Some old news to catch up on:  the Seahawks re-signed some guys!  All on 1-year deals, all for pretty low amounts.

Let’s go down the line.  I like the Shead signing an awful lot.  There’s really no downside here.  You bring him back on a 1-year deal, low cost, and if he comes back at midseason or for the stretch run and fills in at cornerback, it could be a boon for the defense.  At the very least, you figure there could be injuries and to get not only a healthy body that late into the season, but one who’s familiar with the system and has had good success in the system is just a no-brainer.  But, then you also take into account the high likelihood that the Seahawks are going to go hard in the draft for DBs, and you just don’t know how they’re going to end up.  Yeah, this draft is rated pretty highly for secondary players, but you don’t know how good they are until you get them on the field.  So, if they come in and struggle, it’s nice to know Shead is there and should be available for you at some point in the regular season.

And, if he comes back and plays really well, then you can look to maybe extend him long-term.  Hell, after this season, there isn’t any more guaranteed money on Jeremy Lane’s deal – and only a small amount of dead money – so if you’d rather have Shead than Lane, that’s possible going into 2018.

Really, we’re talking about a security blanket when we’re talking about having Shead in the fold for 2017.  Aside from him, we only have Sherman and Lane as guys with experience starting in the league.  When you figure we’re going into next season with just those two guys, maybe a couple of rookies, and a bunch of holdovers who don’t have much in the way of experience playing on defense, it’s a scary proposition.  But, knowing Shead is there, just biding his time until he gets healthy around November or December, I think we’ll be okay until we can get him in the fold.  And, if the rookies turn out to be great, then all the better; we have extra depth.

Speaking of the holdovers, Neiko Thorpe is back!  He’s an excellent special teams player, so if for no other reason, it’s nice to have him back doing that.  He’s also a backup cornerback who will get thrown into the mix in Training Camp to see who starts opposite Sherm this year.  He’s fairly tall, he’s got the right size, he’s a 4-year vet with 1 year in the Seahawks’ system.  Now, essentially, it’s on him to keep working on his craft and win the job in camp.  I have very little frame of reference on his defensive game, but I don’t remember being wildly impressed with him when Shead went down in the Atlanta game.  But, we’ll see.  The guys who tend to win starting jobs with the Seahawks’ secondary and actually play well are the guys we draft, not the guys we trade for or sign off the streets.  Best case scenario is probably a Kelcie McCray; I think if he gives you that type of production, it’s good enough for now.  You still hope that one of the rookies we bring in this year ends up being the guy to take over.

Finally, we’ve got Luke Willson back as our #2 tight end.  He tested the free agency waters and apparently didn’t care for what he saw, so he’s back on a 1-year deal.  It was probably the wrong time for a tight end of his calibre to become a free agent, what with all the great tight ends coming out of the draft.  But, at the same time, I’m a little shocked – with all the money other NFL teams are throwing around willy nilly – that he couldn’t get anything more than what he got with the Seahawks.  $1.8 million plus incentives?  I mean, it’s BARELY a raise over what he got last year!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the deal for the Seahawks.  He knows the system, he’s a quality backup, he blocks well, catches well, runs well.  As an offensive weapon, he’s going to beat most linebackers who try to cover him.  In that sense, again, how did he not command more money on the open market?  The only thing I can think of is that we simply haven’t utilized him all that much, and he’s taking the hit accordingly.

I’m interested to see how the tight end position looks for the Seahawks in a year from now.  Nick Vannett is obviously someone the Seahawks will want to involve more in 2017.  He’s also the only tight end on the roster after this year, as both Willson and Graham are currently slated to be free agents.  Could that mean the Seahawks are looking to draft one of the tight ends in this deep class and pair him with Vannett going forward?

I guess we’ll find out.  In the meantime, these are three moves I’m pretty happy about.