The One That Got Away, Golden Tate

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Would you have liked for the team to have kept Golden Tate?

He seems to have done pretty well in Detroit.

Keen to hear your thoughts?
 

massari

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They let him walk for $6M per season even though he was the #1 WR ahead of Baldwin at the time, good blocker, pretty good return man and seemed to be getting better every season entering his prime years then a year later (or two?) chose to re-sign Kearse for over $4M per.

"I'm going to earn in one year at Detroit what Seattle was going to pay me for two years. Seattle offered numbers that were laughable. I thought, 'I've given you everything and this is what you give me?'

"Considering I was there for four years, and started two of those years. I missed one game in those two years. I did everything right and wasn't a trouble maker. And what they offered, I was like, 'Is this serious?' The numbers [the Seahawks] shot at me were not first-priority, like they said they wanted to do for me to stay in Seattle." http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/1063 ... -laughable

Quote from Mile Tomlin:

"I just love skill guys that play with a certain demeanor. Wideouts that play like linebackers, the first guy I used to describe that way was Hines Ward, so that just speaks to the kind of company, the regard that I hold for Golden Tate. He's a physical, combative guy."

"He's good in the run game, blocking, he's good after the catch in terms of being a difficult guy to get to the ground, contact, balance and play demeanor. He's just a very physical guy." https://247sports.com/nfl/pittsburgh-st ... -109400580

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W9DyHRy
 

Spin Doctor

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There is that rumor that involved Golden Tate sleeping with Russ's wife. If the rumor was true, then I could see why he wasn't resigned. Now, these rumors are just conjecture -- we don't know if they hold any water. All that being said, if those rumors did indeed turn out to be false, yes I would love him on our team.

We have spent a first rounder, and gave away Max Unger for Jimmy Graham, and we spent yet another first rounder to acquire Percy Harvin. Where does that leave us versus what Golden Tate has been doing in Detroit? He has a very high catch rate, and is a dynamic play maker for Detroit. He can turn short slant passes into big gains for Stafford. We have drafted two receivers fairly high to replace what one man did for us, in addition to whiffing on Harvin, and and having mediocre success with Jimmy Graham.

We have given away, a lot of draft capital, and drafted a bunch of receivers, but none of them have had the same impact that Golden Tate has had on the Lions. He is everything Pete Carroll looks for in a receiver, a playmaker, very versatile -- he is just as comfortable boxing out defenders, and high pointing the ball as he is taking a slant pass over the middle. He was also money on the dreaded bubble screen. Get him into space and he was a slippery, and hard runner. He was also one of the best blockers at the wideout position. Together he and Russ made the impossible happen in many cases. Tate, Baldwin, Miller, and Kearse in retrospect was a very solid unit.

Tate also did not command the salary of a Percy Harvin or Jimmy Graham did. If that story is really just a rumor, then I think Pete Carroll and John Schneider really dropped the ball here. We have spent years trying to replicate what the man is doing in Detroit, and we have yet to find that player.
 
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Yeah his YAC is certainly impressive. 4th highest in the league with 639.
 

Trrrroy

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In hindsight losing him was a mistake. At the time I wasn't worried, however, because we had Percy Harvin...... heh.
 
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Trrrroy":1ko8cain said:
In hindsight losing him was a mistake. At the time I wasn't worried, however, because we had Percy Harvin...... heh.

And then we laughed and laughed!
 

sutz

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I'm not sure it was only about the money, although that was a big factor. He would never had gotten the stats he is getting in Detroit if he stayed here. The team has never said what they offered Tate IIRC, so we kind of have to take Golden's word on that score. I doubt it would have been that low, though.

I remember the rumors flying around about him sleeping with Russ's wife. Maybe they were true, after all, they separated soon after that. Maybe Russ thinks he kept the wrong partner, too. ;)

Hell, yes I wish we could have kept him here, but it wasn't to be.
 

Sgt. Largent

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I always thought with Marshawn and the fact that Russell and all the defensive player contracts that were looming, it was an either/or thing with Doug and Golden, and Doug was cheaper.

The Lions massive contract offer was just the nail in the coffin.............and it probably ended up better for Golden as well, because he got to go to a team that throws the ball more, as opposed to getting half the catches and blocking 50% of the time here.
 

Hasselbeck

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Hindsight being 20/20, of course we should have kept Tate over paying Kearse and trading for/paying Harvin.

In the FO's defense, Harvin should have been a star.. but he was a head case. But yes, this is one of the black marks on this FO's record.
 

chris98251

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To this day the whole situation with Tate the low balling and Wilsons ex wife has been very hushed up.
 

TwistedHusky

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It cost us a SB.

With Tate, we win that NE SB. There is no comeback because we keep scoring.

Tate run like a RB with the ball. He was one of a kind in that regard.

Not only that, since the only way we kept Tate would have been to never have gotten Harvin - we keep those draft picks and we don't end up with the drama about Kam.

It might very well have been another SB against the Broncos instead of the Cats and we would have crushed that Broncos team.

So we didn't just lose a WR. Trading him traded away the dynasty.

