Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate (81) celebrates after beating the Denver Broncos 43-8 in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium. Mandatory Credit: Adam Hunger-USA TODAY Sports
The Seattle Seahawks have many impending free agents to worry about, and managing the salary cap situation is going to be a difficult task for GM John Schneider, but he’s also one of the best in the business. After all, that’s why the Seahawks were able to win the Super Bowl in a dominant 2013 campaign, and Schneider’s terrific drafting has created the “good” problem of worrying about so many impending free agents.
One of those FAs is wide receiver Golden Tate, who, for my money, is the second-most talented wide receiver on the Seahawks behind Percy Harvin. Doug Baldwin puts up the best numbers, but Tate’s toughness and ability to generate yards after the catch separate him; he’s a guy I’ve always been high on.
Tate told Sports Radio 950 KJR Seattle that he would be “very willing” to give the Seahawks a hometown discount, “I probably shouldn’t even say this right now but I’m going to say it anyway just because I love Seattle, honestly, I would rather take a little less to be happy and win ball games than to take way more and go to a crappy city where the fans don’t give a crap about the team. You win a game once a month of something like that. I would much rather stay in the situation that I have now for a little less than to go and try to break the bank somewhere else.”
He pretty much has to take a discount in order to stay and help the Seahawks out financially, but I’m sure a ton of other free agents would be willing to do the same. It’s never easy to take a paycut to remain with a team, but the Seahawks are such a great team and have such a great city, fan culture, and coaching staff (Pete Carroll seems like an awesome coach to play for) that players like Tate realize it’s worth it.