The Latest on Rashid Shaheed, a Big Trade for an NFC West Rival

0:00When you really need care, you need 24-7 access to a care team, not a maze of paperwork from a third party. Every day, America's hospitals and health systems show up for you. Navigating healthcare can fuel overwhelming, but you can count on real doctors, real nurses, real people, providing quality around the clock care when you need it most. They're in your corner, in communities across America, your neighbors, your lifelines, right beside you holding your hand and helping find answers. That's what putting patients first actually means. Learn more at strengthinhealthcare.org Brought to you by the Coalition to Strength in America's Health Care. Marketing is hard, but I'll tell you a little secret. It doesn't have to be. Let me point something out. You're listening to a podcast right now, and it's great. You love the host. You seek it out and download it. You listen to it while driving, working out, cooking, even going to the bathroom. Podcasts are a pretty close companion, and this is a podcast ad. Did I get your attention? You can reach great listeners like yourself with podcast advertising from Lib Sin ads. Choose from hundreds of top podcasts offering host endorsements or run a pre-produced ad like this one.

1:00Across thousands of shows to reach your target audience in their favorite podcasts with Lib Sin ads. Go to libsonads.com. That's L-I-B-S-Y-N. Ads.com today. Hello and welcome to the Sea Hawkers podcast. I'm Brandon Schultz and I am joined by my good buddy, Clinton Bonner. As we are just days away, Clinton from NFL free agency. And we've got news trickling out. We've got division rival news actually happening ahead of the new league year. How you doing, buddy? I'm doing really well. I got to tell you. I kind of punted on the underwear Olympics this year.

2:02I was super last year. I was so into it. I'm watching Grace Able do every possible thing. I'm talking about him going horizontal like this guy is going to be a legit guy. Then we get him. It was super cool. This year, I ended up watching a couple of things. But okay, cool. Safety is a deep. Looks like there's lots of wide receivers that are fast. Beyond that, I was craving to get to this part. Let's get to the free agency. Let's get to tough decisions because Brandon, when you're picking 30 second because you won the Super Bowl and all the combines nice. But it was a little too close, too close to our victory for me, Brandon. My peeve from the NFL combine is that the NFL wants it to make, wants it to be the 40 yard dash show. Yeah, and that's about it. Unless you're lining these dudes up to race each other, then I feel like it's watching one dude after another run 40s is not a good time to me. It's, you know, it gets a little much. And again, then they put the offensive lineman

3:03at the very end of the line. And those are the dudes I actually want to watch because we know we got some holes in this roster at this point. And we'll see with free agency what comes up. It's, but we got lots of news. We got lots of news to get to. I know we want to do a do one today. Start those engines again. And I think this starts that, that next season for us on the Seahawks podcast, it unofficially, I feel like. Well, I think the place to start is then with the actual news because we found out about a trade by our division rivals Trent McDuffy going from the Kansas City Chiefs to the Los Angeles Rams for their first rounder. And I think a fifth and a sixth, couple eight rounders who cares. But the big thing is they're adding an all pro corner to that defense. And I have to wonder, Clinton, is this going to trigger? Gosh, a war amongst NFC West rivals of trying to see who they can acquire in terms of top talent, then be able to compete with the 49ers in the division

4:06with our Seahawks. Obviously, it's mostly with our Seahawks. Well, the answer is yes. And the thing is the trick of it all is is that shots are already fired. Right. So when you have the NFC championship game being what it was, which was basically the Super Bowl, right? Very much like the 2013-2014 repeat of like nine or Seahawks, that was the Super Bowl for all intents and purposes. So shots were already fired. Trading for Rashit Shaheed, who we're going to talk about coming up in this show, that was a midseason, you know, bananza that worked out beautifully for Seattle. So now the Rams counter. Hey, man, they get the U-Dub player, people in the Pacific Northwest, no McDuffie, they love the Duffman. It's a good corner. He's solid. And the Rams had wiggle room. They got two first round picks because they got the one from the Falcons. So people should remember that. So they still have a top 15 pick in the holster. They traded the 29th. It was the fifth and sixth, but they also give up a third rounder in 2027.

