Malik McDowell Released

[Jville]

McDowell showed up on the NFL League Transactions today as "Waved Non-Football Injury. So he is waved pre-June 1st. [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/transactions?transactionMonth=3&transactionYear=2019&transactionTeamAbbr=SEA[/urltargetblank]

Over The Cap now lists his 2019 cap cost as $1,599,238 in Dead Money.

Team Dead Cap Costs have now increased to $2,483,564 thus far for 2019.

Pete and John review their decisions every year and make adjustments to their program based on what they have learned ...... every year. In the grand scheme of things, McDowell was an object lesson and nothing more.

 

[kidhawk]

McDowell showed up on the NFL League Transactions today as "Waved Non-Football Injury. So he is waved pre-June 1st. [urltargetblank]http://www.nfl.com/transactions?transactionMonth=3&transactionYear=2019&transactionTeamAbbr=SEA[/urltargetblank]

Over The Cap now lists his 2019 cap cost as $1,599,238 in Dead Money.

Team Dead Cap Costs have now increased to $2,483,564 thus far for 2019.

Pete and John review their decisions every year and make adjustments to their program based on what they have learned ...... every year. In the grand scheme of things, McDowell was an object lesson and nothing more.

For every Malik McDowell you also get a Frank Clark, and for that reason, I'm not going to be one to put this on the front office for trying to take a few chances on talented players. Sometimes it pans out and sometimes it doesn't.

 

[KARAVARUS]

As angry as this makes me, McDowell is still a better Seahawk than Aaron Curry.

 

[Chapow]

As angry as this makes me, McDowell is still a better Seahawk than Aaron Curry.

How? That is a genuinely baffling statement to me.

Curry was not near the player most expected him to be when he was drafted, but at least he showed up and contributed to the team which is not something that can be said for McDowell.

 

[Jville]

Do you guys really want to go down that path?

I've found that collecting and dwelling on angry feelings is detrimental to ones health.

Seizing lessons learned and building on them in pursuit of today's possibilities is much more enjoyable.

 

[chris98251]

Do you guys really want to go down that path?

I've found that collecting and dwelling on angry feelings is detrimental to ones health.

Seizing lessons learned and building on them in pursuit of today's possibilities is much more enjoyable.

You don't dwell you act on them and get a sense of euphoria from putting the person who pissed you off in the ground, works wonders for population control as well. Now if I could just do it and not get caught

 

[Seymour]

Do you guys really want to go down that path?

I've found that collecting and dwelling on angry feelings is detrimental to ones health.

Seizing lessons learned and building on them in pursuit of today's possibilities is much more enjoyable.

So now we need to endure off topic posts about what is best for our health?

And here I thought the path to letting go was open discussion of ones feelings and not stuffing them as you suggest.

 

[HawkGA]

Back to the release of McDowell . . . what is the motivation? Why can't he just stay on the NFI forever? He never fulfilled any of his contract? Do his years toll while on NFI? Does he get his salary (I know he got his bonus)?

 

[jammerhawk]

Seymour, I understand you need to continue more of the almost two year rant about how the FO totally pooched a second round pick b/c the player was an idiot who failed the protect himself from offfield injury. Of course they had to know that McDowell would turn out to bee a bust b/c he would be unable to play a down. They were idiots, of course, in not giving a young man who elite athletic ability at a position of need but a suspect personality a babysitter so he wpuldn’t be doing inner city two wheeling on a quad ATV without a helmet b/c you know they needed to suspect that behaviour b/c of his character :sarcasm_on:

I’m not stpping you from continuing as you have every right to you opinion which I understand but disagree with you las the blame for the non-performance of the player is to my mind completely upon the player. Feel free to continue the negativity about this failed pick, but please dial back the ad hominem as all I took from Jville’s remark was, perhaps after two years it’s time to move on and put it behind us. I din’t Read it as off topic and doubt he would presume to offer you health advice. There are lots of reasons to criticize the FO when they make draft picks that don’t work out, but at some point we all need to focus upon now. I am guilty of this myself as to me there have been some huge mistakes made by the FO which perhaps derailed a potential multi year Lombardi run. We can choose to focus upon Bevell, Cable, Pete’s loyalty to non-performing coaches, Harvin, Graham, aging stars with attitudes of being bigger than the team, and of course the sad reality is the team drafted a high potential athlete who through personal foolishness rendered himself unable to play through off the field injury.

