It amazes me sometimes how one writer can say something off the cuff, another will expound on it, and then how many of the Seahawks faithful will go running up the mountian to ask Sando if it's true.

Case in point: On Feb 25th, John Czarnecki makes this comment on his blog:

"It must be comical to head coach Mike Holmgren and his coaching staff that the Seahawks are preparing to pay Chargers guard Kris Dielman, an unrestricted free agent, more than the $6.5 million that Steve Hutchinson received last year to leave Seattle for Minnesota."

The next day, Doug Farrar takes it to the next step on Scout.com:

"On Sunday, FoxSports.com’s John Czarnecki reported that the Seahawks are preparing to offer Chargers guard Kris Dielman a contract that would pay the 26-year-old lineman somewhere in the neighborhood of $6.5 million per year."

And so it begins. Seahawks fans everywhere react to the headlines, getting the impression that Czarnecki has some special inside information about the Seahawks being in serious pursuit of Dielman. And so, the Guru is approached. His response?

"I did see John Czarnecki's blog item about the Hawks possibly throwing big money at Kris Dielman...The Seahawks are among the teams with interest in Dielman, but I have no idea whether the team is prepared to pay that kind of money to him. I do know that Steve Hutchinson got $7 million per season. I previously listed Dielman as a guy the Seahawks might target in free agency. As for a specific price, I would not know. Any projections could be premature given that Seattle has a new contract negotiator."

Sounds all too reasonable...

Here's what I think happened: Everyone and their dog knows that the Seahawks are interested in Dielman. Everyone and their neighbor's dog knows that most teams, including the Seahawks, have ample cap space this year. To put it simply, I think Czarnecki realizes and assumes that everyone knows this, and he can write the aforementioned bit without actually "reporting" anything.

Given these cap conditions, if the Seahawks are interested in him, we can assume they had better be prepared to pay more then they would have paid Hutch. In fact, that is what he was writing about -- the irony of the situation, not some breaking news on a pending contract offer.

Having said that, what stock should we put in these FOX blogs, anyway?

Sample 1: John Czarnecki
Sample 2: ??????????????



[Comments taken in SeahawkBlue Forums]

Labels: Bloof, free agents, Rumors