5:06So something pretty good compensation. But 2027 is so far away, Clinton. It seems it does. Well, look, if you told me, what would you rather have? Sauce Gardener for two first rounders or what the Rams got? I'd hate to say it, but I would take the Rams deal. I take McDuffie and only giving up one first rounder. And one of them is the 29th overall pick, which is pretty light. And it's not supposed to be that deep of a draft. So hey, hat tip to the front office. They're going to compete, but at the end of the day, Brandon, just another guy for a Sam Donnelly company to torch next year. No biggie. Right. Yeah, it's not like Trent McDuffie is all of a sudden going to be able to stop JSN, like who other corner was able to stop him this year. Nobody. Nobody. I like McDuffie's game. He's he's physical too. You know, I know he could play slot also. He certainly could move in and play tons of slot. He's good. He's a valuable piece. Yeah, he's all pro, former all pro. And he's good. Yeah, I'm not saying anything bad about him. I'm just saying good play. You know, good player.

6:06The thing about it, though. And I don't know if I'm willing yet to compare it with the sauce gardener deal, because they're going to have to pay McDuffie. And once we see the compensation that comes out of that, then I'll be able to say, okay, how does this compare then to the sauce gardener deal? Did they get a better deal? Or if they're paying top of the market? Because if he's going to ask for a deal, then that's above gardener. Well, yeah, maybe it's ends up being a wash. We'll see on all that. I think, you know, if you give up that much capital, you're going to resign that player or extend that player. And McDuffie's going to get near the top of the cornerback market. That's the way it goes, right? So we'll see what that all washes out for. But, okay, you know, that's probably just about enough rams that I could stomach. It's it's it's it. But let's save the rest of the division talk for the end and get to our Seahawks talk, because I think there was one news item on Wednesday that disturbed me the most. And that was that Rashid Shaheed and the Seahawks are not very close in terms of contract talks.

7:12And normally, if this would have come out from, I don't know, another source, other than the one that it came from, but it came from Adam Schefter. And he has been the one who has been breaking the front office news as if it's John Schneider wanting to get the word out. That generally, it seems like it's been going through Schefter lately. And to for him to say that it's not close, it makes me think that Rashid Shaheed Clinton is on his way out. Well, certainly. So what does it mean tactically right now is that very likely a deal won't get done before legal tempering begins, also known as as actual free agency. So he's probably going to hit the market. And, you know, this is the if you give a cat a cupcake, right? You let a 28 year old with his special team skills and he had really good seasons under Kubiak when he's with the Saints. If you that guy hits the market, there are needy teams out there.

8:13There are teams like the Buffalo Bills, who they don't have anybody. You know, it's just such a, they've got Josh Allen, James Cook, and then a bunch of meh, you know, a couple Khalil Shahkiah, nice little third down receiver type guy, possession receiver type guy. Cool. That's a dude who can stretch the field with Josh Allen. You know, and there's there's many teams like that. Raiders need wide receiver help. So. Oh, the Raiders you say. Oh, how interesting. I wonder if there's any Seahawks connection there. Right. The former Seahawks connection, who may want Rashid Shaheed and has had him at multiple stops. Yes. Yeah. Right. So Cubes might, you know, be like, hey, willing to pay a bit more for him. He knows what he does. And he stretches the field like few others in the NFL at this point. So it would, for me, it would stink if he goes, it's just about like, you're saying you keep saying if I'm saying he's gone. He's most likely gone. So if you want to, because you say the legal tampering period starts soon, it's been

