It’s inevitable. Super Bowl teams are going to lose some of the core that helped them get to the ultimate game. For the Seattle Seahawks, it’s been a combination of free-agent departures and salary cap casualties that has led to key losses in the first couple days of the new league year.
Chris Clemons, Defensive End
Seattle Seahawks release DE Chris Clemons (Yahoo Sports) http://t.co/nu5RCQxFBi #NFL
— Yahoo Sports NFL (@YahooSports_NFL) March 12, 2014
Clemons recorded double-digit sacks in each of his first three seasons with the Seahawks after putting up just 4.5 in a rotational role this past year. The moves saves Seattle $7 million against the cap and was likely the right decision considering that it has a ton of young players it will need to sign to extensions.
In addition, the Seahawks can focus on adding a higher-quality player at this position if it needs to. As of right now, the Clemons’ release does leave the Seahawks a tad thin at defensive end.
Red Bryant, Defensive End
Mark J. Rebilas, USA Today: Low key, Bryant is a big loss.
Bryan has been among the most underrated defensive linemen in the entire NFL over the past three seasons. While not necessarily a pass-rush threat on the outside, he stops the run with the best of them. According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), Bryant ranked 11th among 4-3 defensive ends against the run in 2013.
Seattle does have a few in-house options to replace him, but the fact that it hosted Jason Hatcher this week seems to indicate that general manager John Schneider is looking at other options. That’s going to be sorely missed in Seattle’s hybrid defensive front.
Sidney Rice, Wide Receiver
#PFT Sidney Rice expected to be ready for offseason workouts http://t.co/bWz78HdUsW
— SNF on NBC (@SNFonNBC) March 8, 2014
Rice was a bitter disappointment with the Seahawks after signing a lucrative five-year, $41 million contract with $15 million guaranteed back in 2011 (via Spotrac). He recorded just 97 receptions for 1,463 yards and 12 touchdowns during his three-year tenure with the team.
This isn’t a big loss in the grand scheme of things because Rice was such a bad signing in the first place. He put up 231 yards and two scores in just six games last season. It does, however, take one more body away from what is now an extremely thing receiving unit in Seattle.
Brandon Browner, Cornerback
Photo: Mark J. Rebilas, USA Today
Browner signed a two-year contract with the New England Patriots and will not be returning to Seattle in 2014. This isn’t a huge surprise to anyone close to the situation. After missing half the 2013 season due to injury and suspension, Browner will have to sit out the first four games of the 2014 campaign due to a violation of NFL’s substance abuse policy.
The likes of Walter Thurmond (also a free agent and linked to San Francisco), Jeremy Lane and Byron Maxwell did solid jobs in Browner’s stead last season. We can still expect the Seahawks to add a free-agent cornerback or draft one in May.
Tony McDaniel, Defensive Tackle
McDaniel signed a four-year, $12 million contract with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday. He might have been released by Seattle in training camp, but did make a major impact after re-signing with the team Week 1.
According to Pro Football Focus (subscription required), McDaniel ranked fourth among all interior linemen against the run last season. That’s something that Seattle is going to have to replace, especially considering it lost another run-stuffing defensive lineman in the form of Red Bryant.
Golden Tate, Wide Receiver
Photo: Kirby Lee, USA Today
This could be huge. Tate was Seattle’s leading wide receiver last year and it wasn’t even really that close. He caught nearly 70 percent of the passes thrown in his direction last season and averaged nearly eight yards after the catch. These are numbers that Russell Wilson relied on a great deal to change from game manager to impact starter.
Without Tate in the fold and with injury concerns continuing to mount for Percy Harvin, Seattle is suddenly extremely thin at wide receiver. Doug Baldwin is a restricted free agent and will likely return after Seattle threw a second-round tender his way. Outside of that, there isn’t a whole heck of a lot here. While Jermaine Kearse might end up being a decent No. 3, he is in no way a starter caliber receiver in the NFL.
Losing Tate was part of what comes along with being a successful franchise. Seattle didn’t have the willingness or capability to pay him the $31 million over five years that he netted from the Detroit Lions. In doing so, John Schneider and Co. hedged their bets that the next-man up philosophy will work. It is definitely a gamble.
In no way is any of this a surprise. What Super Bowl-winning teams return the next season with the same roster? The free agency and salary cap era in the NFL makes it hard to retain valuable members of a roster every single year.
This is only magnified when you have a young team with a ton of players still under their rookie deals. Schneider and Co. know full well they will have to pay these young studs when the time comes. It has, however, helped other teams close the gap between themselves and Seattle…mainly the San Francisco 49ers.
It’ll be interesting to see how the next few months play out.
Photo: Kirby Lee, USA Today