Earlier this week, owner Paul Allen, Coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider passed up an obvious opportunity to upgrade our dubious receiving corps when they declined to place a waiver claim on Randy Moss.
The Titans were the only team to claim the future Hall of Fame wide receiver. However, because Seattle's win-loss record is inferior to Tennessee's, our claim would have prevailed.
Financially, the Seahawks could have afforded Moss. Claiming the wideout on waivers would have obligated the team to pay him a prorated portion of the many millions owed him under the contract originally concluded with the Patriots. But there is no salary cap in the NFL this year, and Paul Allen is the league's richest owner. Which raises the question: Is Allen "All in"?
Since Carroll took over, character is no longer a criterion for membership on our team. So, why not Moss?
Claiming him would have entailed little risk. If it didn't work out, we could have cut him, just as the Vikings did, without suffering any ill consequences.
The payoff, however, could have been considerable: Moss is a truly great receiver, a big target and a legitimate deep threat.
Currently, the Seahawks have no dependable wideouts. Mike Williams occasionally shows up and has a good game, but the rest of the receiving corps had been anything but clutch. Their mediocrity was on painfully ignominious display last week, when their failure to catch several on-target throws from Hasselbeck contributed to our inability to compete with Oakland.
We're still paying for the unwise decisions to let Burleson go and pay Housh $6 million to ride the pine in Baltimore. If they were still in Seattle, they would be starting. The availability of Moss gave the team leadership an expensive opportunity to atone for those mistakes.
But I guess Carroll's "Always compete" slogan only applies to the players. Neither the coaches, nor the front office, nor the owner seem clear on what the concept might mean to them.
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