The Seahawks made a mistake by drafting Eskridge, and they need to stop investing in their error.
Throughout his professional career, Dee Eskridge has accounted for fewer receiving yards and touchdowns than Jake Bobo has this year. The former is said to be slower than molasses and is a free agent who was not selected. The latter was selected in the second round and recorded a Pro Day time of 4.39.
My least favorite draft choice from the Pete Carroll and John Schneider era is rapidly turning into Dee Eskridge. Few other athletes have let fans down to this extent and fewer have had as many opportunities to establish their eligibility in the NFL. Rather, he is demonstrating that, in light of their selection position, he might be the worst player they have ever chosen.
- Worse than Malik McDowell? Of course, because that was a bizarre and unpredictable accident that nobody expected, and at least they got some of their money back.
- Worse than L.J. Collier? That dude is practically a Hall of Famer compared to Eskridge.
- Worse than Germain Ifedi? He didn’t even net a compensatory pick when he left for the Chicago Bears, but at least he gave the team four years of cheap offensive line play.
- Worse than Christine Michael? The guy who rushed for 100+ yards and 2 touchdowns in a 37-18 win over the San Francisco 49ers?! Retire his jersey already.
With the exception of McDowell, none of the players listed above were very impressive (and occasionally just awful); still, Eskridge is the only one who can even remotely approximate this caliber of output given his position. The Seattle Seahawks should cut their ties and move on because the day of reckoning is coming.
In actuality, he hasn’t really been able to demonstrate that he even belongs on an NFL team, in spite of his talent and fanfare. With sub-pedestrian career numbers, he is not showing any signs of improvement. In the game on Sunday, he had one target that he was unable to catch. In the three games this season that he has played, that is his only goal.
In all fairness, the players listed above were selected in the first round of their respective drafts, or in the case of McDowell and Michael, they were the first picks in their respective drafts and highly anticipated second round picks. One may also contend that injuries have merely dogged his career, making it challenging to assess him fairly. However, there isn’t much room for debate these days that Eskridge hasn’t developed into the player the Seahawks anticipated he would become when he turned pro. Consider the following players, whose stats were all taken from StatHead, who have enjoyed more fruitful receiving seasons for the Seahawks since 2020 than Eskridge does in 2023:
- Laquon Treadwell: 10 targets, 42 receiving yards (2022)
- Cody Thompson: 1 target, 10 yards (2023)
- Dareke Young: 2 targets, 24 yards (2022)
- Tyler Mabry: 1 target, 7 yards (2022)
- Tony Jones: 6 targets, 18 yards (2022)
- Cade Johnson: 4 targets, 21 yards (2022)
- Godwin Igwebuike: 1 target, 3 yards (2022)
- Phillip Dorsett: 1 target, 3 yards (2021)
- Nick Bellore: 1 target, 4 yards (2021)
These are just some examples, there are obviously a number of other players who have had far more productive seasons; the above list is simply reflective of the fact that Eskridge is being outproduced by undrafted guys, late round picks, and veteran players who aren’t even on the team currently. Nobody realistically expected Eskridge to be producing like Metcalf or Lockett immediately, but the team drafted him with the hope and expectation that he would at least be a legitimate third option with starting potential and special teams upside. But he has been consistently ineffective when healthy, and is currently having a historically awful season in 2023. Since 2020, for Seahawks players who have at least one target in the regular season, Eskridge is the only one who has had a year where he posted negative yards. According to Pro Football Reference, he has -5 yards of total offense this season.
Negative. Five. Yards.
In some cases, we could chalk this up to lack of opportunity, but that would assume his opportunities would increase. I simply don’t see that happening, or maybe I simply hope that it wont happen. Essentially, Dee makes this offense quantifiably worse, and after several seasons with the team, there just hasn’t been any real flashes of him rediscovering his electrifying play that he showed off at Western Michigan. And the story has been the same, year in and year out. This is from September of last season.
So he can’t play when healthy, which he rarely is, and he can’t play when he is unavailable, which he almost always is. Unlike Tyler Lockett, he doesn’t seem to have a knack for adjusting his game and style of play to his strengths, and unlike DK Metcalf, he can’t seem to use his unique physical gifts to make plays with the ball in his hands. Now we can factor in the fact that the Seahawks have a pair of rookie receivers in Jake Bobo and Jaxon Smith-Njigba that have already wedged themselves successfully into the offense as important role players who could be cornerstones of this offense going forward.
I’m trying my best to keep this exclusively football related, but when you factor in the disturbing legal issues that led to a suspension this season, I think it is fair to assume that Eskridge is pretty clearly on wafer-thin ice at this point. His biggest saving grace has really just been the financial investment. For a player with this much raw talent on a rookie wage, the team simply hasn’t had much contractual motivation to cut him, but that is about to change. According to Over the Cap, the Seahawks could save nearly $1.5 million in 2024 if they cut or trade Eskridge. Frankly, any amount of money is too much to dedicate to Eskridge at this point, and I hope the team agrees with me.
