I dunno, I think it’s news when a former Seahawks first-round draft pick signs with another team.

I can’t think of this year’s free agent market for offensive linemen off the top of my head, but I don’t remember it being particularly robust. Seemed like an average year; maybe fewer top-tier guys than usual, but not a crazy outlier or anything. Anyway, as has been discussed ad nauseam, the O-Line market tends to be pretty lucrative, because there’s not enough good ones to go around. So, even if you’re semi-competent, you seem to get many more millions of dollars than would seem fiscally responsible.

George Fant, for instance, was a guy who started all of 24 games across four years (who also, not for nothing, missed the entirety of the 2017 season with a torn ACL); he was mostly a blocking tight end for the last two years with the Seahawks. AND, he was a basketball player primarily in college, until his final year when he played, again, tight end. The Jets just gave him a 3-year deal for $27.3 million deal and a wink-wink guarantee to be their starting left tackle (arguably the most important position on the offensive line).

I mean, I like him, and I wish him all the best, but that’s a pretty big leap for a guy with not a lot of experience.

Whereas Ifedi has started 60 games across four years (who has never had a serious injury to speak of). Now, obviously granted, he had to play right out of the gate as a rookie, and got his ass handed to him on the regular for the first couple seasons of his professional career, but he was never a tight end; he played LINE. He started at right tackle primarily the last few years and made serious strides in his development over 2018 & 2019.

Knowing what we know about the needs across the league, combined with how difficult it is for college linemen to come in and start right away as rookies (what with all the spread offenses, on top of them simply being under-sized and under-skilled), I fully expected the market for Ifedi’s services to be HIGHER than Fant’s, or at the very least on par.

Instead, he’s signing a 1-year deal with the Bears (for a currently-undisclosed amount), where it sounds like he’ll have to slide over to right guard (probably the LEAST-valuable spot on an O-Line). I don’t get it.

I mean, yeah, he’s always had trouble with penalties, and he’ll still get beat on occasion. But, it seems like there was still room for growth there! Now, who knows, maybe he was always meant to be a guard. He’s certainly got the size and brute strength to be one (while not necessarily being as fleet of foot as you’d like for a tackle), but it kinda feels like a give-up move. Tackles are so much more valuable; you’d think if he was going to take a 1-year deal, he’d go somewhere where he could at least stick at tackle! I dunno, maybe his agent sucks.

All hope isn’t lost, of course. If he goes in there at guard and really kills it, he can certainly earn a top-notch contract next year; there are always teams who will over-pay for guards. But, you REALLY have to stand out as one of the very best in the game; whereas – as Fant has proven – you don’t need to do a whole lot to get paid as a tackle (granted, he looks to be a left tackle, but still).

If I thought the Seahawks were in line for any compensatory picks next year, I’d probably be (WAY) more upset, but obviously we’ve signed so many street free agents that it’s just not gonna happen. Nevertheless, I kinda feel bad. The Seahawks are always maligned for their offensive line play, so I always like it when one of our guys (like James “Pancakes” Carpenter, like Mark “Mark” Glowinski, like George “College Basketball Player” Fant) hits the open market and gets paid. It’s a signifier – to Seahawks fans, if nothing else – that our guys really aren’t that incompetent, and they get unfairly criticized by the national media. A bigtime Ifedi deal might’ve been the biggest feather in our caps, as he’s been a fucking WHIPPING BOY for both the national media and most of the local fans alike. This deal has to give us all pause and reflect, “Oh yeah, he did kinda suck most of the time, didn’t he?”

I don’t think that’s necessarily fair, but apparently the market has spoken! So, here’s to hoping he’s able to really stick it to everyone this season, and gets what he deserves in 2021!