NFL Free Agency 2019: 5 Mistakes the Seattle Seahawks must avoid

The Seattle Seahawks will have to make some moves this offseason, but there are pitfalls the team should watch out for.

NFL free agency is a great time for teams looking to improve, but it is also a very dangerous period that could set teams back for years. The Seattle Seahawks are coming off of a strong 10-6 playoff season and are looking to get back to the postseason in 2019. However, the team will need to navigate the landmine landscape of free agency perfectly if they want to put together a better roster.

The Seahawks need to fill out some positions, especially along the offensive line. However, there’s always the worry that a team will overpay a player or sign a player they don’t really need. For instance, the team signed wide receivers Jaron Brown and Brandon Marshall last season. Marshall didn’t finish the season with Seattle and Brown finished with less than 200 yards on the season.

Those two instances are only minor mistakes compared to what we’ll be discussing. Here are five mistakes the Seahawks must avoid at all costs in the 2019 free agency period.

Overpaying for a tight end

The Seahawks have a history of giving up too much money for tight ends recently. Just last offseason the team signed Ed Dickson to a three-year, $10.7 million deal. That’s not a lot of money, but it’s far more than what Dickson is worth. Seattle has a chance to get out of Dickson’s contract this offseason, which might be the right decision considering how ineffective he was in 2018.

Even before Dickson though, the Seahawks traded for Jimmy Graham, but made the right decision to not over-pay for the Pro Bowler last year. The tight end was making roughly $10 million per year while in Seattle, but he only had one standout season in his three-year stint with the team.

Because of that, the Seahawks let Graham walk and he ended up signing a three-year $30 million deal with the Packers. He produced just 55 receptions, 636 receiving yards, and two receiving touchdowns, which was his worst production totals since his first year in Seattle.

Bottom line, the Seahawks need to find a tight end who will play to the value the team is willing to pay. A player like Jared Cook worries me. In the past, the notion of the Seahawks taking a swing at Cook has been intriguing, but he might just turn out to be the team’s next let down at tight end.

Cook made his first Pro Bowl in 2018 at the age of 31. It’s difficult to trust that he’ll be able to match his production in 2019 and he’s the same age Graham was when Seattle chose to not resign him. With a bunch of big contract decisions coming up in the near future, the Seahawks can’t afford to over-pay another tight end.