Bruce Irvin has been a mild disappointment for the Seattle Seahawks since being selected as a top 20 pick in the 2012 NFL Draft. However, the team is not expected to trade him at this time, according to a report by 710 ESPN’s Danny O’Neil.
Are the Seahawks trading Bruce Irvin to the Falcons or not?
Seattle currently has no plans to send away the former first-round pick.
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Wednesday night, reports surfaced that the Seahawks did not plan to pick up Irvin’s fifth-year option. Soon thereafter, speculation arose that the team may trade the athletic linebacker to the Atlanta Falcons, where former Seattle defensive coordinator Dan Quinn now resides as head coach. The Falcons finished near the bottom of the league in pressure last season, and adding a veteran pass rusher like Irvin, who already possesses familiarity with Quinn’s scheme, could help jump-start the defensive makeover.
However, O’Neil reports that Irvin is still very much a part of the Seahawks’ plans for 2015. As it stands, he’s the starting strongside linebacker in the team’s base defense, the primary pass rusher opposite the “Leo” position. If Seattle were to part with Irvin, Kevin Pierre-Louis and Michael Morgan would be left as the in-house replacement options. The two have zero career sacks between them.
In theory, the Seahawks could find a replacement for Irvin during the 2015 NFL Draft, but they would have to do so without the aid of their first-round pick. That selection was sent to New Orleans as part of the Jimmy Graham trade that went down in March. Barring another trade, Seattle won’t be on the clock until the 63rd overall pick.
And while the team didn’t pick up Irvin’s fifth-year option, they could still sign him to a multi-year deal at a lower annual salary. The linebacker’s option would have cost the team $7.8 million for the 2016 season.
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