Thankfully the team has finally totally cut bait and have dusted their hands off with this player. I’m sure they believe they made a mistake drafting him because he made himself unavailable. They screwed up in drafting a high potential athletic player with suspect character, lots of teams make that mistake hoping the players will mature as they age.

The team is now entirely of the belief that McDowell won’t ever play again for them, so it’s time to move on.

 

[Seymour]

I am focused on the now. We just released him...literally he just cleared. That is as on topic and about the now as you can get. As far as "continued negativity"....how is walking out from under a dark cloud negative? Why not try to put a muzzle on all the Curry comments still floating around here? Are those more current? This is current news whether some here like it or not. The only difference with me is, I'm the one saying I sure don't want to take that road again and this is why. But ignore, deny and drink up to those that chose, but don't expect no reaction to a gag order either. :179422:

 

[chris98251]

I am focused on the now. We just released him...literally he just cleared. That is as on topic and about the now as you can get. As far as "continued negativity"....how is walking out from under a dark cloud negative? Why not try to put a muzzle on all the Curry comments still floating around here? Are those more current? This is current news whether some here like it or not. The only difference with me is, I'm the one saying I sure don't want to take that road again and this is why. But ignore, deny and drink up to those that chose, but don't expect no reaction to a gag order either. :179422:

So no risk no reward is the approach, pass on guys that had a incident when they were 15 because they are a cancer and bad person, pass on guys that had a injury that is in recovery, pass on someone accused of something because it might be true and we don't want those kind round here, pass on guys that don't meet a measurable because hey they may come up short, pass on guys that you want to change position with because hey, it might not pan out and that is an investment of time we don't want to waste on someone when there are others that are suited for the position.


This keeps going but if your talking absolutes then where does it end?

 

[Seymour]

Take the risks with lessor picks and when we have less holes to fill.

Schnieder has admitted that since this, they learned and have changed their draft parameters. Why do you suppose that is if they think it was still the right tactic going forward?

Pain brings about change...bottom line is ouch!

I'm moving on now...

Bye.

 

[bigskydoc]

Back to the release of McDowell . . .

Was he with Robert Kraft when this happened?

 

[Jville]

Back to the release of McDowell . . . what is the motivation? Why can't he just stay on the NFI forever? He never fulfilled any of his contract? Do his years toll while on NFI? Does he get his salary (I know he got his bonus)?

Yes indeed, lets return to the release of McDowell and address those cap and cost consequences ......

The information outage surrounding McDowell continued thru the conclusion of his contract termination with Seattle. The resulting (2019) dead cap cost of $1,599,238 is the sum of his two remaining prorated signing bonus write offs of 2 x $799,619 previously scheduled for 2019 & 2020. With a full write off of the balance in 2019, there will be no additional cap cost in 2020 or beyond.

According to OTC, McDowell received all of his signing bonus plus $85,000 of his scheduled salary ...... presumably a reduced figure due to his self inflicted injury. The team did bring him in for a couple of weeks to evaluate his status only to send him home to family and physician.

So his brief presence in Seattle and failed physical resulted in McDowell forfeiting $1,246,155 minus $85,000 = $1,161,155 in contract salary guarantees. McDowell received a $3,198,476 signing bonus plus $85,000 in salary for a total of $3,283,476 in cash for 2017. No cash payments have been made since then. Retaining him on the team NFI list allowed the front office to stretch out the cap cost over a 3 year period ...... as kind of a cap cost payment plan.

Now, at last, this can all fade into a footnote of Seahawk history.

