Why couldn't hutch stay with Seattle?

Aros":1a6p3wwl said:

He got pissed off when Ruskell and co. allowed him to test the market as a RFA instead of sign him to a huge contract or at least give him the franchise tag. He felt betrayed and thus celebrated the whole poison pill aspect of his contract with the Vikings.

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This.


Hutch's departure had nothing to do with poison pills, it had everything to do with Ruskell and Holmgren screwing up the "transitional" tag.

They thought they could just let Hutch shop around, then transition tag him if a long term deal wasn't struck, and save the franchise tag for Alexander or Hasselbeck. Oops.

Aros":xp3e9bay said:

.............Ruskell was an idiot..........

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Yes, yes he was (and not just when it came to his dealings with Hutchinson).
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Timmmaaaaaaaay!!

Sgt. Largent":auwnrzy4 said:

Hutch's departure had nothing to do with poison pills, it had everything to do with Ruskell and Holmgren screwing up the "transitional" tag.

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I disagree.

Hutch's departure had EVERYTHING to do with the poison pill offer sheet that Minnesota put together.

Minnesota put together an offer sheet that stated that Hutchinson had to be the highest paid offensive lineman on his team.

In order for the Seahawks to match that offer, they would have had to pay Hutchinson more money than they were paying Walter Jones... and that made absolutely no sense.

Ruskill underestimated Minnesota's creativity in their poison pill offer sheet. The NFL reviewed it and upheld it... but owners all agreed that poison pill offer sheets would never happen again.

That's the way that I remember it. Minnesota basically screwed us... and Hutchinson took the money and ran.

onanygivensunday":2l6k1k9w said:

Sgt. Largent":2l6k1k9w said:

Hutch's departure had nothing to do with poison pills, it had everything to do with Ruskell and Holmgren screwing up the "transitional" tag.

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I disagree.

Hutch's departure had EVERYTHING to do with the poison pill offer sheet that Minnesota put together.

Minnesota put together an offer sheet that stated that Hutchinson had to be the highest paid offensive lineman on his team.

In order for the Seahawks to match that offer, they would have had to pay Hutchinson more money than they were paying Walter Jones... and that made absolutely no sense.

Ruskill underestimated Minnesota's creativity in their poison pill offer sheet. The NFL reviewed it and upheld it... but owners all agreed that poison pill offer sheets would never happen again.

That's the way that I remember it. Minnesota basically screwed us... and Hutchinson took the money and ran.

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It should have never got to the point of Minnesota "screwing us." If Ruskell would have just stepped up and gave Hutch a nice long term contract like he deserved, then the poison pill never would have been an issue.

Again, Hutch's departure was about him being pissed at the Hawks not giving him the contract he thought he deserved, and not about the poison pill. Like other's have said, Hutch didn't have to sign the contract with Minnesota, he signed it because they gave him the contract that Seattle should have.

Hutchinson wanted Walter Jones money and quite honestly, well.... He wasn't Walter Jones.

Tech Worlds":h2eq1fu5 said:

Hutchinson wanted Walter Jones money and quite honestly, well.... He wasn't Walter Jones.

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He was the best interior guard in football for quite some time and deserved his contract.

Ruskell was just an incompetent jackass

Hasselbeck":2s2vjm2k said:

Tech Worlds":2s2vjm2k said:

Hutchinson wanted Walter Jones money and quite honestly, well.... He wasn't Walter Jones.

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He was the best interior guard in football for quite some time and deserved his contract.

Ruskell was just an incompetent jackass

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Meh. He didn't deserve left tackle money. Regardless. Our issue wasn't letting him go, it was not replacing him.

Tech Worlds":163phpia said:

Because Hutch is and was a total douchebag. Plain and simple.

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TRUTH ^

Sgt. Largent":1mdbxk87 said:

onanygivensunday":1mdbxk87 said:

Sgt. Largent":1mdbxk87 said:

Hutch's departure had nothing to do with poison pills, it had everything to do with Ruskell and Holmgren screwing up the "transitional" tag.

Click to expand...

I disagree.

