The man they call Flash offers a no risk potentially high reward situation for the 2019 Seattle Seahawks. Go Hawks!

When the Seattle Seahawks claimed wide receiver Josh Gordon off of the waver wire on Friday November 1st, it was quite the surprise to the hoards of Twelves. Reactions on the local sports radio and on social media seemed pretty varied. Many were excited about his potential paired with Russell Wilson, while others took a more pessimistic view.

Personally, I don’t think there is any right or wrong way to look at this. If you are looking at his immense athletic profile on the field and are day dreaming about what that could mean mixing him with Tyler Lockett and DK Metcalf, there is legitimate reason for your optimism. But if you are looking at his track record of off the field issues, and why maybe New England decided to let him go, and why it took twenty seven other teams to pass on him through the waver wire before he landed in Seattle, it’s totally valid for you to be pumping the breaks on this move.

From my perspective, I think it’s is a pretty exciting for Seattle. When they lost tight end Will Dissly to a season ending injury in week six, they lost Russell Wilson’s seemingly second favorite target. Yes, rookie receiver DK Metcalf had been an exciting addition to the team, but it just seemed like Wilson was favoring Dissly, and his ability to get open in the inside zones and seams.

It also just felt to me like, as we were approaching the trade deadline, Seattle was going to try to make a move to land another target, whether it was another tight end or receiver. I was actually pretty surprised when the trade deadline past and Seattle didn’t make this kind of move. My thought was that they had probably tried, but given the fact other teams saw them as tight end/receiver needy, those potential trading partners were likely jacking up the asking price to the point where Seattle elected to stay pat. Sometimes the best trades are the ones that you don’t make.

Three days later Seattle landed Josh Gordon, a huge receiver with immense athleticism, but one who also comes with truck loads of personal baggage. The great news is that it cost nothing in the way of draft picks or players for Seattle to acquire him. If he isn’t working out, for whatever reason, Seattle can cut him, and they are off the hook, but if he does come in focused and stays clean, well, Seattle, at the very least, has added a player that defenses have got to account for.

Seattle already has a pretty effective power trio of quarterback Russell Wilson, running back Chris Carson, and wide receiver Tyler Lockett. They also having what looks like a major talent in DK Metcalf. If Gordon fits into the mix, what is a defensive coordinator going to look at to take away? If you sell out on the run, how do you cover three dynamic pass catching weapons? If you play the pass, who are you doubling?

This move is a no brainer for Seattle to make. They needed a legit weapon for the pass game, and they got one, baggage and all, and if all he does is push other receivers on the roster to raise their game, that’s also a big win. As former Seattle corner and current 49er Richard Sherman used to love to say, “iron sharpens iron.”

This is also a very Pete Carroll thing to do. He loves to get unique physical talents on his roster, and seemingly especially ones that other teams have rejected. From Mike Williams, to Marshawn Lynch, to Dion Jordan, and now Josh Gordon, Pete loves a good reclamation project, and this is how I mostly see this move.

It’s going to be really interesting to see exactly how this one plays out.

Go Hawks.