Here's another piece on the Percy Harvin situation. Pete Carroll really values good chemistry on his teams, and it looks as if Harvin was toxic in the locker-room. He evidently punched out Golden Tate around the time of the Super Bowl. From this latest piece, it looks as if the Seahawks have been looking to trade him for several weeks. He hasn't been a factor in the last several games, with the jet sweep going nowhere most the times it was run. Harvin's stock has really plummeted if all the Seahawks will get for him is a mid-round pick in the 2015 draft--anywhere from the 4th to the 2nd round depending on how Harvin plays with the Jets. I guess one bright spot for the 'Hawks is to be out from under Harvin's massive contract that would have counted something like $13M against the cap next season. That will be money they can use to firm up existing (and contributing) player contracts and maybe spend relatively big to find a true No. 1 receiver, something the Seahawks currently don't have. Pete Carroll and John Schneider are constantly looking to upgrade the team, and I think that it's not beyond the realm of possibility that they may pull off a trade this season, depending on who's available.
This has got to be a real shock for the "12s". It was clear he wasn't contributing much, but I doubt that many knew of his disruptive effect on the team. Challenging Russell Wilson to the point of starting an attempt at mutiny is really crazy since Wilson is the franchise quarterback and likely will be for years to come. There's the rumor that Harvin was stirring up resentment towards Wilson because of Wilson's intense work ethic and desire to be constantly improving. If true, that's sad--like the drone workers resenting the guy who works hard because it shows them up as slackers. I think the Seahawks are weakened by this development, as, when functioning at his ability level, Harvin is a rare talent. We can hope that he does really well with the Jets, as that outcome will raise the level in the draft (maybe to the 2nd round) for the Seahawks next spring. Just really disappointing. Here's the piece by Marc Sessler of NFL.com, including a video interview with NFL.com insider Ian Rapoport:
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap300000 ... -york-jets
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Reports: Harvin fought teammates, took himself out on Sunday
Posted by Michael David Smith on October 18, 2014, 8:02 AM EDT
As the shocking trade of Percy Harvin to the Jets continues to dominate the NFL news cycle, reports from Seattle indicate that the Seahawks simply decided they couldn’t tolerate Harvin’s misbehavior, which included multiple fights with teammates and a refusal to play late in Sunday’s loss to the Cowboys.
One fight took place the week before the Super Bowl and left then-Seahawks receiver Golden Tate with a black eye, according to Lance Zierlein of Sports Talk 790 in Houston. Another fight took place in the preseason this year and left receiver Doug Baldwin with a cut on his chin, according to the Seattle Times.
Harvin also reportedly took himself out of Sunday’s game and wouldn’t go back in when coaches asked him to play. Seahawks coach Pete Carroll was asked why Harvin didn’t play much late in the game and answered with a vague reference to “readiness,” but it now appears that the real problem was “willingness,” or lack thereof, of Harvin to get on the field.
Combining the reports out of Seattle with the widespread reports from two years ago that Harvin was a cancer in the Vikings’ locker room, it looks like the Jets just landed themselves a malcontent. They’d better have a plan for how to deal with Harvin’s inevitable unhappiness.
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I didn't know a player could "take himself out of a game."
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The financial side of the Percy Harvin trade
Posted by Mike Florio on October 18, 2014, 9:00 AM EDT
After completely processing the shock of the Second Annual Percy Harvin Trade and while still sniffing around the reasons for it, let’s take a look at the financial ramifications of the move, for both teams.
Based on a breakdown of the contract obtained by PFT, the Seahawks paid Harvin $19.03 million for what amounted to eight games played (three last year, five this year). The money came from a $12 million signing bonus, a $2.5 million salary in 2013, and 7/17ths of an $11 million salary in 2014 ($4.53 million).
By trading Harvin after June 1, the Seahawks will carry $1.412 million in cap space this year from his $2.4 million annual signing bonus proration. Next year, they’ll have $7.2 million in dead money attributed to Harvin.
The Jets pick up the balance of his guaranteed base salary — 10/17ths of $11 million ($6.47 million) and the non-guaranteed four additional years of his deal, at $10.5 million in 2015, $9.9 million in 2016, $9.95 million in 2017, and $11.15 million in 2018. The $47.97 million deal actually is a year-to-year arrangement, with no triggers or other devices aimed at forcing the Jets to decide what to do with Harvin before Week One of the regular season.
The Jets inherit the ability to recover bonus money paid by the Seahawks from Harvin. If he decides to not show up or to go AWOL or to retire with that $19 million he had gotten from the Seahawks for nine games, they can get back some of the $12 million the Seahawks paid upon acquiring him from the Vikings. Which could be a useful piece of leverage for the Jets.
Still, the early reaction from multiple league insiders is that the Jets made a mistake by acquiring Harvin. One league source with knowledge of and experience with both the player and his new team already has expressed pessimism, explaining that the Jets are “not a stable place.” Another source said that the Jets have “pissed away $7 million of Woody Johnson’s cash and cap space.”
“Do you know how many good players that much space can get you?” the source said. (As some Jets fans would respond, “If you don’t use it, none.”)
We’ll have more throughout the weekend regarding the reaction to and aftermath of the trade. Whatever triggered the move, it was enough to prompt the Seahawks to pay Harvin what amounted to $2.375 million for every meaningful game in which he played.
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With Harvin now gone, I think we can look for a couple of things to happen. First, I think we'll see either Paul Richardson or Kevin Norwood (or both) added to the active roster and inserted into the offense. Both are rookies, but as thin as the Seahawks now are at WR, these guys will be needed. Both are talented receivers, but grass green. Second, it wouldn't surprise me to see John Schneider engineer a trade for a proven No. 1 receiver. This might be hard and take some time since teams will want to hang on to their best players, but there might be some WRs out there that for one reason or another are possibilities.
I think tomorrow's game in St. Louis will be a much bigger challenge for the Seahawks now. They have four starters out with injuries: TE Zach Miller, C Max Unger, MLB Bobby Wagner, and CB Byron Maxwell. K. J. Wright moves to the middle, and Malcolm Smith draws in at Wright's OLB position. Not much loss there. But I think the Legion of Boom will be hurt without Maxwell, and the running game will really miss Unger. Add in the cliffhanger in St. Louis last season, when Zach Stacy ran all over the Seahawks, and the 'Hawks were really lucky to escape with a narrow win, and I wouldn't be at all surprised to see them lose tomorrow. Hard to know how much of a distraction the Harvin trade will turn out to be. I guess we'll see something of the team's character tomorrow in St. Louis. As much as I'm really shocked and sorry to see Harvin leave, I think--from what we've been learning about Harvin's dysfunctional behavior--that Pete Carroll probably did the right thing here even if it costs him some games and maybe even getting to the playoffs. The hope is that this move will prevent the team from imploding because of internal conflict, and it strikes me as something Wally Buono would do under the same circumstances (similar in some ways to the Jerome Messam case with the Lions in 2010).