Hutch's departure had EVERYTHING to do with the poison pill offer sheet that Minnesota put together.

Minnesota put together an offer sheet that stated that Hutchinson had to be the highest paid offensive lineman on his team.

In order for the Seahawks to match that offer, they would have had to pay Hutchinson more money than they were paying Walter Jones... and that made absolutely no sense.

Ruskill underestimated Minnesota's creativity in their poison pill offer sheet. The NFL reviewed it and upheld it... but owners all agreed that poison pill offer sheets would never happen again.

That's the way that I remember it. Minnesota basically screwed us... and Hutchinson took the money and ran.

Click to expand...

It should have never got to the point of Minnesota "screwing us." If Ruskell would have just stepped up and gave Hutch a nice long term contract like he deserved, then the poison pill never would have been an issue.

Again, Hutch's departure was about him being pissed at the Hawks not giving him the contract he thought he deserved, and not about the poison pill. Like other's have said, Hutch didn't have to sign the contract with Minnesota, he signed it because they gave him the contract that Seattle should have.

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mONEY OVER ALL ELSE MATTERED the most TO fuTCH.
Do you think he makes it into the HOF?

Don't put this on Mike Holmgren, he was pissed when he found out they had transitioned him. He was on vacation and prior to leaving he and Ruskell got together and the agreement was to pin Hutch down so he couldn't leave and work out a deal.

He first found out Ruskell had done it differently in the newspapers.

:141847_bnono:

Didn't we go after Nate Burleson from Minn after that with a poisoned offer sheet? I think I read somewhere that the offer stated something like if Burleson played more than 5 games in the State of Minnesota his entire contract became guaranteed.

I like Nate but would rather have kept Hutch. At least we got some sort of revenge though, petty as it was.

Edit, yep found it:

The offer sheet stated that the entire $49 million would be guaranteed if Burleson played five games, in one season, in the state of Minnesota, or if his average per year exceeded the average of all running backs on the team combined.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Burleson

More about this debacle:

Seattle retaliated, though, by signing Minnesota wide receiver Nate Burleson to an offer sheet containing a similar ploy. Because of this controversy, the NFL banned the use of "poison pills".

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hutc ... ootball%29

Tech Worlds":30tf36b0 said:

Hasselbeck":30tf36b0 said:

Tech Worlds":30tf36b0 said:

Hutchinson wanted Walter Jones money and quite honestly, well.... He wasn't Walter Jones.

Click to expand...

He was the best interior guard in football for quite some time and deserved his contract.

Ruskell was just an incompetent jackass

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Meh. He didn't deserve left tackle money. Regardless. Our issue wasn't letting him go, it was not replacing him.

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QFT. My problem with the whole Futch fiasco was not so much losing him, but why couldn't we find a decent replacement? Sure, we probably couldn't easily find another all-world guard, but somebody competent would have been nice. I was kind of a Ruskell supporter before this happened. This is when it really came out about how badly our personnel decisions were going.

Our O-line has not been the same since then. It is coming around a bit under Cable, but it's still a bit of a work in progress all these years later.

So much misplaced rage and blame. Sigh...

Y'all can be mad all you want at Ruskell for the Transition Tag strategy. But the simple fact is this: In a non-corrupt league, it would have worked! That's a straight-up fact, and it matters.

The ruling of the so-called "Special Master" was clearly counter to the spirit of the league's own rules. There's no way the Poison Pill contract should have been allowed to stand. Holmgren has said as much in several interviews, if you listen closely. How do we know this? Simple. They outlawed these types of deals after the tit-for-tat stuff with the Burleson deal that made the situation clear. Not only was there no real way to anticipate such nonsense, there was surely no way to anticipate that the NFL would let it stand.

Ruskell was trying to be clever and pinch a few pennies. But that's what you do with the salary cap, right? And that few hundred k here or there is the difference between a practice squad guy and a quality special teams guy. Those are the types of differences that turn Super Bowl caliber teams into multiple Super Bowl teams.

