Trader Tim Ruskell was at it again on Tuesday afternoon.
The Seattle Seahawks’ team president engineered a pair of deals, further proving that the NFL trade is not an endangered species.
Ruskell dealt veteran defensive end Bryce Fisher to the Tennessee Titans in exchange for a sixth-round draft pick, then turned around and traded a pick for Cleveland Browns quarterback Charlie Frye. Ruskell said the pick traded to Cleveland is comparable to the pick Seattle got from Tennessee.
They marked the third and fourth trades Ruskell has made this month and ran his total to eighth trades involving players since he arrived in January 2005. That’s much more activity than the nine NFL teams that haven’t executed a single player-trade since the end of the 2006 regular season.
“Our philosophy is, if you don’t disrupt the team too much, and if we can better ourselves, then we’ll look at (a deal) and do that,” Ruskell said in a Tuesday conference call. “I’m not out to be the trader guy, to establish a name. These things just kind of happen.”
Adding Frye to the roster won’t make starter Matt Hasselbeck look over his shoulder, but it could eventually free up backup quarterback Seneca Wallace to do other things. During his Monday press conference, head coach Mike Holmgren mentioned Wallace as a candidate to play receiver but said it would only be possible if the team added a veteran quarterback.
On Tuesday, Ruskell said he didn’t expect to see Wallace running pass patterns anytime soon.
“That would take some time,” he said. “Mike has to see Charlie, and he has to get comfortable in our system. To think that’s going to happen right away, that’s just not accurate.”
Wallace will remain as Hasselbeck’s top backup, but it won’t be as risky to give him a few snaps at receiver or as a return man if there is another experienced veteran on the roster.
Frye’s two-plus-year tenure in Cleveland came to an unceremonious end after he was benched in Sunday’s season-opening loss. A former third-round pick out of the University of Akron, Frye started 19 games for the Browns but was eventually going to be replaced by recent first-round pick Brady Quinn. Reports out of Cleveland say that Derek Anderson will start this Sunday, with Quinn serving as his backup. The team also re-signed Ken Dorsey on Tuesday.
Ruskell said that Frye was the best available option to be the Seahawks’ No. 3 quarterback.
“It’s not a big pool out there,” Ruskell said “We kind of decided after David Greene (got cut) that we wanted to be team with three quarterbacks.
“Charlie’s a guy we liked coming out (of college). He really hasn’t had much (NFL) success, but he has played and has lot of things we liked.”
A 26-year-old native of Ohio, Frye went 6-13 as a starter for the Browns while compiling a career rating of 71.1.
Fisher’s two-plus seasons in Seattle ended just as suddenly Tuesday, although it wasn’t a complete surprise. He lost his starting spot to second-year player Darryl Tapp during training camp and saw very little action in Sunday’s opener.
“It’s the least playing time I’ve seen in four years,” the former St. Louis Ram and Buffalo Bill said on Monday.
Fisher, 30, was a key part of the Seahawks’ 2005 Super Bowl team, registering a career-high nine sacks in his first season with the team. His sack total dropped to four last year, and Tapp beat him out at training camp.
Said Ruskell: “We had 10 defensive lineman on the roster, and another on the practice squad, so we had a bit of a glut at the position.”
The decision to trade Fisher could open the door for more playing time for rookie defensive end Baraka Atkins, a fourth-round pick who had a strong preseason.
“This was agonizing, definitely,” Ruskell said of the decision to cut Fisher. “We were surprised by how well Baraka Atkins had developed. You don’t expect that out of a fourth-round pick.”
The Seahawks added depth at the defensive end position on Sept. 1 by trading safety Michael Boulware to Houston for veteran Jason Babin.
Ruskell’s trades have brought the Seahawks veterans like wide receiver Deion Branch, safety Mike Green and recent acquisitions Babin and running back Alvin Pearman. He’s also unloaded several former starters like Fisher, Boulware, wide receiver Darrell Jackson and quarterback Trent Dilfer.
“If we’ve got a chance to get better, and we can help ourselves in another area,” Ruskell said, “then we’ll consider that, talk about it and maybe do it.”
Trades involving players are somewhat rare in the salary-cap era of the NFL, especially during the regular season. Ruskell has now engineered three separate in-season deals, involving Frye, Fisher and Branch.
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