The Seattle Seahawks are expected to be in the market for a cornerback or two this offseason, after disappointing performances from Tre Flowers and the backups – Neiko Thorpe and Akeem King – in 2019.
While Shaquill Griffin was a Pro Bowler and the safety tandem of Bradley McDougald and Quandre Diggs proved to be well above-average, adding another bonafide stud on the outside would give Seattle a secondary that – while not quite the Legion of Boom – would be good enough to thrive in Pete Carroll’s cover-3 scheme.
Speaking of Diggs, it is his former teammate, Lions corner Darius Slay, that could be the missing piece to a formidable secondary in Seattle.
According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, the Lions are speaking to teams about a potential trade involving Slay.
Lions have spoken with multiple teams about a potential trade for Pro Bowl CB Darius Slay, per sources. Any team that trades for Slay would have to compensate Detroit and Slay with a new deal. Other teams believe Slay will be traded this off-season, but Lions adamant on value.
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) February 17, 2020
While the acquiring team would have to pony up a new contract to acquire Slay’s services, and would take a $10.4 million dollar cap hit according to Spotrac, the Seahawks have plenty of cap space to get a deal done.
Slay and Diggs were very close while they were teammates in Detroit together, and there’s little doubt Slay would be a massive upgrade to this Seattle defense.
Slay capped off his third consecutive Pro Bowl season in 2019, racking up 13 passes defended, two interceptions and 46 combined tackles.
He was an All-Pro back in 2017 when he led the league with 26 passes defended and eight interceptions.
It’s unclear what Seattle would need to give up to acquire Slay, but considering how little they gave up for Diggs it’s possible they could get the duo at a relatively affordable price.
If that is the case, expect John Schneider to be all over this, as upgrading the secondary with a player like Slay is not an opportunity that comes around all that often, and it would allow the team to pour their remaining draft capital into other areas of need, namely the offensive and defensive lines and the wide receiver group.
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