Luke and Shead coming back

[Pandion Haliaetus]

Also, with Shead even if he doesn't make it back, he's been with the team since 2012, 5 years of experience, and is one of the most versatile players on the team. Pretty much can play all 5 DB positions (FS, SS, NCB, RCB, LCB) to some degree plus ST. What I'm getting at is, with the Seahawks possibly getting ready to take advantage of a strong DB draft, it doesn't hurt have players like Shead to help transition the new guys into our style, our technique, and our scheme.

 

[Largent80]

Everyone forgets we drafted Vannett last year and he barely played. Resigning Luke was a great thing because it frees up a draft pick.

 

[Uncle Si]

Once again, 1 year contracts for both.

It's becoming a leaguewise thing as teams start to massage deals to increase their FA turnover to improve their opportunities for compensatory picks.

Literally, the smartest thing said in this thread.

You just talked yourself out of a Christmas card, Mr. Man

 

[Coug_Hawk08]

Quality post by luke, lol.

https://mobile.twitter.com/LWillson_82/ ... 0797850624

 

[Siouxhawk]

Quality post by luke, lol.

https://mobile.twitter.com/LWillson_82/ ... 0797850624

Now that is funny :2thumbs:

 

[Mojambo]

I just love Luke Willson so much.

 

[Foghawk]

This is good news, guess Double L wasn't as in demand as he was hoping. :2thumbs:

 

[bigskydoc]

I slightly prefer Willson at up to 3 vs Cook at 6. Will have to see what the guarantees are. If it's something on the order of 1-1.5 million guaranteed, I really prefer him. If we get a stud TE or two out of the draft/UDFA/late free agency, we can transition to compete/ let the best man win mode and cut Willson with little pain. Right now, unfortunately, Willson is the best man.

There's not much out there in FA TE land. Jordan Cameron will want more than he is worth. Has never been a good blocker, and has the dropsies lately. Jacob Tamme - does he have anything left in the tank? How will he recover from his shoulder surgery? Kellen Davis? A lot of miles on him. Used to be a decent blocker.

Just a whole ton of meh out there in FA.

 

[ringless]

I slightly prefer Willson at up to 3 vs Cook at 6. Will have to see what the guarantees are. If it's something on the order of 1-1.5 million guaranteed, I really prefer him. If we get a stud TE or two out of the draft/UDFA/late free agency, we can transition to compete/ let the best man win mode and cut Willson with little pain. Right now, unfortunately, Willson is the best man.

There's not much out there in FA TE land. Jordan Cameron will want more than he is worth. Has never been a good blocker, and has the dropsies lately. Jacob Tamme - does he have anything left in the tank? How will he recover from his shoulder surgery? Kellen Davis? A lot of miles on him. Used to be a decent blocker.

Just a whole ton of meh out there in FA.

Since you are the .net doc. What is your opinion on the possibility of Shead really having an impact considering he tore his acl January 16th? And apparently it wasn't a clean tear at that?

 

[Uncle Si]

I slightly prefer Willson at up to 3 vs Cook at 6. Will have to see what the guarantees are. If it's something on the order of 1-1.5 million guaranteed, I really prefer him. If we get a stud TE or two out of the draft/UDFA/late free agency, we can transition to compete/ let the best man win mode and cut Willson with little pain. Right now, unfortunately, Willson is the best man.

There's not much out there in FA TE land. Jordan Cameron will want more than he is worth. Has never been a good blocker, and has the dropsies lately. Jacob Tamme - does he have anything left in the tank? How will he recover from his shoulder surgery? Kellen Davis? A lot of miles on him. Used to be a decent blocker.

Just a whole ton of meh out there in FA.

Since you are the .net doc. What is your opinion on the possibility of Shead really having an impact considering he tore his acl January 16th? And apparently it wasn't a clean tear at that?

6-9 months is the new normal for full recovery of an ACL tear.

https://www.verywell.com/acl-tear-surgery-rehab-how-long-does-does-it-take-2549221

6 months from January 15th is July 15th.

Every chance that even on the slow cycle of rehab he could be back and contributing to the team on the field in games by September.

 

[hawknation2017]

Once again, 1 year contracts for both.

It's becoming a leaguewise thing as teams start to massage deals to increase their FA turnover to improve their opportunities for compensatory picks.

Literally, the smartest thing said in this thread.

Yes, this is an interesting point. I believe players signed to one-year contracts are still considered compensatory free agents if they subsequently leave in free agency. So Shead will 1) not count against the 53-man roster while he is on IR and 2) would qualify for a compensatory pick if he signs a significant contract in free agency.

The Seahawks might even be able cut him with an injury settlement, if it's clear he won't be healthy enough to return, and he would still apparently qualify as a compensatory free agent:

Players who are cut with an injury settlement by their new team appear to qualify for the compensatory formula even if they otherwise would not. See Domenik Hixon in 2015, who qualified in favor of Carolina despite being cut with an injury settlement on June 3 due to tearing his ACL in OTAs.
http://overthecap.com/the-basics-and-me ... aft-picks/

It's a win-win. Either the Seahawks can afford to re-sign Shead after this season or he receives a large enough offer from another team in free agency to qualify for a compensatory pick. Ditto for the rest of these "prove it" signees, who could net compensatory picks if they leave in free agency for significant money.

 

[Sealake80]

This staff has earned the right to keep or toss any one at any time.

It is fun to play pretend as if we are the leadership structure of the team. In the end it is totally laughable.

They are making choices to field the most competitive team possible. Obviously Pete ranks som guys higher and lower than we do and for reasons we may or may not see or understand.

