Golden Tate signs with the Lions

[HawkFan72]

I say we go after Decker... he's a tall one.

He'll be overpaid and he looked better than he really is playing in Denver.

 

[Smelly McUgly]

I say we go after Decker... he's a tall one.

Decker's not cost-effective. If Tate got 6.25/yr, Decker will get 7-7.5 a year.

I'd rather pay rookie deal prices for one of the many impressive WRs with potential in the draft.

 

[theascension]

I think we should relax, Golden Tate is very comparable to Nate Burleson of a few years past perhaps only slightly better and more versatile. I'm pretty happy he got the money he did but I think Pete and JS have a different direction they want to go with WR (get one tall one as many have said). 6M a year is too much for him and us.

 

[HawkFan72]

And Decker just signed with the Jets anyway.

 

[Scottemojo]

I say we go after Decker... he's a tall one.

Decker is as soft as a wet sponge.

 

[Tokadub]

Wow been out of the loop today... just now seeing this news.

I am VERY sad about this news, I would of rather kept Golden Tate than Bennett no question.

You just simply can't replace a Golden Tate, nobody is quite like him in the entire NFL that I know of. He's like a less explosive Harvin who is ten times more durable. Tate plays so hard every play while taking and delivering huge hits on a regular basis and I can't even remember him getting rattled.

Tate in my opinion has some of the best foot work I have ever seen, he takes these quick little steps and just makes guys look foolish out there. He also has world class balance while on the ground or in the air and makes spectacular catches.

In comparison Bennett to me doesn't seem nearly as gifted an athlete he's just an all around very good player who hustles. Nothing about him makes me think "Wow how does he do it!?". Really glad we kept Bennett he's a perfect fit for our team, but I think we'd have better chances to win if we had kept Tate.

My main concern is that if Harvin can't stay healthy we are going to be in BIG trouble without Tate. If Harvin stays healthy all year then we should be OK since Harvin will simply take Tate's spot. But if Harvin gets hurt... Baldwin is the only other guy who can make plays like Tate, but he's just a different type of player.

Tate saved us so many times when plays broke down and he would reroute for a first down. Nobody else on our team really did so much for us to win games when we were struggling with our offensive line. Whether it be a forgotten punt return that provided us the field position to win, or countless clutch first downs Tate was incredibly important for us.

Kearse can make nice catches but he's just a different type of player. We probably need to retain Zach Miller now for sure, and Luke Willson will need to step up.

I'd like to see Lockette get more involved as well, his catch in the Super Bowl where he crossed the field from the left while Harvin pulled two defenders with a sprint straight down field was brilliant. If we can fully utilize Lockette and Harvin's combined speed to break down defenses that would be fantastic, although it would have been even better if we had Tate out there with Baldwin or Kearse. We had the potential to be straight up overpowered and impossible to defend with our receiving core next season, without Tate I just don't feel that way.

I just don't like being in a situation where I feel like our entire offense now depends on Harvin staying healthy. Makes me very worried for next year. Maybe if Christine Michael has an incredible year and Lynch keeps playing well we could still manage, but I don't like how our receivers would look as a whole with no Harvin or Tate...

It still amazes me how so many people on this forum undervalued Tate in this off season. Things like "he's a #3 receiver" or "he's worth 3 million", etc. etc.

It's like somehow his one offsides kick fumble, and a below average production in an extremely small sample size of 3 playoff games people all the sudden think he's not good? In my opinion he was tied with Baldwin for our #1 receiver this season. Baldwin seemed to be slightly better with route running for really important plays, but I'd give all the other comparison edges including many intangibles to Tate. I just don't think you can say either guy is clearly better than the other and they were both hands down our best receivers.

He's worth easily 5 million/year and I was hoping we could keep him for that which would of been a huge steal. But clearly the Lions knew his potential and I'm guessing they pay him around 7 million per year (seems people saying 6 already on this page, which if that's true I'm very disappointed we couldn't match 6/year). I think Tate could get 7 mill/year or maybe even a bit more, I can't imagine we would just let him go without a fight.

Tate was our leading receiver in yards for our Super Bowl season. He had the second highest receiving yards in 2012 only 60 yards behind our #1 Sidney Rice, and he did it with 5 less receptions which with his 15.3 average he would be almost exactly the same total yards, not to mention he had 12 less targets.

