Well, the title says it all here. Is signing Terrell Owens a good idea for the Seattle Seahawks?
Let’s break it down:
-He hasn’t played in the NFL for a year. What did he do for that year? Sign on with an indoor league team – not even an Arena League team – and then got cut for not showing up to a road game. Sounds like an exciting year.
-In his last season in the NFL, with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2010, he nearly had 1,000 receiving yards and scored nine TDs in 14 games. Surprisingly not too shabby for a guy that no team would touch for a year.
-He did tear his ACL with the Bengals, which probably didn’t help his chances at signing with an NFL team during the past year. But, if he was good enough to play in the ultra-fast world of indoor football, that knee is probably back at 100%.
-There was already a lot of attention being generated at Seahawks camp, T.O. will take some of that focus away. I have a feeling that more people are going to be interested in Owens’ comeback than the three-way QB fight for the starting role.
-T.O. has a history at being a locker room cancer, to say the least. Look at his history and you will see teams that got fed up with his antics time after time. He’s one of the biggest divas in NFL history.
-Maybe that year off and time in minor arena league football humbled him. If being forced to drop that far down isn’t one of the most humbling things that T.O. has ever had to deal with, I don’t know what could possibly rein him in.
-Owens reportedly ran a 4.45 40-yard dash. For a guy that never really had a high top-end speed, that’s incredible that he could be that quick at 38 years old.
-The Seahawks lack big receiving targets. They’ve also brought Braylon Edwards into camp, hoping that either he or T.O. could be a legitimate red zone threat to go up and get some lobs. At this point, it’s a little surprising that a call hasn’t been made to Placixo Burress’ agent. Plax played that role quite well fot the Jets last year.
-Owens is one of the greatest receivers to ever play and a future hall of famer. He’s a real competitor and a workout warrior. If he can be a leader in camp and impart some wisdom on a young team, it could be a real benefit for the Seahawks.
So, judge for yourself, but I don’t think that it’s such a bad idea to have T.O. around. The worst case scenario is that they have to cut him after the pre-season and pay off his relatively small salary of under $1 million.