I like Luke. He is solid all around and a high character guy. I like how coach builds his locker room. The competition has many facets.

 

[WmHBonney]

There's something to be said for keeping guys that are familiar with the system. Especially if the contract is team friendly. I like these moves.

 

[crosfam]

I thought Luke would be gone; I figured somebody would really like what they see, figure he is ready to take on a starting role, and give him a 3-4 yr, 12-15 million $ deal or so. That's why I am not a GM.

And glad we didn't trash Shead over a legitimate injury, while still saving a few $$ as necessary due to the uncertainty.

I personally don't want the team culture to be one of screwing over players.

 

[Mick063]

Great value.

In the end it is about bang for the buck.

 

[seahawkfreak]

I get Shead but why Luke in such a deep TE class? Unless guaranteed money is low.

Exactly. I like Luke, but the draft is strong in TE's. This is another sign they are considering letting Graham go after 2017 IMO.

Especially if Lacy balls out this season.

 

[bigskydoc]

Since you are the .net doc. What is your opinion on the possibility of Shead really having an impact considering he tore his acl January 16th? And apparently it wasn't a clean tear at that?

6-9 months is the new normal for full recovery of an ACL tear.

Every chance that even on the slow cycle of rehab he could be back and contributing to the team on the field in games by September.

I don't provide care for professional athletes so I have to do some mental estimations. The average recovery for an NFL player is in the 10 month range. The recovery time is skewed a bit because of the season. Players who are injured early in the season take longer to recover, because they don't need to be recovered as quickly.

I will compare what we know of Shead to the timeline of Adrian Peterson's recovery. Peterson was in the 90th percentile for recovery, returning to play after just over 8 months. He tore his ACL Dec 24th, less than 1 month before Shead (ignoring the year). In 5 months he was putting lateral strain on the knee with a brace.


Shead posted pictures of early rehab on Friday, January 27th.




So he likely had surgery early that last week of January. I assume it was a ACL replacement. I haven't seen any info on where the graft is from. IMHO, this was a little rushed. They should have done some more pre-hab.

It would be instructional to see where he was 2-weeks post op, but I haven't found that data.


On March 15, Tracy Ford (Ford Sports Performance in Bellevue) posted the following video

[tweet]https://twitter.com/TFordFSP/status/842073847364952064[/tweet]

So, about 8 weeks post-op, he is working primarily on maintaining strength in the core, hip, thigh, and calf. He is starting to put some light, isometric strain on the ACL. I am guessing that he is about 2 weeks behind Adrian Peterson's timeline.

He likely has another 4-6 weeks before he is allowed to start running in a straight line, and another 10-12 weeks before he can start cutting with a knee brace on.

The video shows that he is doing what he needs to to be ready for the big tests sometime between May and July when he will see if he is strong enough to stabilize and protect the leg when he returns to sports specific activities.

I think he is looking at a late October to mid November return. If you want to nail me down, I would say he will return Nov 5th unless the bye week is the 5th or the 12th. If the bye week falls on one of those Sundays, he will return following the bye week.

 

[RiverDog]

This is another sign they are considering letting Graham go after 2017 IMO.

I think so, too, that by bringing back Willson that the Hawks are keeping their options open with Graham. They are both receiving tight ends and not real good in line blockers.

 

[Bryce84]

As John Schneider succinctly described during his recent combine presser, this time of year is all about "checking boxes" of need before the draft. Checking our boxes with experienced veterans on low-risk, prove it deals means we will be less dependent on the draft to fill specific positions of need.

It does NOT mean we will disregard these areas in the draft and undrafted free agency, i.e. kicker, offensive tackle, running back, tight end, cornerback, etc. It simply allows us to be more freewheeling and creative in drafting the best available players for this team.

IMO, that was one of the major dilemmas with the draft classes since our championship. We were forced to play catch-up, due to not having all of our boxes checked with veterans, by targeting very specific players in the draft at very specific positions of need.

Rather than relying on the draft to fill our holes, the team has done a nice job this year of acquiring free agents to meet the base line for the competition. Now the draft can be used to supplement that competition with young -- and hopefully even better -- talent. Think of it as plugging the holes in a leaky boat first (with "prove it" vets) before you spend your time scooping the water out with a bucket (rookies).

This guy gets it. These deals don't guarantee that Willson makes the roster this year. This just frees them up immensely with their draft strategy. Completely expecting the draft to solve your problem at any position just sets you up very poorly in multiple ways. If your competition knows you need something, they can more easily and confidently target where to move to draft someone they covet that you might have wanted.

So what if you go through the offseason not addressing a position at all with the thinking that the draft will solve it and then everyone you "planned" on in the draft gets sniped from you? Then you have a huge void at the position and have to hope it doesn't come back to haunt you due to injuries or anything magnifying it's importance.

Sure it's easy to say "This is a deep TE draft class, why make this deal?" but these guys have to consider the possibility of NOT getting a TE they want in the draft and this gives them insurance for that scenario. You'll see that similarity with all of the signings this offseason. As the quoted poster said, it's Schneider "checking boxes" for draft flexibility/strategy.

 

[nash72]

I would have let both of them walk. Team could have probably signed another TE with the same skills or better for less money. They need to draft another TE regardless if Vannett cant get any reps. I was really hoping Shead would be let go as I never cared for him and still don't see the love everybody has for him. I wanted that CB2 position to be improved, but it doesn't appear that's going to happen. Having said that, the deals are small and short so its not that huge of a deal. I just wanted to see improvement instead of the same old mediocrity.