9:17happening since Indianapolis. That's where these guys get together and they find the agents find out the market for the teams. Look, for the moment, we traded for him. We had the opportunity to extend him, right? So it's like, we can just extend them if you want to. He sees on your team. Yeah. He's most likely gone at this point. That's, that's what it equates to. It's, do you, let me put it in compartments. Do you think his special teams production or his wide receiver potential? Because he wasn't that, he wasn't that, you know, that wasn't a lot of wide receiver catches as a Seahawk way more as a saint. Which one do you think is easier to fill in if you're this, if for the Seahawks next year? So wide receiver, you know, where he's gone or missing him on special teams? John Schneider's track record has been better at finding the receiver component than the special teams component. And I think we saw it a little bit of the special teams component with Tori Horton. Sure. But for me, I don't think it was enough to go, oh, we'll, we'll just rely

10:20on Tori Horton. It'll be fine. Well, the Tori Horton part is, there's a couple of pieces there, right? So, hey, wide receiver wise, he outplayed, she he'd as a wide receiver in the Seahawk system as a rookie, just stats wise. Now, what did she do to enable JSN and able cup down the stretch? Lots of things, right? Lots of things. And she he was clutch. For the special teams perspective, like I think Horton has all the skill, but Horton would scare the crap out of me. He would still like, he was still a little unsure under under some punts and a little bit wobbly in the legs. And he's got this like injured gazelle type of running, you know, a gate to him. And it's a little bit of like, oh, man, is he going to just botch one here? Who was a guy Austin? Was it Austin on the Ram? Who gave us the ball back? I think his name was Austin, either way, bad due to give us the ball back on the pun return or the pun to temp return. But she he was so smooth.

11:22There was never never a worry, never a bobble, never nothing. When he had to run up and get it, he got it. When he had a little bounce, a little bounce, all fair catches. And of course, you know, what do you have four returns between kickoffs and either three or four putt returns and kickoffs? Yeah, touchdowns. Yeah, yeah. I think it was four, right? Since he was traded at least three. Yeah, at least three. And three we could name for sure, or maybe a fourth. So, but I think Horton could be their speed wise. I'm still a little bit like that do makes me nervous Brandon a little bit nervous. I just if you have one of the top guys, I just especially if you're because I don't think K9's coming back either. Once they decided not to franchise him, once Breast Hall got the franchise tag, he then becomes the top running back on the market. Travis ETN, maybe there's an argument there. I don't think there is. It's K9. I don't already. And so that's why again, I think that based on the math and the cap, I think that some

12:30teams going to pay him 15 million average, it's going to be outside the Seahawks budget. And then with that in mind, and we can already see them not tendering Bobo, which there's still a deadline for restricted free agents that comes next week, middle and next week at the start of the newly year, the Bobo news that they aren't going to tag use the qualifying tender on Bobo is kind of a favorite to him to just to let him know that you can get a start on free agency. But we still want you back if it's going to be under this 3.5 million tag number. So you're starting to see all these pieces. And with that, it has me thinking, gosh, with the special team's ability, the wide receiver part is really only complimentary to me. But yeah, it's a tough call as a general manager to decide like, how much is that special team's component worth? And when I look back on this last season, Clinton, all those touchdowns and the win against the Rams that the touchdown that helped

13:35get the get that win. The first win against the Rams. That was it's really hard to look at that and say, yeah, we can do without that. It's it's difficult. The math, you know, they're saying the insiders that are out there are basically saying like he's probably going to garner now about 18, 18 to upwards of 20 million a year. Still talk about her sheet you heat here. Right. It's a lot of scuttle, but that but that's the wide receiver market. It's kind of what when we went back on and talked about canine, I'm like, Hey, if you have to quote unquote overpay a little bit for canine, which might be 13 or 14 million say that's like a quote unquote, a little bit of an overpay. Yeah. But isn't it? The market is so tilted that running backs are so underserved value wise that wouldn't it makes sense to overpay something that you're getting a better value back with canine. And then if you have to make the sacrifice with Horton and you don't want to pay him 18 or 20 and you let him walk to me, that feels like a pretty good decision. We might we might lose both

