In a recent tweet, Sports Illustrated columnist Peter King said what everyone else has been thinking about the first major strike in the quarterback aisle of the NFL free agent market: why? The transaction is one of the most perplexing in the early days of this offseason.
Specifically, King sent out a message that read, “I don’t know why Seattle had to pay Tarvaris Jackson $8m for 2 years. There was really that sort of competition for him? Can’t see it.” King questions the money in this sentence, which is one aspect to the deal that’s confusing. That’s quite a bit of guaranteed money for a quarterback that might not be any better than the one already in house with Charlie Whitehurst, since Jackson gave no real indication in his time with the Vikings that he’s the right guy.
With such volume on the QB market at a higher tier, the Seahawks could have at least waited and then turned to Jackson if other options didn’t fall through. The Cardinals are thinking the same thing and waiting on a Kevin Kolb trade or something else to come to fruition, but you don’t see the panicked move that Seattle just made on a team headed by Ken Whisenhunt.
Then again, Seattle made everyone eat their words last season by coming within a game of the Super Bowl, so perhaps Pete Carroll sees something he can work with in Tarvaris and has a plan in mind. Perhaps the Seahawks thought the musical chairs game of waiting on a QB could leave them without a chair so they decided to just sit on one for security’s sake. Either way, it is a bit confusing since they already had a storied veteran in house in Matt Hasselbeck. And it’s the first deal that just doesn’t make any sense.