Seattle Seahawks, Pete Carroll Fined for Overly-Aggressive Offseason Workout, Lose Draft Pick
The Seattle Seahawks don’t have an offense right now. We’ve played two weeks of football, and the team has managed a mere 15 points with only one touchdown in matchups with the Miami Dolphins and Los Angeles Rams. Sure, the Rams have a pretty good defensive squad, but the Dolphins just gave up 31 to the New England Patriots with Jimmy Garoppolo and Jacoby Brissett at quarterback.
To make matters worse, both the team and head coach Pete Carroll are now in hot water for violating the league’s policies and the collective bargaining agreement’s outlines regarding offseason workouts.
“Voluntary offseason workout programs are intended to provide training, teaching, and physical conditioning for players,” read the NFL’s letter on the issue. “The intensity and tempo of drills should be at a level conducive to learning, with player safety as the highest priority, and not at a level where one player is in a physical contest with another player.”
Apparently, the Seahawks held some rough workouts this summer—and they’re paying dearly for it.
The Seahawks franchise was fined $400,000, docked a fifth-round draft pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, and lose a week of organized team activities (OTAs) next offseason for the violations. Pete Carroll was only hit with a $200,000 fine.
The draft penalty could have been much worse, but it still stings. Seattle has quite the propensity for selecting gems in the late rounds. In fact, both Kam Chancellor and Richard Sherman were fifth-round selections in their respective drafts.
While the monetary fines are never fun, on the other hand, they don’t have any immediate negative impact the players. The whole situation, however, may be a big demoralizing agent after a weak 1-1 start to a season that many believed would see the Seahawks back on top of the NFC. The team we’ve seen over the first two weeks doesn’t look anything like the one chasing its third Super Bowl appearance in four years.
Fortunately for Seattle, the San Francisco 49ers come to town this weekend. If they can’t turn it around against the Niners, there’s no hope.