In it to win it: Seahawks aren’t building for the future with Duane Brown

The Seahawks have made big trades before.

Never for a player who is 32 years old, as Duane Brown is.

They have added offensive linemen, too. Plenty of them in fact.

Never anyone who makes as much money as Brown does, with $5 million left on this year’s contract and over $9 million scheduled to him next year before becoming a free agent.

Fox Sports’ Schlereth: Trade for Brown ‘a steal’ for Seahawks

This deal for Brown was something that we’ve not seen from this Seahawks team under general manager John Schneider. A move that was as much about necessity as it was opportunity, and while no one is going to call it desperate, it might not be all that far off when you consider that Seattle finished with three yards rushing outside its quarterback on Sunday. Three.

For the second time in three months the Seahawks have traded from tomorrow to help improve today.

They did it in acquiring Sheldon Richardson, giving up next year’s second-round pick and Jermaine Kearse for a former Pro Bowler who would make up for Malik McDowell’s offseason injury. Now they’ve done it with Brown, giving up the second-round pick from the year after for a former Pro Bowler to make up for the training camp injury to left tackle George Fant.

Giving up draft picks is nothing new. The Seahawks traded three of them to acquire Percy Harvin, including a first-round pick. They traded another first-round pick as part of the deal to get Jimmy Graham. But those were players in their 20s that Seattle saw as unique talents in the prime of their career.

The two biggest trades the Seahawks have made this year are something different entirely. Richardson is in his mid-20s, but he’s also going to be a free agent at the end of this year. Brown is 32, a three-time Pro Bowler who is signed through 2018 on a contract he was so dissatisfied with that he held out the first six games of this season.

Trading for Brown is an opportunity, but it’s also an admission. The offensive line has been as bad as everyone thinks, and it wasn’t getting better fast enough for Seattle to get where it wanted to this season.

So the Seahawks made a move, giving up two draft picks and a player who’d slid down the depth chart in Jeremy Lane to acquire a three-time Pro Bowler. To say they mortgaged the future would be overstating things. This is a franchise that traded down 20 spots in the second round and gave up a future third-round pick for Charlie Whitehurst and turned out to be just fine.

But it is worth noting that it was the second time in three months that the Seahawks traded future assets for a short-term fix, loading more and more resources into the outcome of this specific season.

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