 

[oldhawkfan]

Back to the release of McDowell . . . what is the motivation? Why can't he just stay on the NFI forever? He never fulfilled any of his contract? Do his years toll while on NFI? Does he get his salary (I know he got his bonus)?

Yes indeed, lets return to the release of McDowell and address those cap and cost consequences ......

The information outage surrounding McDowell continued thru the conclusion of his contract termination with Seattle. The resulting (2019) dead cap cost of $1,599,238 is the sum of his two remaining prorated signing bonus write offs of 2 x $799,619 previously scheduled for 2019 & 2020. With a full write off of the balance in 2019, there will be no additional cap cost in 2020 or beyond.

According to OTC, McDowell received all of his signing bonus plus $85,000 of his scheduled salary ...... presumably a reduced figure due to his self inflicted injury. The team did bring him in for a couple of weeks to evaluate his status only to send him home to family and physician.

So his brief presence in Seattle and failed physical resulted in McDowell forfeiting $1,246,155 minus $85,000 = $1,161,155 in contract salary guarantees. McDowell received a $3,198,476 signing bonus plus $85,000 in salary for a total of $3,283,476 in cash for 2017. No cash payments have been made since then. Retaining him on the team NFI list allowed the front office to stretch out the cap cost over a 3 year period ...... as kind of a cap cost payment plan.

Now, at last, this can all fade into a footnote of Seahawk history.

With that kind of cash for just being an NFL draft pick, he should be set for life. Unless he spends it on ATVs and such. Hopefully he gets some sound financial advice and doesn't squander it.

 

[TwistedHusky]

Not sure how you can factor in the risk of an ATV accident on an NFL draft pick.

And if you remove risk factors, you remove the ability to get a great player at a coveted position - since the reason they are still available was that risk or character concern in the first place. By that standard, we never draft Frank Clark.

I don't care if you are a good person. Just be a great football player.

But the problem with him was his production was iffy in college anyway and we drafted a freaking DT at a time we had more pressing needs and when much better players were on the board, not in hindsight but at the time.

Bummer he got stupid, careless, or impulsive. Maybe it is a cautionary tale and saves some other kid from ruining his career.

Though you could certainly argue that crazy impulsive, sometimes dangerous decisions are a hallmark of CTE so I will refrain from blaming Malik considering, and hoping that the rest of his life that issue never surfaces for him.

It was a weird pick on our side, and it didn't work out. But it wasn't a first round pick anyway. So it was only a big deal because we screwed ourselves in trading away our 1st round pick in the first place.

 

[jammerhawk]

From what we have seen from him in terms of his pre and post draft behaviour I hold little belief he will and will likely be broke before long after personally screwing up what was an opportunity to truly change his life and his family's life forever.

I wish him luck, b/c he will need it.

Time to move on.

 

[olyfan63]

Funny that you mention Frank Clark, who also had issues before he was drafted. Clark and Malik were both physically gifted with mental question marks. Clark worked out, Malik didn't, luck of the draw. All draft picks are a risk...pretty ridiculous the flack Pete and John get for the Malik pick, like everyone saw an ATV accident coming a mile away.

There is NO COMPARISON, pre-draft, between Clark and McDowell.
Clark's effort, hustle, work habits, coachability, motor/heart/desire, and good teammate characteristics were never in question. Clark was as "safe" a pick as you will ever find.

The only issue EVER with Clark was media hysteria over incidents involving his then-girlfriend, who it is readily apparent had Cluster B personality disorder tendencies. Of course, in the media narrative, the female is generally portrayed as a pure and innocent victim, without regard to any actual facts. Clark's biggest problem here was hooking up with a psycho-bitch and getting sucked into her crazy world. It's happened to a lot of guys, 99.99999 % of the male victims involved are regular guys. You can find lots of these guys if you go sit in on a few family court sessions. They're the ones constantly having to defend themselves against false allegations, or trying to get the court to order their ex to follow the custody arrangements and stop keeping the kids from them.

Yes, IIRC there was also something involving stealing a stereo, and Clark dealt with the consequences and learned the lesson.