14:37of them. Question for you. Let's I think we have to assume Tory Horton comes back healthy. Otherwise, you know, I want to assume I need to assume I need to assume he comes back healthy. If next year it's JSN cup and a healthy Tory Horton when we're in 11 personnel for the most part, what's your what's your comfort level in general for that core? The the receiving part of this to me is not it's that's fine. Right. The special teams part of it is the place that I worry about. So my question to you is if it takes cutting Cooper Cup to then have JSN Shaheed and Tory Horton next year, is that a tradeoff that you're willing to make is Clinton the general manager. For me, no. And there's a couple of reasons. You're going to pay more, you're going to pay more for Horton than you are for Cup by, you know, let's say Cup, but for Shedia,

15:37by a couple, a couple million dollars, probably three to four million extra. The thing that people and this is all opponents and including some discussions we've had on our pod, I still think people under value, this is not a cup in the locker room and coach cup and not even clutch cup because he was all those things. This is blocking cup. This is the dude who's a who's a really good wide receiver on the edge of de facto third tight end out there when we have 12 personnel out and you have cup out there. He's an exceptional blocker on three and three out throughout the year. There were so many times. I'm like, oh my god, look, look how Cup handles his business. Shaheed's okay as a, as a smaller dude, but comparatively, Brandon, do you like running the football as a Seahawks team? Is that, was that what really helped us down the stretch running the ball effectively? Yeah, I like doing that. I just, I question whether or not the run blocking component and we'll

16:39throw in the third down catch component because cooped down the stretch provided that too. I don't know if I value that more than the special team's component that you get from Shaheed. Yeah, I understand that argument. I think the healthy Horton, which is kind of fun to say, part of it is going to be the X factor there. And then if Shaheed does walk, which we do expect to this point, then you do expect Seattle to take a flyer, maybe second or third round on a wide receiver that becomes an expectation because it's a pretty deep wide receiver draft class. And if, if the 40 yards dashes mean anything for any of the players, wide receiver and especially special teams, those like the only dudes who actually get a chance to run 40 yards uninhibited sometimes. So there was a lot of speed on display at the draft. So, but I think for the, for the Shaheed part, probably as much as we could say today, before, before we go in your further, what do you think? Yeah, I think so. I think so too. I think so too. You mentioned Bobo. And I

17:44just want to say the three and a half million dollar, I forget the exact tender name. It's about three and a half. Yeah, about three and a half. I get it from Seattle's perspective to be like, hey, we're not going to just guarantee three and a half million and go test some stuff. But we'd like to have you back. You know, there's probably some number to bring back Bobo, whatever sub three million a year that makes a lot of sense for both sides. I just don't know if another team out there is going to be going to think about, you know what, if that dude got 60 targets, he could be really valuable. There might be takes, it takes one, right? One GM to kind of get lit up by that. I just don't know that GM's out there. Yeah, it's going to be a second third wave type component for Bobo. And then that buys you a little bit of time. He let him see what the market is. Hey, and good for him. If he goes out there and there is a team that says, hey, we want you for eight or more than six million here. Yeah. Very much so. And again, the

18:47wide receiver market is a little nuts, right? So if you are Jake Bobo and you get an offer for five, six million a year, four million a year, whatever, go make your money, man, that's that's amazing. Hope he's a sea hawk. I think he's valuable. And we'll always have his NFC championship and as a championship touchdown. That was a sweet before the cup touchdown to win it all. So that was that was fun. The other news is that you didn't really hear any of the other names who are restricted reagents, right? Like we haven't heard Drake Thomas, which that's the interesting one to me is what level do they then tender him at? Are they trying to negotiate them through this week and and say, are we looking at a long term deal? Are they looking for trying to gauge his market to see whether or not they actually need to place a second round tender on him or if they can do the original round tender and get him back for a one year, $3.5 million deal. And just hope that nobody