Of course it never would have got there at all if Hutchinson wasn't so weirdly irrational and b!tchy about it. Nonetheless, be mad at the right people, the ones who actually had the power to act properly and who chose not to: the suits in the league's corporate offices.

It's not like we would have won a SB if Hutch re-signed. His departure accelerated the removal of Ruskell and the implementation of an actually successful sports culture. We should be thanking Hutch.

Sgt. Largent":1yt9h1jx said:

It should have never got to the point of Minnesota "screwing us." If Ruskell would have just stepped up and gave Hutch a nice long term contract like he deserved, then the poison pill never would have been an issue.

Again, Hutch's departure was about him being pissed at the Hawks not giving him the contract he thought he deserved, and not about the poison pill. Like other's have said, Hutch didn't have to sign the contract with Minnesota, he signed it because they gave him the contract that Seattle should have.

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That is not correct at all. HawknPeppa is absolutely correct. Hutch's agent told our front office when we tried to extend him during the 2005 offseason that his client wanted to test the free agent market in 2006. Ruskell basically gave Hutch what he wanted in the ability to test the market and we got screwed by Hutch, his agent and the Vikings. If Hutch's revisionist history after he signed with the Vikings is to be believed, why did his agent never come to us during the 2005 season or before free agency began and tell our front office that his client had changed his mind and was willing to start up contract talks? I have been the most vocal on this site about Hutch never wanting to be a Seahawk in the first place as when he was receiving his jersey on the draft stage he looked like someone had just kicked his dog, and I stand by that claim. Sure, he played like a professional while he was here, but as soon as he had a chance to get back to the midwest he practically ran out of the PNW.

scutterhawk":1rrfm0eo said:

Sgt. Largent":1rrfm0eo said:

onanygivensunday":1rrfm0eo said:

I disagree.

Hutch's departure had EVERYTHING to do with the poison pill offer sheet that Minnesota put together.

Minnesota put together an offer sheet that stated that Hutchinson had to be the highest paid offensive lineman on his team.

In order for the Seahawks to match that offer, they would have had to pay Hutchinson more money than they were paying Walter Jones... and that made absolutely no sense.

Ruskill underestimated Minnesota's creativity in their poison pill offer sheet. The NFL reviewed it and upheld it... but owners all agreed that poison pill offer sheets would never happen again.

That's the way that I remember it. Minnesota basically screwed us... and Hutchinson took the money and ran.

Click to expand...

It should have never got to the point of Minnesota "screwing us." If Ruskell would have just stepped up and gave Hutch a nice long term contract like he deserved, then the poison pill never would have been an issue.

Again, Hutch's departure was about him being pissed at the Hawks not giving him the contract he thought he deserved, and not about the poison pill. Like other's have said, Hutch didn't have to sign the contract with Minnesota, he signed it because they gave him the contract that Seattle should have.

Click to expand...

mONEY OVER ALL ELSE MATTERED the most TO fuTCH.
Do you think he makes it into the HOF?

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7-time All-Pro, I say he absolutely makes it into the HOF. He is undoubtedly one of the best interior linemen to ever play the game and the Seattle/Minnesota fiasco was one of the key factors in establishing the value of a top Guard in the NFL.

BASF":10r71qud said:

Sgt. Largent":10r71qud said:

It should have never got to the point of Minnesota "screwing us." If Ruskell would have just stepped up and gave Hutch a nice long term contract like he deserved, then the poison pill never would have been an issue.

Again, Hutch's departure was about him being pissed at the Hawks not giving him the contract he thought he deserved, and not about the poison pill. Like other's have said, Hutch didn't have to sign the contract with Minnesota, he signed it because they gave him the contract that Seattle should have.

Click to expand...

That is not correct at all. HawknPeppa is absolutely correct. Hutch's agent told our front office when we tried to extend him during the 2005 offseason that his client wanted to test the free agent market in 2006. Ruskell basically gave Hutch what he wanted in the ability to test the market and we got screwed by Hutch, his agent and the Vikings. If Hutch's revisionist history after he signed with the Vikings is to be believed, why did his agent never come to us during the 2005 season or before free agency began and tell our front office that his client had changed his mind and was willing to start up contract talks? I have been the most vocal on this site about Hutch never wanting to be a Seahawk in the first place as when he was receiving his jersey on the draft stage he looked like someone had just kicked his dog, and I stand by that claim. Sure, he played like a professional while he was here, but as soon as he had a chance to get back to the midwest he practically ran out of the PNW.

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That's not exactly right though. The Seahawks WERE offering him an extension all the way up to free agency, but only for $6m a year. Hutch wanted more like $7m, but the Seahawks were following conventional wisdom on Guard salaries and didn't want to pay him $7m. The reason they applied the Transition Tag wasn't so much that they were trying to pinch pennies that year. Applying the Franchise Tag would have given him just about $7m, which would have weakened their position the following year in negotiations. Tagging him as Transition would have kept his salary at about $6.4m, which was closer to the $6m number that they wanted for him. I think that is what angered Hutch enough to allow the poison pill. He felt like the Seahawks didn't value him as a top guard in the NFL and were basically giving him their final offer. When the Vikings gave him the number he wanted, he made sure he was going to a team that really wanted him there and the Vikings were all too eager to oblige with the "poison pill".

EDIT: Danny O'neil lays all of this out pretty clearly in a 2009 Times article: http://seattletimes.com/html/dannyoneil ... eil18.html

onanygivensunday":98lvef18 said:

Sgt. Largent":98lvef18 said:

Hutch's departure had nothing to do with poison pills, it had everything to do with Ruskell and Holmgren screwing up the "transitional" tag.

Click to expand...

I disagree.

Hutch's departure had EVERYTHING to do with the poison pill offer sheet that Minnesota put together.

Minnesota put together an offer sheet that stated that Hutchinson had to be the highest paid offensive lineman on his team.

In order for the Seahawks to match that offer, they would have had to pay Hutchinson more money than they were paying Walter Jones... and that made absolutely no sense.

Ruskill underestimated Minnesota's creativity in their poison pill offer sheet. The NFL reviewed it and upheld it... but owners all agreed that poison pill offer sheets would never happen again.

That's the way that I remember it. Minnesota basically screwed us... and Hutchinson took the money and ran.

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You're forgetting that Jones restructured his deal to make Hutchinson the highest paid linemen on the team, however the pill said at the time of the contract Hutch needed to be the highest paid linemen making Jones restructuring moot.

Whoever said they transitioned him so they could franchise Hass/Alexander that's not true, you can only franchise OR transition a player, you can't franchise AND transition another a player.

Had they franchised Hutch and Minnesota wanted him bad enough we would of at least got a 1st round pick out of it.

I think the Hawks would have been much better off continuing with Maurice Morris/Hutch then they were with Mike Wahle/Shaun Alexander and all the bums we plugged in at left guard for the next few years after that.

Dreo":45toivef said:

Didn't we go after Nate Burleson from Minn after that with a poisoned offer sheet? I think I read somewhere that the offer stated something like if Burleson played more than 5 games in the State of Minnesota his entire contract became guaranteed.

I like Nate but would rather have kept Hutch. At least we got some sort of revenge though, petty as it was.

Edit, yep found it:

The offer sheet stated that the entire $49 million would be guaranteed if Burleson played five games, in one season, in the state of Minnesota, or if his average per year exceeded the average of all running backs on the team combined.

Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nate_Burleson

More about this debacle:

Seattle retaliated, though, by signing Minnesota wide receiver Nate Burleson to an offer sheet containing a similar ploy. Because of this controversy, the NFL banned the use of "poison pills".

Click to expand...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Hutc ... ootball%29

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I always really liked Burleson and was happy to have him. But every time I looked at him, in the back of my mind I couldn't help but think of him as the consolation prize in the Steve Hutchinson sweepstakes.

The transition tag was the right business decision. It allowed a market price to be set, in a situation where there wasn't one. No one knew what an elite guard was worth then. So, the Seahawks wanted an idea of his value on the market...less they risk overpaying. Hutch went back on his word on allowing the Seahawks to match, most likely.