Replacing Percy Harvin: Seahawks Trade Options

Well, it looks like the Seattle Seahawks are in the market for a wide receiver.

Doug Baldwin and Jermaine Kearse are the only proven receivers on the roster. The rest of the position group consists of Ricardo Lockette, Bryan Walters, Paul Richardson and Kevin Norwood. The ‘Hawks need to find someone capable of replacing Percy Harvin, either on the roster, or somewhere else.

Pete Carroll and John Schneider could wait until free agency. The 2015 receiver free agent WR class is absolutely LOADED with talent. Dez Bryant, Randall Cobb, Michael Crabtree, Jeremy Maclin, Torrey Smith, Reggie Wayne, Hakeem Nicks and Wes Welker all hit the market after the 2014-15 season.

But the Hawks offense needs a spark, and quick.

There are a couple of decent options who are currently free agents such as Danario Alexander or David Nelson (who the Jets cut to make room for Percy Harvin). Both are tall and have a lot of range. The ‘Hawks don’t have someone who can go up and win a jump ball right now except for maybe Jermaine Kearse  who is still only 6’1″, compared to Alexander and Nelson, who are 6’5″.

But neither of those guys would make the difference in getting the Seahawks’ passing game where it needs to be.

It’s possible that Harvin was the reason that the passing game wasn’t clicking if all the “dividing the locker room” talk is true. But Russell needs people to throw the ball to, and preferably established people.

There aren’t a lot of teams out there that are looking to let go of their established receivers. The stars have to align in a lot of ways to make a trade for a star WR work.

• The team can’t be in contention
• The team has to have young receivers for the future
• The player has to be good enough that he would start for the Hawks
• But not so good that Seattle would have to risk giving up a 1st round pick (those kinds of WR trades haven’t worked out with Deion Branch and Harvin)

There are a few receivers in the NFL who fit this criteria to a T.