017 and only ran for 179 yards on 69 carries. That means his average rushing attempt was just 2.6 yards. Seattle was so poor at running the ball in 2017, partly due to the fact they thought Lacy could be a big part of the rushing attack, that Russell Wilson led the team in rushing yards with 586. This was 346 yards more than any running back. Like Joeckel, Lacy never played again in the NFL after 2017.