Kellen Winslow Won't Be Happy with Seattle Seahawks: Fan Opinion - Yahoo! Sports

 

f the Tampa Bay Buccaneers wanted to stick it to Kellen Winslow Jr. for missing a week's worth of organized team activities, they certainly succeeded in doing so by trading him to the Seattle Seahawks. As former Seahawks and Buffalo Bills tight end Pete Metzelaars once said, "The tight end can go an entire season in Seattle and the only thing he'll catch is a cold." That's how it's always been with the Seahawks. Name one single noteworthy tight end in the history of the Seahawks. Go ahead. Give it a try. I was hard-pressed to come with any, and I've been a diehard fan of the blue and green since their inception in 1976. That's because no Seattle tight end has done anything of significance in a Seahawks uniform. Sure, NFL fans likely know of Metzelaars, but it's not for his three seasons in the Pacific Northwest. I remember Jerramy Stevens, but mostly because he dropped four passes in Super Bowl XL after running his mouth and getting Joey Porter and the Pittsburgh Steelers all riled up the week before the big game. Stevens made more headlines off the field with his arrests than he ever made on the field. Itula Mili and Christian Fauria were around for awhile, but neither of them did anything remarkable. After those two, I'm drawing a blank. Welcome to tight end hell, Kellen. The Buccaneers, meanwhile, are laughing all the way to the bank, having somehow secured a draft pick for a player that seemed destined to simply be released earlier in the day. I'm not even the least little bit optimistic that Winslow is going to amount to anything in Seattle. No tight end ever has, and not a thing has changed during the Pete Carroll era. In 2011, 36 other tight ends in the NFL had more receptions than the Seahawks' leader at that position. In 2010, 33 other tight ends had more receptions than Seattle's leader. The team will give fans some sort of song and dance about how Winslow is the pass-catching tight end that the team has been searching for, and he'll be the perfect complement to Zach Miller in the two tight end set that the Seahawks favor, and blah blah blah. I won't believe it until I see it because we heard the same tune in August when the 'Hawks signed Miller for some crazy deal that was for something like five years and $34 million, with $17 million guaranteed. After four productive years with the Oakland Raiders, Miller turned into an afterthought in Seattle: 25 receptions, 233 yards and no touchdowns. Not a terribly impressive return on investment there. It's not like any other tight end was taking receptions away from Miller. Anthony McCoy had 13 receptions for 146 yards and no touchdowns in nine games. Cameron Morrah only played in four games: 6 receptions, 74 yards, no touchdowns. John Carlson was lost for the year to injury before the season even began (and now he's with the Minnesota Vikings). Seattle is a run-first team. There's no question about it. Tight ends are used as blockers there, not as pass catchers. Surrendering a seventh round pick next year--one that may turn into a sixth rounder--isn't nearly as insane as what the Seahawks paid to get Miller, but I'm left wondering why they even bothered messing with Winslow. With his history of behavioral issues and the Seahawks' lack of a history of using tight ends to catch passes, this is a bomb just waiting to go off. The author grew up in Washington State and is a lifelong fan of the Seahawks. He's also a Featured Contributor in Sports with the Yahoo! Contributor Network. You can follow him on Twitter at @RedZoneWriting and on Facebook. Also by this Author: Tampa Bay Buccaneers to dump Kellen Winslow for Dallas Clark? Russell Wilson is not Drew Brees