I don't even want to get into how important his punt returns were when at one point Hauschka was leading the league in scoring and finished 4th with about 9 points per game. Field position was huge for us, if it wasn't for our incredible defense and Tate's return abilities there's just no way we would have been #1 in the NFC. To be honest we really struggled offensively and so many guys had to make huge plays for us to win 13 games, whether you wanna call it luck or fate that's up to you. But some of our victories like even the 49ers game in the playoffs was a razor thin margin.

So that's all the bad news I have to say about this for now. I really think we are going to feel this loss, and the effects will be extreme if Harvin gets hurt.

I expect Tate to put up monster numbers next year and will make all the doubters on even our own forums eat crow. That's assuming their QB can get him the ball which I haven't watched enough Stafford to know how good/bad he truly is.

The good news is that we may be able to keep Sherman now. Before I wasn't sure if we could, it seems like we had to cut at least one big player once we paid Wilson, I thought it would most likely be Sherman or Lynch. Now that we cut Tate the chances that we keep Sherman just went up quite significantly in my mind.

Really the whole root of this problem revolves around paying Harvin such an absurd amount. He's worth it if he stays healthy but it's a gamble for sure, right now I think he's very unlikely to play every game next season but at least a 50% chance he plays half them.

Here's some Tate highlight videos if anyone wants to remember some of his best moments here. He'll be missed, one of my favorite Seahawks for sure.

Hopefully nobody posted these yet haven't had a chance to read barely any pages on this thread yet.

[youtube]zJaKxyQ24E0[/youtube]

[youtube]xOyLqfwTTSE[/youtube]

 

[WilsonMVP]

Paging all haters; paging all haters.

Dave Softy Mahler ‏@Softykjr 22m
Tate said the 49ers showed interest in signing him but he couldnt do that to Seahawks fans.

How you like them apples?

lol ya he thought about it until he realized he would have to get hit by Kam Track twice a year. If they were truly intersted in him he is stupid to not go there. At least he would actually see the playoffs or at least have hope of them.

 

[theascension]

Dude would completely disappear against our secondary too. Sherman would know all of his moves. He is good but not great, I will miss him because he was an elite punt returner more so than a good WR.
His toughness will be tough to replace.

 

[Coug_Hawk08]

I'm kinda excited to see him on another team. So much talk about how he could/should produce xyz on a more pass oriented offense. Well, we will see! You couldn't ask for a much better situation than being across from Calvin. He has an excellent chance to do well for himself, if he can't beat his number from Sea days that will pretty much write the book.

 

[Penman96]

There were reasons why Russ was getting hit a lot last year, and a big one was that none of our receiving corps was that good at getting separation, Tate included. Defenses knew they could single cover our guys and contain them for the most part. All this changes with Harvin in the mix. We face elite defenses in the NFC West, and any o-line in the NFL is only going to give their QB limited protection. It is essential we find short and middle yardage threats that can get open as a safety valve. Tate (for all his good qualities) was never the guy, and now Harvin is posed to play, he was expendable.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Tokadub just nailed exactly how I was thinking.

And yeah, I think depending on Harvin scares me. The only reason I don't worry more is because we won the SB and when you decide to go all in to win it all - you cannot really complain about the cost after if you do win it. There was a cost, we knew we were going to lose players and we did.

But Tate was a BIG part of this ride, and deserves the accolades as much as anyone.

Baldwin made the incredible plays that saved us in a few games, but Tate was consistently a producer that we generally could count on more except for those playoff games, where I still contend the reason was the increased scrutiny from the defense (and that opened things up for other players). We probably couldn't have matched but I don't see a reason we cannot acknowledge how much he meant to this team and how much he contributed to the climb up the ladder.

Also, part of the attitude of this team, that "put it on my back, I'm good" mentality, came from him.

I don't understand how we think we are just going to move forward without missing a beat with so many important cogs removed from the machine. The average WR takes 3-4 years to start producing at a reasonable level (even Golden took 3). But then again, we won and maybe it makes sense to drop expectations a bit since in general SB teams get stripped and weaker shortly after winning, in this new era.

Guys like Tate and Browner and even Red, they were an important part of what makes up attitude and fire that fed this team. The question will be whether we can just pile all this on Wilson alot with some vets and hope to get the same kind of motivation from the team. And I still remain skeptical that we can just hope to replace the offensive production we lost in both starting receivers (Tate and Rice) out and hoping our #3 can be our #2 and our #1 can actually stay on the field.