The Seahawks did their research on Clark and accurately assessed the situation.

The Seahawks ignored massive red flags on McDowell in the heart/desire/work habits area, salivating over his athletic potential.

I sure hope the other guy is right, that the 'Hawks will add some clauses to contracts to prevent paying a turd like McDowell in the future. Also hope the Hawks learned their lesson on draft decisions. Father Flanagan Pete Carroll, even you have limits on the reclamation projects you can be successful with. Protect the team.

 

[Chapow]

The Seahawks ignored massive red flags on McDowell in the heart/desire/work habits area, salivating over his athletic potential.

McDowell was thought of as a guy with high first round talent and athleticism. He never would've been available in the 2nd round without some red flags. Just because they opted to pick McDowell in the draft doesn't mean they ignored the red flags. I think it's much more likely that they were well aware of the red flags but felt that the risk was worth the possible reward than that they simply ignored the red flags.

 

[olyfan63]

The Seahawks ignored massive red flags on McDowell in the heart/desire/work habits area, salivating over his athletic potential.

McDowell was thought of as a guy with high first round talent and athleticism. He never would've been available in the 2nd round without some red flags. Just because they opted to pick McDowell in the draft doesn't mean they ignored the red flags. I think it's much more likely that they were well aware of the red flags but felt that the risk was worth the possible reward than that they simply ignored the red flags.

I think Pete got a lesson in the Harvin fiasco, and again here with McDowell. There is probably a lot that will never be told publicly. Pete did not realize that Harvin was (in my opinion) a Borderline Personality Disordered sociopath, and had no idea the chaos that Harvin would cause here and that dealing with such a situation who is in a position of power (the big contract) was way, way beyond Pete's (or anyone's) ability to turn into a healthy, high-performing situation.

In fairness, I think I have to grant your point that the Seahawks braintrust were highly aware of McDowell's red flags and that Pete and John made the decision to roll the dice for what they believed would be a huge upside.

I have to make that concession because they never got a healthy McDowell into camp to participate in the Seahawks culture, to hopefully be influenced by the great mentors in the environment, by having the structure, and by having to rise to a higher level of competition. They probably felt that once in the Seahawks system, they could help him grow up. Once McDowell did whatever stupid, self-inflicted thing he did to injure himself, he was not the same guy, mentally and emotionally, the Hawks placed their bets on. The injury was a fluky thing, and maybe without the injury, McDowell shows up, competes, develops, and maybe even this year, McDowell is receiving Pro Bowl recognition, but unable to appear due to team SB commitments. Certainly we would have gotten past the Cowboys in the playoffs.

Maybe we just throw up our hands and say, "Shit for luck!" I'm sure Pete, John, and the Front Office have gone over these scenarios again and again to learn the lesson with future picks and contracts and messaging to their high (i.e., signing bonus) draft picks on what activities are not OK and where NFI will cause serious penalties up to and including forfeiture of signing bonuses.

I CAN guarantee you that since the Harvin experience, Pete, John, and the FO have become functional experts on Cluster B personality disorders, (Borderline Personality Disorder, Narcissistic Personality Disorder) and that the team's player acquisition process now explicitly screens for these traits. They brought in Brandon Marshall, a decision I personally liked and agreed with (Marshall is just about the *only* athlete/celebrity with BPD to openly "come out" with his condition, and I admire his courage tremendously. K. Jenner, courage? Ha! B. Marshall, 10x.)

If McDowell had come in healthy, and developed, his pass rush and DL play would have been a huge difference-maker for the team. So it's hard to fault PC/JS/FO for rolling the dice. I just hope they have internalized the right lesson. We do want them to stay aggressive and not go all Tim Ruskell on us and only be bringing in all these character-guys-with-no-talent. The biggest loss isn't the money, it's getting precisely zilch out of a 2nd round draft slot that should have been a team-booster. Not every 2nd rounder is a Bobby Wagner, but Frank Clark has been a fantastic 2nd round pickup as well.