Seattle Seahawks Interested In Greg Hardy
NFL free agency is a bit of a unique beast. Unofficial official signings, weeks of hush-hush build up, and then a feeding frenzy, with most of the big names agreeing to terms within hours. The market changes as players are released over the weeks that follow, and it’s not like all the free agents are signed on that first day.
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Greg Hardy is a free agent. He’s a 26-year-old defensive end who was last seen playing for the Carolina Panthers. There’s a case to be made that he’s the best DE on the market. The Seattle Seahawks have Michael Bennett and Cliff Avril, but they also understand the importance of depth better than just about anyone. And hey, would you look at this:
Took the temp of a lot of teams on Greg Hardy over the weekend, came away with the sense DAL and SEA could emerge as legit suitors
— Jason La Canfora (@JasonLaCanfora) March 16, 2015
So it would appear that Seattle is seriously interested in adding Hardy to their league-best defense. He’d be a tight fit, given the guys they already have, but talent always has it’s way of finding a place. But despite his talents, Hardy might not be worth a look. Even for a team with a less crowded defense, and especially for Seattle.
Hardy played in exactly one game with the Panthers last season before finding himself on the commisioner’s exempt list. He was effectively suspended for the year as he was being investigated for domestic abuse. His alleged crimes are pretty terrible: read the details in this report from Sports Illustrated.
After requesting a jury trial, Hardy’s case was thrown out when the accuser couldn’t be located. So he’s now free to sign a contract. Except oh wait, there still may be a six-game suspension looming at the start of this coming season.
The upside of signing a soon-to-be suspended player who missed most of last season after throwing his girlfriend at a pile of assault weapons is that he might be a little cheaper than his athletic ability would otherwise dictate. The downside is everything else. And with more important areas of need on this current Seahawks roster, wouldn’t this be an especially strange use of the team’s limited cap space?
Pass on this guy, please. He doesn’t have an obvious role with this team, and will probably still end up getting a big contract due to his previous productivity. Even if he were to be available for cheap, it’d be hard to root for a guy like this. Yeah, yeah, the world of sports is chock full of violent sociopaths who have done – and will continue to do – unspeakably terrible things. But it’s all about helping the team win, right?
To an extent, sure. But Greg Hardy isn’t done paying for the awful he’s done off the field. Sign him and you know he’s already out for six games in 2015. Then you’re gambling on a player who hasn’t actually played in a year and a half. And then what’s the upside? An elite bench piece? What’s the opportunity cost here?
John Schneider and Pete Carroll are good at putting football teams together. If the Seattle Seahawks end up signing Greg Hardy we’ll have every reason to believe it was a calculated upside ploy. But it’s an easy scenario to criticize now, for reasons that are not at all hard to understand. Greg Hardy? Nah. Why bother.