Raiders acquire Matt Flynn from Seahawks

As King notes, Oakland has just three picks in the first five rounds this April. For a team with a handful of glaring needs on the roster, shipping out any of those picks for Flynn would simply create a worse scenario. He’s still expected to bring in a mid-round selection for Seattle, but King thinks it will be for the 2014 draft.

Reports over the weekend escalated the Flynn-to-Oakland rumors. Now a trade that’s expected to be finalized soon, Flynn looks like he will finally get a chance to prove himself as a starter.

It remains to be seen what Flynn can offer a team as a starting quarterback. When Seattle acquired him last spring, it was assumed that he would finally get his shot at a starting gig; then Russell Wilson burst onto the scene, making Flynn expendable. A report from Jason Cole at Yahoo sports cited sources inside the Packers organization, where Flynn got his start, pointing to concerns that he lacks the arm strength to be a starting quarterback in the NFL.

Green Bay drafted Flynn, an LSU product, in the seventh round of the 2008 NFL Draft. In his five year NFL career, Flynn has started two games. He’s completed over 61% of his passes, and thrown for 1,083 yards, nine touchdowns, and five interceptions.

The Jaguars have seven picks, including the No. 2 overall selection in the upcoming draft and hope to improve the team with young and talented players.

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Needless to say, Flynn won’t be starting for the Seahawks unless Wilson suffers some kind of injury. That said, the Seahawks have been clear in the past that they believe they can hold on to Flynn, given the relatively low contract numbers for Wilson, a second-year player, and the fact that releasing Flynn would only save the Seahawks approximately $1.25 million in cap space.

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Now Flynn enters the 2013 season, his sixth in the NFL, in the same role that he played in during his first four years with the Packers: a back-up for a team with a Pro Bowl starter. That is, unless the Seahawks choose to trade him to a team in need of help at quarterback.

Earlier in the offseason, reports indicated that the Seahawks would be open to the idea of moving Flynn; however, more recent reports have said that the Seahawks are also “more than fine” with keeping him as a back-up to Wilson. Due to count $7.25 million against Seattle’s salary cap in 2013, he’s a pricy back-up, but Wilson’s $681,085 cap hit makes up the difference.