Chapow":3eeikeau said:
olyfan63":3eeikeau said:
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.