 

[Blitzer88]

Tokadub just nailed exactly how I was thinking.

And yeah, I think depending on Harvin scares me. The only reason I don't worry more is because we won the SB and when you decide to go all in to win it all - you cannot really complain about the cost after if you do win it. There was a cost, we knew we were going to lose players and we did.

But Tate was a BIG part of this ride, and deserves the accolades as much as anyone.

Baldwin made the incredible plays that saved us in a few games, but Tate was consistently a producer that we generally could count on more except for those playoff games, where I still contend the reason was the increased scrutiny from the defense (and that opened things up for other players). We probably couldn't have matched but I don't see a reason we cannot acknowledge how much he meant to this team and how much he contributed to the climb up the ladder.

Also, part of the attitude of this team, that "put it on my back, I'm good" mentality, came from him.

I don't understand how we think we are just going to move forward without missing a beat with so many important cogs removed from the machine. The average WR takes 3-4 years to start producing at a reasonable level (even Golden took 3). But then again, we won and maybe it makes sense to drop expectations a bit since in general SB teams get stripped and weaker shortly after winning, in this new era.

Guys like Tate and Browner and even Red, they were an important part of what makes up attitude and fire that fed this team. The question will be whether we can just pile all this on Wilson alot with some vets and hope to get the same kind of motivation from the team. And I still remain skeptical that we can just hope to replace the offensive production we lost in both starting receivers (Tate and Rice) out and hoping our #3 can be our #2 and our #1 can actually stay on the field.

What this guy said.

 

[BigMeach]

Well, didn't take long for this board to return to it's old ways.

I wonder if there will ever be a day when our FO proves themselves enough to where we all truly trust in the moves they make/allow to happen.

 

[RolandDeschain]

Well, didn't take long for this board to return to it's old ways.

I wonder if there will ever be a day when our FO proves themselves enough to where we all truly trust in the moves they make/allow to happen.

Nothing in this world can happen that will take away the natural penchant most people feel to whine when something doesn't jive with their preconceived notions about something.

 

[mikeak]

Not every FO move has to be the right one for it to be a great FO. Mistakes / errors happen in this business

Tate's issue was separation. Nobody questions his toughness or moving without the ball. However this team needs the guy that can get the first down 3-4secs into the play....

Oh and by the way - we are a run first team. That isn't changing

 

[razgriz737]

@Todd_Dybas: The #Seahawks made Golden Tate what he called a "really, really low" offer 10 days ago before upping at the last minute today.

https://twitter.com/todd_dybas/status/4 ... 5303067648

 

[two dog]

He used to play here, now he don't.

Bye, Bye sonny.

I'm cool with signing with another team. Bitching about your former
teams "really low" offer after you just hit the jackpot could use a
touch-up of class.

 

[mjwhitay]

Maybe it was a very low because there's a better replacement that very well might be available at #32 in this year's draft.... His name is Brandin Cooks.

 

[HawKnPeppa]

I appreciate what Tate brought us and thank him for the memories, but unlike some, I don't have a liplock on his .......

The guy is great once he gets the ball in his hands, but he should have been much better at route running by his forth season. He's great at punt returns, screens, jump balls and thrives when a play breaks down. If he ever puts enough work in to fully develop his routes, rather than putting the bare minimums in then relying on his natural abilities to fill the void, he will be twice as dangerous. It's no coincidence that his development sharply increased after Russell arrived. Hopefully RW has helped to instill a better work ethic in him. If so, I hope he continues to develop and apply himself without Wiiiiiiiiillllsoooon's motivating presence. I doubt Matthew 'Dough Boy' Stafford's leadership abilities come anywhere close.

The one thing I really like is that all of his haters in Green Bay will have to face him twice a year now. I hope he goes ham on them. :th2thumbs:

 

[gargantual]

The one thing I really like is that all of his haters in Green Bay will have to face him twice a year now.

This was my first thought after the news broke. A consolation price of sorts. This will really stick it to those entitled SOBs in Green Bay (still ticked off about all the crying they did after that game!).

It really hurts seeing those highlight reels. Losing him is very, very tough. Like losing one of your children. We literally watched him take his first steps as he learned to walk and he was just hella fun to watch! It seemed like I was always holding my breath watching him pull off his spectacular acrobatic plays. He really should've fumbled the ball a whole bunch of times.

Want to keep seeing him pull off his magic, but having to watch the Lions play regularly is probably asking too much out of myself.