ESPN Article: 10 Worst NFL Contracts (2 Seahawks)

[Hawk-Lock]

http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/14047 ... ory-part-2

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[SoulfishHawk]

Big Game Sunday!

 

[Jeremy517]

The Flynn contract was a good contract, not a bad one. Having a franchise QB is a must, and the Seahawks didn't have one at the time. The Flynn deal gave the Seahawks a cheap (relative to other QB deals) look at a potential QB, and a cheap way out if Flynn didn't work out. Flynn wasn't good, but that doesn't mean it was a bad contract.

 

[Hawks46]

Oh, I'd totally agree on the Flynn contract.

Having Flynn on the roster enabled the FO to wait for Wilson to fall to the 3rd round. Without Flynn, it was likely that Schneider would've drafted Wilson in the 2nd round so he wouldn't lose out on him.

That means we would've never had the services of one Bobby Wagner. 8 million to have a good backup, a Pro Bowl and All Pro MLB, and a QB competition that likely made Wilson better is not that big of a deal. Especially when we're talking about paying a QB 8 million for that one year.

Harvin...now, that was a bad deal for us. I'd agree with the article that it was the 2nd worst contract. We lost money and draft picks and it also cost us Golden Tate.

 

[HawkFan72]

This article is really short-sighted. I think there have been plenty of worse contracts than these. For example, Shaun Alexander's extension was worse than Flynn's contract.

 

[Sac]

I'm shocked the Alexander contract wasn't on there.

 

[Our Man in Chicago]

I'm shocked the Alexander contract wasn't on there.

Considering that half the NFL commentators still pronounce our former QB's name "Hassle-back," I'm not.

 

[purpleneer]

I have to agree on the Flynn deal. Even without considering what it might have meant for Wilson, Wagner, etc., that deal shouldn't have even sniffed the discussion.

 

[Our Man in Chicago]

This article is really short-sighted. I think there have been plenty of worse contracts than these..

Indeed. Flynn's was only 8M for one season, to boot. For a starting QB, that's not that outlandish.

DB's tweet is embarrassing, though. Props to him for not deleting it.

 

[Alexander]

I'm shocked the Alexander contract wasn't on there.

He was an honorable mention, but probably should have been on the actual list. Especially over Flynn, who shouldn't have been on the list, let alone in the top 5.

 

[Hawks46]

I'm shocked the Alexander contract wasn't on there.

He was an honorable mention, but probably should have been on the actual list. Especially over Flynn, who shouldn't have been on the list, let alone in the top 5.

Even then, it's bad in hindsight but not really bad at that time. So, you have a league MVP RB who just set some NFL records and you're going to screw around and not pay him ? Problem is, he doesn't get paid, and someone else WILL pay him. Then he goes to another team, and if he tears it up, you're likely to lose your job as the GM who let a league MVP go because you didn't want to pay him, and he benefits another franchise.

Sure, for production it was a bad deal. But even then, no one can see him getting hurt and never recovering. Up to that point, he'd never even really been hurt in his career. so the 29 year old age thing wasn't all that huge either. He'd proven to be durable. You roll with it. I don't criticize that front office for that.

Now letting Hutch walk was really dumb.

 

[northseahawk]

Harvin should be #1. Not only doing absolutely nothing for us, but losing a 1st and a 3rd plus he lost us Golden tate plus deprived us one whole season of chemistry between a qb n wrs.

Haynesworth was just a bad over paid free agent signing.

 

[NorthDallas40oz]

Saying that the Flynn contract wasn't bad is patently absurd. We paid $8M for a noodle-armed replacement level backup who lasted one season here as a ghost and never started a game. That's an atrocious contract no matter how you try to spin it, and Russell Wilson's success does not eviscerate that.

