Did the Seahawks overpay for Sidney Rice?

[travisduncan]

Sidney Rice of the Seattle Seahawks argues a call while playing against the Baltimore Ravens at CenturyLink Field in Seattle, WA ICON SM

As the great Kenny Rogers sung, "You've got to know when to hold 'em Know when to fold 'em, Know when to walk away"

Could it be that Pete the gambler took too many chances this off-season with the acquisitions of Sidney Rice, Tarvaris Jackson and Robert Gallery among others?

There's not doubt that when Sidney Rice was on the field this season he was the best receiver for the Seahawks. But it appears there is a chance his history of injuries won't pay off in the long run for the eight games of production thus far in his Seattle career.

Rice was signed to a five-year $41 million contract in July.

Financially the Seahawks can probably manage to work out the Salary cap if Rice ultimatey never stays healty. As of now, his concussion ailment is not a career ending situation but it will land him on the IR and his season is over. You wonder if in retrospect signing Rice was worth it. He is just 25-years old despite his health problems.

Could this be the Seahawks version of Bob Sanders, who played dynamically for the Indianapolis Colts for a number of years as a safety but could not remain on the field to no fault of his own.

The intangible is that Tarvaris Jackson had a guy to throw to which he was familiar with and helped him get out of several pressured filled pocket collapses.

Clearly Carroll has long-term plans with Rice-not just a one season quick fix.

With the playoffs out of quesiton, here's what Carroll said about moving Rice to the injured reserved.

"We have to give him time. He’s going to have to sit for a number of weeks before he’d be able to play anyway and so we just want to make sure we take care of him and don’t bring him back too soon and get him right. … We want to protect our guy.” Quote via Sports Press Now

The move will also help them evaluate guys like Ben Obomanu and decide if receivers Golden Tate or Mike Williams are in the long term plans.

 

[The Heater]

Rice had a history of injury when at Minnesota. I watched him quite a bit, he got hurt sometimes just going out and then coming back in later in the game. But I had a feeling he would continue with this pattern of medical issues. Did we overpay for him? I don't know. Yet. But you have to lean that way with the concussion taking him out permanently this season, and he already has had at least two injuries that kept him in street clothes this season. Personally, I don't like acquiring players who have a medical history of being hurt repetitively.

Go get a player in the draft that you can groom for his position, and get rid of him.