'Hawks officially release Sidney Rice & Big Red Bryant

[12thManNorth]

Absolutely love big Red, phenomenal run stopper, great leader, and probably the coolest guy in the world to listen to him speak. His Southern Drawl is just epic. Met him this past Summer and he was cool as hell. I moved on from Sid Rice awhile ago but made some huge plays in his time here as well.

The way I look at it, except for 5-8 pretty much irreplaceable guys on the roster, we should not be overpaying ANYBODY, for the sole reason that Seattle is such a destination right now for FA's given us coming off a SB win and the environment that Pete Carroll and the 12th Man have created. Guys will take less to come and some to stay here. We saw this already last year with getting Bennett and Avril for so cheap, and obviously now we must be an even bigger destination. It's been proven last year, and it will be proven again. To me it's stupid to overpay replaceable guys like Big Red, Chris Clemons, Zach Miller, Sid Rice, etc. Either restructure or cut them. It sucks and it's cold-hearted, but freeing up $12 million in cap space by Seattle is not like freeing up $12 million for about 25 other teams, solely due to what we can do with that $12 million. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all these guys, but there's 31 other teams out there that didn't win the Super Bowl that are trying to get better, so standing pat is a losing mindset as far as I'm concerned. We'll value the contributions these guys made to our first Super Bowl win FOREVER, but last year is done and the whole mindset must be WHAT'S NEXT

 

[Sarlacc83]

My favorite Bryant play was the blocked FG against SF in 2012. (That led to Sherman's TD).

Sidney: Game winning reception against Chicago.

Really Chicago? I think the New England game winner was spectacular, and I will always remember that play first and foremost when thinking of Rice.

Sidney got rocked on the Bears play, and that makes it stand out to me. The Patriots play was great, too, but it doesn't come first to my mind.

 

[Trenchbroom]

Both were important parts of this team, both will be missed. Good luck Red and Sidney!

 

[drdiags]

This was an interesting note:

Breno Giacomini ‏@68Breno · 25m
12s never forget the heart (Big Red) that brought this Super Bowl to Seattle. With out him there was no beat no pulse no nothing !!!

Breno probably isn't coming back either but I wonder how true the sentiment might be?

 

[McGruff]

Red was unquestionably a key cog and more importantly a key leader on this team. Gentle giant who won team mates over with his tenacious play.

I honestly can't imagine this defense without him. It was built around two players . . . Red and Earl. Without them we wouldn't have the unique stamp we have. Red allowed us so much freedom up front by being able to dominate the run game with three linemen, because Red could destroy half an Oline by himself.

Bummer . . . but we move forward. Next man up.

 

[DavidSeven]

Sad to see these guys go. Both were instrumental in building up this program. Foundation pieces!

I think there's a small chance we retain Clem. This is assuming we can't find better value in FA or the draft. Realistically, Clemons is still our only option as an every-down LEO. Yes, his sack numbers were down, but he still got consistent pressure and was stout enough versus the run. It's hard to rely on a rookie to be developed enough physically and in technique to be a reliable LEO his first year. I think they'll definitely look at the FA market, but Clem may be our only option if we completely miss there.

To me, it's looking more like Miller's spot might be safe for next year. Again, they might be waiting to see what happens in FA or the draft. But I could see them being OK with either an extension that reduces his cap cost or just keeping him on his current deal for one more year. He has a $1M roster bonus due in late March, so if he's still on the roster by then, it's safe to say we're keeping him.

 

[HansGruber]

There is a video on the Scruggs website where Scruggs is walking into the locker room right before the SuperBowl and the entire team is surrounding Red. Red is clearly screaming at them and firing them up and everybody is feeding into the fire.

You can tell just how much of a leader Red was/is by looking at that moment, even if you cannot hear a word he is saying.

Sometimes you know the cost of things, know what has to be done, but man does it suck when you have to finally admit it and do it. This is one of those times where you just wish there was anything that could be done to keep him but you know you cannot.

Damnit.

I am going to miss watching him as a Seahawk.

You can find that video here:
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seahawks/ ... g-scruggs/

 

[McGruff]

There is a video on the Scruggs website where Scruggs is walking into the locker room right before the SuperBowl and the entire team is surrounding Red. Red is clearly screaming at them and firing them up and everybody is feeding into the fire.

You can tell just how much of a leader Red was/is by looking at that moment, even if you cannot hear a word he is saying.