 

[gubernaculum]

Brian Bozworth not on the list. Wow

 

[Megatron]

Brian Bozworth not on the list. Wow

While Brian Bozworth's contract was a record for a rookie at the time 10 years, 11 million, it is nothing compared to what 1st round picks are paid today. Only the signing bonus was guaranteed, 2.5 million. If you look at the whole top 25 list it is mostly recent players. TJ Houshmanzadeh is on the list too at 21, paid 13.7 million over 1 year, more than Bosworth's entire contract. Notice Nate Odomes isn't on the list, never played a down for the Seahawks. Shaun Alexander does make the this older list worst contracts in NFL, coming in at sixth. Nate Odomes is an honorable mention on that list and has the oldest conract signed in 1994.

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=contracts

 

[KiwiHawk]

Brian Habib and Kevin Glover.

May not seem that bad on the surface, but the ramifications were pretty large.

Randy Mueller signed them in the twilight of their careers to back-loaded contracts. They were too expensive to keep for too little performance, so had to be cut which forced the Seahawks to eat quite a bit of salary (the cap was way smaller back then).

Handcuffed by having a quarter of the cap in dead money, GM/Coach Mike Holmgren couldn't make the moves he wanted to and was forced to build through the draft where he was further handicapped by the loss of his defensive coordinator Fritz Shurmur who was diagnosed with cancer 4 months after coming to the Seahawks.

Holmgren, an offense-minded coach, tried to bolster his defense through the draft but failed miserably without the trusted advice of Shurmur. This led to a toxic front-office relationship between Holmgren and the ambitious-but-weaselly Bob Whitsitt whereby Holmgren was asked to step down as GM.

While we did eventually go to Super Bowl XL with Holmgren as coach, the entirety of his tenure has to be viewed as a failure, largely because he got off on the wrong foot thanks in part to the cap mismanagement of Randy Mueller as typified by the Habib and Glover contracts.

 

[purpleneer]

Saying that the Flynn contract wasn't bad is patently absurd. We paid $8M for a noodle-armed replacement level backup who lasted one season here as a ghost and never started a game. That's an atrocious contract no matter how you try to spin it, and Russell Wilson's success does not eviscerate that.

I'm not going to say it wasn't bad, but the lack of long-term ramifications alone mean it shouldn't be anywhere near most of those others. It was a miss, but with the importance of the position, I'll take a shot like that or even Whitehurst any day over a lot of the alternatives. Like Kiwi mentioned, it's the long-term stuff that hurts most, especially backloaded deals for old players.

 

[Optimus25]

I just don't understand people saying Harvin was this catastrophic. To me number ten thru three on the list sound worse because guess what, it was the raiders... Or redskins, or eagles, falcons....

How is it so historically bad when the same year the deal happened, we won a super Bowl?

Money spent?. Yes.

But who's to say if the Broncos didn't have to gameplan for harvin their defense couldn't have been more successful, giving manning at least a chance in hell?

Every dime was worth it imo. You play to win a super bowl. We did. It coincided with over paying harvin. That makes this number ten on the list for me. Big win, big price. I'll take the franchise's first sb win everytime and count the costs later.

 

[hawksfansinceday1]

I'm shocked the Alexander contract wasn't on there.

He was an honorable mention, but probably should have been on the actual list. Especially over Flynn, who shouldn't have been on the list, let alone in the top 5.

Even then, it's bad in hindsight but not really bad at that time. So, you have a league MVP RB who just set some NFL records and you're going to screw around and not pay him ? Problem is, he doesn't get paid, and someone else WILL pay him. Then he goes to another team, and if he tears it up, you're likely to lose your job as the GM who let a league MVP go because you didn't want to pay him, and he benefits another franchise.

Sure, for production it was a bad deal. But even then, no one can see him getting hurt and never recovering. Up to that point, he'd never even really been hurt in his career. so the 29 year old age thing wasn't all that huge either. He'd proven to be durable. You roll with it. I don't criticize that front office for that.

Now letting Hutch walk was really dumb.

This. As much as I disliked Timmy, he had absolutely no choice when it came to Alexander for the reasons you mentioned. Plus, can you imagine the fan backlash if he hadn't been re-signed?

 

[JAGHAWK]

I'm shocked the Alexander contract wasn't on there.

Considering that half the NFL commentators still pronounce our former QB's name "Hassle-back," I'm not.

I thought I was the only one noticing this. It makes me :229031_banghead: