Sources say Seattle is trying to trade wideout Jermaine Kearse #Seahawks — Dianna Russini (@diannaESPN) August 30, 2017

A few quick thoughts on this…

1. Jermaine Kearse has been a fantastic Seahawk, responsible for some of the greatest moments in Seattle sports history. He was also responsible for some of the most important plays, to get to Super Bowls and to help win Super Bowls. He deserves nothing but respect from this fan base. And that should be remembered by all, today and in the future.

2. It’ll be fun for some to speculate on what this might mean in terms of a potential return. However, rather than expecting the Seahawks to collect a defensive line stud such as Sheldon Richardson it’s probably more an acceptance of the wide receiver situation on Seattle’s behalf. They have a logjam at the position. The younger players have stepped up in pre-season. They are a group playing at a high level, including Kearse. It’s also a bit too soon to write off Amara Darboh (‘the future Kearse’) just three games into his first pre-season. This might be an attempt to see what you can actually get in return for a player who has made some big plays in the NFL, to try and recoup the fifth rounder spent on Matt Tobin.

3. When you actually look into the contract situation, trading Kearse only saves the team around $400,000 in cap room despite his $4m cap hit (he has $3.6m in dead money tied to the deal). So trading Kearse doesn’t make any room for a bold move. This is further evidence that it’s more likely an attempt to see if they can recapture the lost Tobin 5th rounder than the catalyst for a power play trade.

EDIT — I was incorrect. According to @Patscap a trade would actually split the dead money between 2017 and 2018, so it’d be $1.8m in each season. This would save Seattle $2.2m this year.

4. It still looks highly appealing to go after a player like Sheldon Richardson but financially, they’d have to do some major manoeuvring. They only have about $8m in cap space at the moment, most of which is required for the existing roster, IR and the practise squad. There isn’t an obvious cut to save money and they’re not going to trade someone like Jimmy Graham. They also have to consider the future. They aren’t flush with cash and have to consider that players like Russell Wilson and Earl Thomas can expect new contracts soon. Look at Matt Stafford’s recent contract and you’ll see how expensive Wilson will be in contract #3. Then you have to consider how much Frank Clark will cost and whether you want the flexibility to keep Graham. Eventually the spending has to be capped somewhere. If there’s a magic trick they can pull off to land Richardson, fantastic. But that’s what is required.

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