Nobody in the sports world was expecting an NFL trade on Friday, especially one involving an electric weapon such as Percy Harvin. But that is exactly what happened when the Seattle Seahawks traded Harvin to the New York Jets for a conditional draft pick.
The Jets weren’t the first option for the Seahawks however. The team had been trying to find a trade partner for Harvin including the Denver Broncos, whom they offered Harvin to in exchange for tight end Julius Thomas according to ESPN:
Seattle proposed sending Harvin to Denver in exchange for Pro Bowl tight end Julius Thomas, who is on pace to shatter the single-season touchdown record for tight ends, the sources said. Denver never hesitated in turning down the offer, even with Thomas playing on an expiring contract and scheduled to become a free agent after this season.
Denver turning that offer down was a no-brainer. But it is also interesting to note that, according to ESPN, had the Seahawks not found a partner, Harvin would have simply been waved:
The Seattle Seahawks had reached a point of no return with Percy Harvin. If they had been unable to trade him, they would have released him outright, according to league and team sources. The Seahawks had until the NFL’s trade deadline of Oct. 28 to move Harvin, but the desire to cut him loose was no longer a debate within the organization, the sources said.
It is amazing to believe that Harvin had become so much of a cancer within the Seahawks’ locker room that the team would have rather released him for nothing, as opposed to keeping him around.
The defending Super Bowl champs will now have an uphill battle as they were already thin at the wide receiver position, and though Harvin was underperforming, he was still a major weapon.
