BSUSeahawk
KFFL Refugee
A better head coach could have made this team a store dynasty with the talent that has been here the last five years. But the lack of discipline is glaring. That's on Carroll. Thomas never should have been in the position he was in. He should have been resigned or traded.
Some of that is hindsight. The Seahawks acquired so much talent in such a short amount of time that it was inevitable that they had to pick and choose what talent to retain, as so many players were hitting paydays at the same time. That meant letting Irvin, Tate, etc. walk in free agency.
As far as Thomas goes, I don't think you can really blame them for that either. He was signed to a very fair contract, and they're simply asking him to play that out. Just because you're a really good player doesn't mean you're entitled to a trade if you're not getting a new contract. Now obviously in hindsight, the gamble didn't work out and they're going to get little to nothing for him. But it's hard to predict a broken leg.
My only gripe with them is how they've approached the draft the last 3-4 years. Taking multiple RBs early, trading back when there is blue chip talent available, drafting "high upside" projects, etc. Penny may turn out to be a good RB, but it was asinine to use that high of a draft pick on him (and personally, I don't think he's going to be that good, but that's neither here nor there). To me, THAT is the biggest reason the "dynasty" has ended. They were never going to be able to retain all the talent they had, nor was all that talent going to keep playing the way they were into their 30s. Where they've lost their way is in the ability to replace that aging talent with young, cost controllable players.