Sometimes you know the cost of things, know what has to be done, but man does it suck when you have to finally admit it and do it. This is one of those times where you just wish there was anything that could be done to keep him but you know you cannot.

Damnit.

I am going to miss watching him as a Seahawk.

You can find that video here:
http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seahawks/ ... g-scruggs/

Never seen that before . . . hey champ, how you doin' champ?

 

[Hasselbeck]

So does that mean that either Clemons and Miller are not getting cut, or that the team does not want to give them a head start on free agency?

I hope it means they have deals on the table with Bennett, Thomas and/or Tate and that they needed this cap room to complete it.

Still fully expect Miller and Clemons to be cut as well.

 

[lukerguy]

The torch will be passed, someone else will step up. In fact, Bennett himself is quite the leader and may be next in line if we're able to re-sign him.

 

[ChiefHawk]

I want Red back.

 

[bryantology79]

serious...he wouldnt restructure?

 

[Sports Hernia]

Sigh...always tough saying goodbye to favorites.

I'm glad for Red's career turnaround here, and that he's leaving with a Super Bowl ring.

Yep, sad to see them go but they both leave as Super Bowl champions, so they have that!

 

[Sports Hernia]

serious...he wouldnt restructure?

I think they get more cap savings if you release him, and then re-sign him. Not saying that's going to happen but that may be a potential reason for going that route.

 

[CortezCortez]

I want Red back.

+1

 

[Atradees]

They were both Great Guys. They got paid. Them being cut doesnt weaken this team one iota. That rocks to me.

A plus offseason so far. Harder decisions will have to made this offseason.

 

[Natethegreat]

The tweet by by Clemons is ridiculous coming from a guy who put himself first and held out. Do I blame him? Nope, but neither do I blame the Seahawks for no loyalty. Red got paid by this franchise when it looked like he was on his way out. Rice is/was/has been overpaid the entire time he was here and can't stay on the field. These guys are very very spoiled.

 

[Tokadub]

I knew Rice would be cut, we can't afford to pour that much money into our receivers now that we have Harvin. Rice was clearly our best receiver in 2012 so I'm a bit sad he never really got a chance to play healthy in 2013. He really could make some incredible catches, we are just lucky to have Baldwin and Tate who can also go up and get the ball while keeping feet in, really talented athletic guys. If it wasn't for Kearse having such a great season I would be a lot more worried about this, but now I think Kearse will be taking Rice's previous roll as he did all season with great production. I don't think we can truly replace Rice but our receiver core is really good if we keep Tate, and to a lesser extent Miller.

Sad to see Red Bryant go for all the reasons others have already mentioned. But he was one of the guys on our team where you look at his salary and you just know he's really over payed. So I think it was a smart decision overall even though I like him.

So now the first guys who come to mind who are still being overpayed are Okung, Unger, and Miller. If we can restructure those guys to be paid less that would really help.

I think Ukung is worth 5-6 million since he's always hurt instead of his 8.7 million.

Zach Miller and Unger are both making about 5 million when they seem like 3.0-4.5 million guys to me.

The good news with cutting Bryant though when combined with the news that the cap might be raised to 133 million is that I think it is now realistic that we could keep both Tate and Bennett which would be HUGE!!!

If we can get Tate for 4-5 million a year and Bennett for 6 million a year tops I think we'd be in REALLY good shape going forward. I could still see us releasing Bennett though since another team might overpay him a bit, I also think Tate is worth more than 5 million but hopefully his hometown discount is legit and maybe the rest of the league is still clueless to how good he is clinging to that "pedestrian" idea still.

 

[drdiags]

Red probably should have taken the Patriots offer. It could have been misplaced loyalty on his part, since his father-in-law was held in high regards here. If that was the case, he let sentiment cloud his judgement.

Everybody is spoiled, fans included. We get mad if a guy says he isn't taking a hometown discount, when the team probably just cut a guy who did.

EDIT: Removed reply about Clemons, since it is noted below that his tweet wasn't football related.

 

[sc85sis]

The tweet by by Clemons is ridiculous coming from a guy who put himself first and held out. Do I blame him? Nope, but neither do I blame the Seahawks for no loyalty. Red got paid by this franchise when it looked like he was on his way out. Rice is/was/has been overpaid the entire time he was here and can't stay on the field. These guys are very very spoiled.

@kaseywakaa: @chrisclemons91 why does everyone think this tweet is about football it's a song lyric!!!!!!

@chrisclemons91: @kaseywakaa somebody with some sense......