We are beginning to get to the silly season of the NFL offseason. The combine begins soon, and after that is free agency. Rumors and reporting will be rampant, and lots of moves will happen. Many of these will affect the Seattle Seahawks.
Seattle is fresh off a Super Bowl victory, of course, but faced with deciding how much to spend on re-signing its own free agents, let alone what free agents of other teams to chase. The good part is that the team has the sixth-most cap room in the NFL with $63,629,461, according to Over the Cap. Seattle can do almost anything it wants in free agency.
That hopefully includes bringing wide receiver Rashid Shaheed back. According to ESPN, that could very well occur as the four-letter site sees the Seahawks being the best fit for Shaheed.
Seattle Seahawks predicted to re-sign Rashid Shaheed in free agency
General manager John Schneider likely thinks so, as Shaheed turned out to be brilliant after the team gave two mid-round draft picks to the New Orleans Saints to get Shaheed at the trade deadline this season. Why give up so much if Schneider didn't believe he would be trying to keep the wide receiver around for much more than one-half of a season?
Plus, as all 12s know, Shaheed is much more than a wideout. He is a fantastic kick and punt returner, and he likely made as much of an impact on special teams as he did on offense, and in the best of ways. His punt return for a touchdown against the Los Angeles Rams in Week 16 was likely season-altering, especially in terms of playoff seeding.
Matt Bowen of ESPN writes, "(Shaheed can have an) impact in multiple phases of the game. He can work the third level of the field as a vertical target for quarterback Sam Darnold, and he is a dynamic and fearless kick returner. Shaheed has 29 receptions of 20 or more yards in his four-year career."
Darnold just missed Shaheed in the Super Bowl on a deep pass after the quarterback scrambled out of pressure, which would have made number 30. Hopefully, that connection isn't anything that stops after a half-season.
Shaheed is never going to be a mass volume pass catcher with the Seattle Seahawks because the team has Jaxon Smith-Njigba for that. Shaheed doesn't need to be. Instead, he simply needs to keep doing what he already does.
That is being a nice guy who cares about the fan base and how he can help his team win while catching some long passes and returning a kick or punt back for a touchdown every once in a while. He's a keeper, and hopefully he chooses to stay with the Seahawks.