19:50else goes and signs him to an offer sheet that's above that three and a half million mark. To me, that where that ends up coming out, I think it has to be the second round level because yeah, especially based on how he's played. But do they feel confident enough with their depth? That just seems like in the past years, we've had these questions about linebacker depth. And then this year, we've gone out and Patrick Groconnell saw some time. There's Tyrese Knight that's still on the team. Do they feel comfortable then with that depth that they say, well, we're going to put an original round tender and hey, if someone pays you more than three and a half, then again, congratulations. And we thank you for your service. Yeah, I don't think so. I think they're going to, I think the team really likes him. I think McDonald really likes him is specifically in the run fits and the run blitzes and things, the things he does in that part of linebacking. And it's an opportunity to get a young, young player still quite young and give that player their first

20:54real NFL contract. But still, it's, you know, the weak side linebacker money. Cool. You know, so Drake could go make middle of the road, that kind of linebacker money and probably be happy as a pig. And you know what? Because of where he also came from, right? His pedigree Raiders don't protect him Seattle, Seattle Snags and from the Raiders when they cut him in that rookie season. And now he'll get his like first real bag and probably staying in the system. He's really comfortable and that seems like a formula to stay put. If Seattle gets a little risky with it, look, when Tyrese Knight had to come in, I really respected Tyrese Knight's sophomore year because of what he, where he was after year one, he gets, he gets displaced. And every single time Tyrese Knight had to come in, he did, he did well. And he actually had like super disruptive plays, you know, the back-to-back to Marcus Lawrence touchdowns come to mind because

22:01each time that was Tyrese Knight breaking those up. So it wouldn't be the end of the world, but it just seems like one where I don't think Seattle's got it got to take a risk on that what's so ever. It's like you've got a really cool linebacking core that is actually pretty darn cheap. Even Ernest Jones' contract was was a really team friendly contract. So you got three three linebackers and the totality of it is not that much money, you know. About three and a half for the original Round Tender. Seven and a half is actually the first Round Tender. So I don't think that they would do that. Right. The second Round Tender seems like kind of the sweet spot, around five and a half. And so then if someone were to offer him a contract above that five and a half number, then you get a second round pick and return. Which is pretty, which is pretty significant. Right. End of second round has the comp picks work, right? But still pretty nice. I think that's how this would actually be the team that takes on would be there. It would be

23:05their second round. Okay. So that could be anywhere. Okay. That's interesting. With all that, you know, if you could lock up Drake for the kind of money you're talking about, I think you got a pretty square deal. But that feels about right, man. That's cool. That's a good level of money and that's good compensation if someone walks in with an offer. Okay. Yeah. All right. I like. Did you want to say anything else about K9 or are we both on the same page that, yeah, it's, it's you're moving on and you're probably looking at other guys like I hear Tyler Altier's name around here. Gosh, Brian Robinson, who I was watching a little bit of his film on Wednesday and trying to talk myself into it. Okay. I'm coming from an outside zone scheme in Ninerland. And yeah, could he come here and do well enough? Okay. Well, I really don't want to say much more about K9 because we covered that in a in a show, you know, a little bit ago. But, but I am certainly warming up to that free agency pool. I'm not all that interested in Brian Robinson. I think he's

24:09fine-ish. I don't think he's anywhere near as dynamic as K9 or as explosive. That's why it's hard to get excited. But, okay. Altier isn't that type of explosive back either. But he is good. Altier, he's different, but he's really, really good. You know, Altier to me, still very young, I think he's, I think he's this fourth season that going into his fifth year now. Robinson's young too. Yeah. Altier to me is a much, much better back. If they got Altier and then, and then sharps come back in Halani and then maybe they think they do a draft pick. That's the thing. I think Robinson, I feel like Halani is the delta between Halani and Robinson is not very big for me. I don't think they exist. And I think Halani might be better. Okay. I just think it's like that's fine. And I think Halani might be overall a better back than I think Robinson is okay. And all that being said, the Niners still should have read him more because CMC has a running back. He's diminished. He was not very good. And there's even 400 freaking

