MCNABB TO THE SEAHAWKS?

I’m surprised no one is talking about this one yet but it seems like it could be a very good possibility. Donovan McNabb clearly needs a fresh start and its all but set in stone that McNabb will be released before the season starts. I’m not saying this is the right move for the Redskins, who clearly have no real backup plan without McNabb, but it is going to happen nonetheless. If he is released, he will not consider any team that is not a playoff contender and most likely will not ask for a ton of money to be signed.

Despite being a 7-9 team last year, the Seahawks were able to make a playoff run, benefiting from playing in the worst division in the NFL. The Seahawks have already said that their number one priority in free agency is to bring back Matt Hasselbeck, but they have already offered him a contract that he turned down and it does not look like the Seahawks are going to raise that offer significantly. I see Hasselbeck getting a large 2-3 year contract from a different team and the Seahawks not matching the offer. There is also talk of the Seahawks bringing in Matt Leinart and reuniting him with Pete Carroll, who he went an unbelievable 37-2 with at USC. I know Carroll has been all about trying to help jump-start the careers of his old USC players (see Mike Williams and LenDale White), but why would he take a risk on a player like Leinart who has yet to have any success in the NFL when he could take a low cost risk on a Pro Bowl caliber quarterback who is at the end of his career and hungry for another shot at the Super Bowl? 

When McNabb was traded to the Redskins, he was hailed as the missing piece to get the team into the playoffs. However, McNabb had the worst season of his career. He put up some of the worst numbers of his long career and was benched for Rex Grossman by the end of the year. However, since he has played at such a high level in recent years and even made the Pro Bowl as recently as 2009, I’m giving McNabb the benefit of the doubt here. The Redskins have one of the worst offensive lines in football; they did not have a legit starter at the running back position; and they had by far the worst receiving corps in the entire NFL. If you are paying attention, that’s a knock against EVERY offensive position surrounding McNabb besides tight end. On top of all this, the Shanahans could not have done a worse job mismanaging the Redskins last season. I have a lot of respect for Mike Shanahan and I thought it was absurd when they fired him in Denver. Yet his first season with the Redskins was one of the worst coaching jobs I have ever seen. He could not have mishandled his two most talented players any worse, McNabb and Albert Haynesworth, and the team’s switch to the 3-4 defense made one of the top defenses in the league into one of the worst.

Shanahan never should have made the trade for McNabb in the first place. McNabb is a terrible fit for his offense, which requires a lot of short precise passes. McNabbs’ accuracy has always been an issue throughout his career and his strength is pushing the ball deep down field, which was almost entirely unutilized last year. To make matters worse, half way through the season they gave McNabb a $78 million contract, despite how poorly he had been playing. This shocked everyone, but the biggest surprise came the next week when they benched their new $78 million quarterback for Rex Grossman, who hadn’t started a game since 2008. Nothing like this has ever been done in the NFL and I can’t imagine it ever happening again.

McNabb needs to get out of Washington and have a fresh start out of the NFC East. Since I do not see Hasselbeck going back to the Seahawks, they will be in desperate need of a veteran quarterback. Seattle has a talented, young offensive line and it looks like Carroll will be trying to run the ball as much as possible on offense in 2011. This is the perfect fit for McNabb who could run a lot of play action and drive the ball deep downfield to Mike Williams, the type of big target at wide receiver McNabb had asked the Eagles to acquire for years and never received.

The Seahawks have to find a starting quarterback in free agency and McNabb has to find a team that will allow him to at least compete for the starting position. For the Seahwaks, McNabb will probably come cheaper than Hasselbeck and provide a similar caliber quarterback. For McNabb, the Seahawks might be the only team that will hand him the reigns to their offense because of their glaring need at the quarterback position. The Seahawks could end up signing McNabb purely out of dire need, but it might end up being a better match than either side expected.