Strange Brew
Get your popcorn ready!
It may just be microwave popcorn instead of the giant theater version, but Terrell Owens is back after agreeing to terms with the Seattle Seahawks on a one year deal.
If you weren’t a season ticket holder for the Allen Wranglers of the IFL, the last time you saw Owens he was busy racking up 983 yards and nine touchdowns on 72 catches for the Bengals back in 2010. After a torn ACL in that off-season, he failed to catch on with a team last year and his signing with Seattle a full year after being out of the league is a bit of a surprise on a couple of levels.
First, at age 38, Owens apparently looked spectacular at his workout today. There are many things that T.O. is, but out of shape has rarely been one of those. In fact, he reportedly spent some time this off-season working out with the likes of Drew Brees and Carson Palmer with the hopes that a team would take a shot on him. He’s always been blessed with near superhuman healing powers, and it looks like his knee injury is in the rearview mirror as he ran a reported sub-4.5 forty time. It’s truly amazing that Father Time hasn’t caught up with Owens if the reports from Seattle about his performance today are true, and they should be, considering the Seahawks rushed to sign him.
Second, the most obvious surprise is the Seahawks seemingly aren’t phased by the cancerous risk that Owens is to a locker room. His history is well chronicled and bringing him in with a young receiving corps is a risk, no matter how you look at it. If you’re Seattle, you must be convinced that T.O. suddenly has realized that football can be taken away very easily and simply has his head on straight. They’re only going to be on the hook for the veteran’s minimum and they can surely cut ties if they need to. Apparently, Owens has some serious child support issues and his finances aren’t exactly in order, so to speak. Simply put, Owens needs football right now for a lot of different reasons.
If you own receivers for the Seahawks, the team’s recent moves are now officially unsettling. You could see the Seahawks kicking the tires on likes of Antonio Bryant and Braylon Edwards, but making the move for Owens indicates the team isn’t too confident in the receiving corps at the moment. Projecting starters for virtually any other team is pretty easy at the moment, but projecting the starters for Seattle is almost impossible right now. With Sidney Rice, Golden Tate, Doug Baldwin, Ben Obomanu, Ricardo Lockette, Braylon Edwards, Owens and Deon Butler all in the mix, nobody knows how it’s going to shake out. The preseason games for Seattle are going to be very, very interesting.
So, what about Owens?
Owens has never lacked in the productivity department and even at his advanced age, this signing is interesting. If you’re a rebuilding team, you stay as far away as possible, because his stint in Seattle is going to be short. If you’re a contending team, Owens is worth a speculative pickup if you have a roster spot to burn – just don’t be dropping any young player who you’re high on to do it because he likely won’t be worth it. He’s no WR1 or even a WR2, but there’s some upside if he’s in great shape and ready to work.
The chances of Owens ever becoming close to his old dominant self are next to none, but completely discounting his re-emergence in the league would be foolish. If there’s one thing we know about T.O., it’s to expect the unexpected. After firing Drew Rosenhaus and practically begging any team to take a chance on him, there’s a chance he could be pretty motivated to prove to the world he can still play.
Dynasty leagues are fantastic and 2012 is shaping up like a great year. Who would have guessed three months ago that Terrell Owens and Randy Moss would be back in the league and possibly each playing significant roles for a new team.
Now we just need Brett Favre to pick up the phone.
Ken is on Twitter at DLF_KenK