25:09touches. So whatever it's all good. The Niners could perpetually kick rocks. But Altier, like here's the thing. If K9 goes for 12, 13, 14 and they're saying Altier might go from like seven to eight. What can I say besides I get it. Like I still think K9 is more explosive. And I think it's more effective for the things that the QBX system now, now that new guy's going to get a chance to go, to go, you know, have his hand with. But Altier at seven million, that's, he's a good NFL back. And, you know, I could understand if that's how this, how this goes. And from an out of your perspective, I would think you'd be an attractive place to come. Like understanding what this team's identity is. And knowing that Charbonne, your main competition is probably not back until like, you know, we're talking about Thanksgiving. Yeah. All right. Let's close this out then back to the NFC West. Kyler Murray. He has said his good

26:11bias. He is not going back to the Arizona Cardinals. He's not coming to Seattle. Because of course, why would he? Yeah. He's not going to be the quarterback, Clinton of the Arizona Cardinals in 2026. Yeah. This is the interesting component of it. It's, you know, we, we laugh at the Cardinals a lot and deservedly so. The memes are what they are, right? The Kedora three headed dragon memes. They exist because they're real. The name out there, who is the number one QBE free agency is, is Malik Willis. And some people might have a version of Malik Willis in their head about the early Malik Willis. If you watch Packers football last year and even the year before, but sincerely last year when, when love was down, Malik Willis played really good football, like really strong. Obviously does the things with his legs, but he was making plays and performing from the pocket consistently also. He like learned how to

27:15throw the ball from the pocket. And oh, by the way, maybe a quarterback from Liberty, it just takes three to four three to four five years and being in a good offensive system with a good offensive coordinated mind to guy to actually bring out your best potentially. So with all that, if Malik goes to the Cardinals, I don't want that to happen. I think the division gets markedly better pretty much overnight. Oh gosh. I am not concerned at all with the Malik Willis going to the Cardinals. In fact, it would only be fitting because do you remember how many wins that all that time in Green Bay actually produced for the Packers this past year when Malik Willis was going Malik Willis was under center? Oh, no, I have no idea. I'm going to get zero. The answer is zero. So he won zero games with the Packers. And so I would like that stat to continue then with this time in Arizona. Okay. I think he's better than Calamari. Oh gosh. I mean,

28:16that's like a pretty low bar. This wasn't this. This wasn't run around. Tyler Murray right now. That he could be. But this was not run around. Hair on fire. I can't play football. All I could do is throw the ball well from the point. Well, like he is it's just wild to me that that resulted in no wins. Well, that part I'd have to I'd want to go back and look at who he played because they had some crazy. And then he threw three touchdowns. Like that was no, no interceptions, which is good. But yeah, that's good. Look, I just I feel like we're seeing a few snaps from Malik and projecting out way. We saw what we saw. And it just it feels like we're projecting out way more than what actually was produced on the field. I think that's fair ish. I think from a just a pure put it in a vacuum perspective, would they be a better team with him than they are right now with like who is

29:19a quarterback? Who knows? So the answer is obviously yes. And I think there's a legitimate upside there. Like he's I hope they pay him $30 million. Well, look, Justin Fields got two for 20, right? Two for 40. He got 20 million a year from the Jets for two years. Would Malik is better than Justin Fields? And I think it's not really that close. So look, I over inflate players all the time and I have a strong East Coast bias. So these things happen. They're real and I recognize them. With that, I think Malik Willis actually can play a little football. And I think it just makes the carnels better. Now will they still be? Well, they may be third. They might be fourth. The Niners. Who knows? Niners are looking to get a first for Mac Jones. You want to give them a first? Sure. I don't care about Mac Jones either. He at least has more wins. Like I believe that Mac Jones can win more games than Malik Willis. Maybe. And I think with that, there's one thing left to say. Go Hawks. Go Hawks.