It was one of the first in a number of mind blowingly stupid moves by this FO that showed they were more dangerous and stupid when it came to FAs than effective. The great moves they made with Lynch, Avril, & Bennett were going to be counterbalanced by a number of terrible FA moves. This was the Harbinger that Schneider was not even close to a great GM, he just got lucky when Scott loaded his roster with HOF players.

And remember that stretch where we were so hampered with injuries and desperate for a returner we were using guys like Sherman? That does not happen if Tate is on the team.

It hurt our passing game, impacted our ability to run, destroyed chemistry because Harvin was on the team, and seriously hurt us in the return game.

PS Tate was also a tremendously physical blocker in the run game. Another reason it was stupid.
 

Popeyejones

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I've always loved Tate, and when the Hawks let him go I was comping him to Hines Ward and saying it was a huge mistake.

At the same time though, I also understood why they did it, and thought that Percy Harvin was a great addition for them.

in retrospect the money and (in particular) the draft capital they've burned trying to replace Golden Tate when they could have resigned him at 6 APY is terrifying and mind-boggling.

I mean, I just went back and checked and since letting Tate walk they've spent WAY MORE than a full draft in draft capital at the WR position, and have incredibly little to show for it.

We're talking the following picks to try to replace or improve on Tate's production (which by any measure has been unsuccessful): 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 7, 7, 7


(players for these picks are Harvin, Harper, Norwood, Richardson, Lockett, Lawler, Moore, Darboh).
 

massari

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It's pretty crazy they chose Harvin over Tate+1st+3rd+7th+$6M in extra cap room per season. They did get a 4th round comp pick for Tate though.
 

Mindsink

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Tate would have made that block on Browner, got off it quick, and chipped Butler as he was breaking for the INT.
 

Popeyejones

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chris98251":3trrt03u said:
To this day the whole situation with Tate the low balling and Wilsons ex wife has been very hushed up.

Doesn't seem particularly hushed up to me:

“I did not have an affair with Russell Wilson’s wife, nor did I have anything to do with his divorce. That is laughable for anyone who knows us. His ex-wife, Ashton, is still best friends with my girlfriend. Russell and I were good friends when I was in Seattle, on and off the field — he knows the rumors about me were unfounded, damaging to my reputation, and an attack on my character. Anyone who circulated that rumor was just plain irresponsible.”
 

TwistedHusky

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That was the turning point.

With Tate, we probably win 1-2 more SBs.

We probably lose a few guys along the way, Bevel gets a new HC job because someone foolishly thinks it is his great playcalling that gets us those wins.

Kam might have been harder to keep after the 2nd SB win but if we kept him I doubt we get the holdout since that was due to Harvin and that terrible guy from the Eagles getting big contracts.

We probably don't get Graham because we don't freak out to 'fix' the offense after the SB loss. But we probably keep Unger because again, we don't freak out after the SB loss.

Lynch probably retires after the 2nd SB win, does a bunch of commercials and ends up very likely in the HOF (even with the lack of yards because we would have essentially ridden to 2 SBs on his back).

Carroll with 2-3 SB wins goes down as a great coach and potential HOF guy. And the Seahawks end up the dynasty we all were hoping for.

Instead, Carroll is a coach that only won a single SB with multiple HOF players on his team. He goes down in history for making one of the stupidest calls in the history of football. Lynch probably isn't in the HOF even though in his prime he is the easily as good as most in the Hall. Kam holds out.

We never quite live up to the ability and talent this team had.

And all because we chose to replace him with Harvin. The stupid thing was, Tate was a strength. We tried to improve the team by getting a guy that was supposedly better than the guy we had - but not tremendously better. And in doing, we created a ton of other holes in the team. And it was clear from DAY ONE this would happen. One reason I would constantly rip on Harvin, never gave him a chance and hated him from Day One. He was going to cost us Tate and I knew that losing Tate was going to screw this team.

Now, if I knew this...why didin't the FO? I'm not a savant, just some guy 'typing in my mom's basement*' they get paid to know this and they screwed up big. How could you not know that Harvin was going to cost so much you couldn't pay the guys that actually EARNED it by getting you to the SB?

It was a tremendous gamble that showed this FO was overrated and all the earlier success was going to be offset by a lot of other misses - extremes reverting to the mean. One reason I laugh when I hear people talking about removing our HOF guys and reloading. The guys making decisions on the reloading aren't that good at it.
 

Mindsink

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TwistedHusky":1xv2umwm said:
It was a tremendous gamble that showed this FO was overrated and all the earlier success was going to be offset by a lot of other misses - extremes reverting to the mean. One reason I laugh when I hear people talking about removing our HOF guys and reloading. The guys making decisions on the reloading aren't that good at it.

I heard on a sports radio program (I forget which) that theorized that those early draft hits were largely due to the fact that Pete studied and recruited most of those guys during his days at USC. Now that ship has long sailed and he no longer has that "insider info" edge he did earlier this decade.
 

chris98251

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Russells EX there with Tate seems to have got a mouth job, it's not nearly as big. :p
 
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