Longer answer to follow. :lol:
A MISTAKE PEOPLE MAKE IN THINKING ABOUT THE CAP AND CAP ROOM:
One mistake people make is that they think of team's salary cap in one year blocks (i.e. how much cap space do the Hawks have this year), but teams manage their salary caps in three year blocks (i.e. in paying this FA we need to think about this year, next year, and the year after that).
By next year the real, real money of all of the Seahawks' signings has come home to roost. I don't remember the exact #s but the team is near the top of the league in salary cap money already assigned and near the bottom of the league in # of players under contract that money is going to. That tells you what you need to know.
So, it's possible for them to hit FA this year with some big FA signings with low dollar amounts in year 1, but they aren't doing that and can't do that because they don't have the money to do that in years 2 and 3 of those contracts.
TWO REASONS WHY THE SEAHAWKS ARE CASH STRAPPED:
1) The Seahawks are cash-strapped because almost all of their talent is clustered in the same age bracket, and it's a very expensive one.
The Seahwawks may have had the best 24-36 month run of talent acquisition in NFL history. Save for Bennett all of their talent is really in the same age window though, now right in or just entering their prime. Most NFL teams have a wider age distribution in their talent, which benefits them from a cap perspective, because talented players on their first deals and talented players on their third or fourth deals are cheaper, because you don't have to pay for someone's prime. Long story short, second contracts for talented players are the most expensive contracts, and the Seahawks talent is almost entirely on second contracts. Rather than letting some of these guys walk and hopin to replace them on draft picks on first contracts or shoring up the draft failures short term with guys on third and fourth contracts, the Seahawks now have almost all of their talent on second deals.
2) The Seahawks are using a super-star strategy that's typical to the NBA but more atypical in the NFL.
In the NBA the goal is to get two superstars, 1 nice mid-level piece, and then fill out the rest of your roster for practically nothing. Because of that being a good but not great player in the NBA really sucks compared to the NFL. Most NFL teams will let one pro-bowler walk in order to pay for above average players at two or three (or four) more positions. It's more a team sport, the thinking goes.
The Seahawks don't do that though, so with each passing year, the above average players on their roster (e.g. the Tates, Red Bryants, Maxwells, Okungs, Irvins, etc. of the world) ship out, because the money that would go to them goes instead to the superstars. (The lone exception to this is Wright.) As a result the Seahawks don't have nearly as many mid-level contracts as most other teams. They have superstars, they have guys on their first deals, and they have UDFAs. This strategy hasn't really been tried before in the NFL, so it could work, and it could not. It's definitely fun to watch though, and it contributes to the idea of being cash-strapped, as bringing in above average rotational depth isn't really part of the Seahawks' agenda. They're either going to pay through the nose in salary and/or trade at the top of the market (e.g. Harvin, Jimmy, and Cary Williams (you guys gave me so much crap for saying the Hawks overpaid for him at the top of the market :lol: )), or they're going to get up to 53 with minimum salaries for guys they've plucked out of the land of misfit toys (e.g. UDFAs, and people nobody else wants).
