2014 Seattle Seahawks: Sidney Rice or Golden Tate?
By Todd Pheifer
Dec 2, 2012; Chicago, IL, USA; Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate (81) is congratulated by wide receiver Sidney Rice (18) after scoring a touchdown against the Chicago Bears during the second half at Soldier Field. The Seahawks beat the Bears 23-17 in overtime. Mandatory Credit: Rob Grabowski-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Seahawks have some decisions to make in the offseason and they will be motivated by a desire to remain among the NFL elite in 2014. There is the draft, of course, but there are also some free agents decisions that will not be easy.
Some of these decisions are somewhat speculative, as there are no guarantees that certain transactions will occur. One position group that must be addressed is wide receiver, and this brings us to Golden Tate and Sidney Rice.
These are different types of receivers. Rice is 6’4″ and has an 83-catch season on his careers statistics sheet. Granted, Rice has also missed 25 games in the last four years. Tate is shorter receiver at 5’10” and he is the type of receiver that could potentially put together “No.1” numbers at some point in his career. Tate is two years younger and a lot more durable.
The situations are different, as Tate is a free agent and Rice is under contract. There has been some speculation that the Seahawks would cut Rice due to cost and injury history. However, Pete Carroll had this to say recently about Rice:
"He’s had an unbelievable recovery from his surgery. Within weeks he was back up with almost total reflection and extension and it’s just almost an unheard of type of recovery. It’s so far ahead of schedule, so that’s great for Sid. We’ll see how that turns out, but right off the bat we’ve never seen anybody (recover) like that."
Financially, it would be difficult to keep Rice, Percy Harvin and Tate on the payroll with the restrictions of the salary cap. Having three quality receivers is certainly desirable, but there are other priorities, such as Michael Bennett.
So, do you let Tate go and hope Rice stays healthy? Or, do you cut Rice and offer most of that money to Tate? Or, do you hope that Rice will restructure and Tate with take a major hometown discount? That third scenario is probably the least likely, but one can always hope.
In the end, it seems likely that Rice will be gone and the Seahawks will do their best to sign Tate to a long-term deal. What will be interesting is to see how hard the Seahawks (and a few select players) work to keep this team together.
Decisions, decisions.