wow that should help

I like this move a lot. Surprised they didn't go with Dunn, but Tam and I think he came with a higher price tag.

Now how about bringing in a free-agent OT like Mark Tauscher in for a workout? Or Levi Jones, if that's still a possibility.

Yah I like this signing! Good player to have on the roster. Our new blocking scheme should help him get some positive yards. He can also be a good mentor for J-Force. TJ it was nice to have yah. Production!

See you later TJ Duckett,he looked so slow on Saturday.

What’s next for the undersized wonder? The Seahawks travel to Kansas City this week to play the Chiefs on Saturday night, and it’s time to take a look at what Reed can do against a team’s No. 1 left tackle.

From Seahawks.com what do you guys think does this mean anything?

HOw well does James play LT or CB? I think those positions are in much greater need of shoring up than running back at this point in time. James is about where Alexander was in his career when we re-signed him to the famous MVP contract.

What the H? James? Didn't see that one coming. Is someone going to be but or is someone injured that we don't know about? Who was released? I would say Bumpus.

So someone help me understand this: Are we expecting to see one of our main RB's cut before the season starts? TJ might be gone? Or is James going to be a fourth RB on the team, along with Duckett, Jones and Forsett?

Way more worried about other positions. Plus, what does this mean for Forsett?

I still think the Edge has it if his ego (if he has on) can accept a co-op in our back field. He may not be the man that tore it up once, but he is IMO still one of the best backs at catching the screen and being an all around back. Hopefully the time he spent as a free agent was not sitting arond drinking beer but working to stay and improve his conditioning.

Oh one thing I don't get about Nick Reed is how his lack of size, 250lbs soaking wet, dropped him to the 7th round. But how come Carlos Dunlap who is the top DE entering the 10 draft is not getting critized for being 240lbs? Don't know, but size does not appear to be everything.

I don't get where he fits and who we let go to make room for him? He is probably the best back we have right now so him being the starter makes sense. But what after that. I love what Duckett brings to the table as far as short yardage and goal line. Forsett has looked good in camp, ok in preseason games. He is so young, why not give him a chance to develop into something.
To be honest, I never liked Jones. If I were making the call, he would be the one to go, not Duckett as Pro football talk mentioned. Having backs that bring something different ie: earth wind fire, has worked well for teams around the NFL. Chris Johnson and Lendale White also come to mind. Please, TR keep the big guy around.

I'll be breaking this move down a bit more later (after work), but I like it. I think this is most likely Duckett's ticket out the door unless Julius Jones is more injured than we thought. It's also a possibility that Jones or Duckett could be part of a trade to acquire a tackle or CB if the Hawks see that as a necessity. Most teams will view Jones as a backup, but coupled with Branch we might be able to get a decent second starter.

Ducket did pretty poor last preseason too, but he was great durring the regular season. id say maybe the coaches werent too impressed with what forsett has been doing with the 1st teams

Agree with Ryan - we bring in a average at best back at this stage in his career to cut someone that may have upside and push back other average running backs? Does this mean J.Jones is hurt more then they are letting on?

The chiefs were just able to trade for 2 o-oline guys from Miami with starting experience, I hope Ruskell is looking for Oline and DB help and not just aging RB's.

I think J. Jones being dinged made the team realize that they really did not like what they had to work with in replacing him. Sure TJ and Forsett are nice complements, but not nice replacements.

Edge is (only?) 31, which is two years younger than Fred Taylor, and three years younger than W. Dunn, but just a year younger than S. Alexander and A. Green. Hmmm ... hope there is something left in the tank. He sure seemed to have a nice run in the playoffs last year.

Does the team keep Forsett out of the lineup for the next two games and take a closer look at what they have in Moore (since he is practice squad eligible)? Or is it just curtains for TJ Duckett?

Omar Little - What makes Reed undersized is not his weight, it's his height. Dunlap is listed as 6'7", Reed is 6'1".

Oh, still don't quite get it because it seems to me that Reed would have a lower center of gravity and thus harder to move than a guy who is 6ft7.

Aw man i still kinda liked duckett he was he great power back, i just dont like jones but i love forsett.

If the team needed an RB, why didn't they draft one? I have been critical of Jones for over a year, feeling that Morris was the better back coming out of pre-season last year, but that is not saying much as Morris is not a #1 starting RB either.

Regardless, this is the wrong time to be picking up such an important part of the offense, unless Jones is out longer than we have been led to believe.

Having said that, I think Edge had a great late-season last year and his numbers bear that out. He was effective, and in my mind the single biggest difference maker in the Card's play-off run. They didn't have an effective run game earlier in the year, and it showed.

For $2mil, I would expect James to be in good form, and if so, that is very good given the less-than-mediocre starters on the team. I can't imagine that Forsett will be released - he is showing way too much in my mind, and proving he can play against first-teamers. That means Jones or Duckett, I would think, either of which would be fine with this fan, on the outside looking in.

I think Javon Ringer was drafted in the 3rd round, and he is tearing it up. Other 2008 rookies are doing well as well, so why didn't the Seahawks draft one of them? Hell, Rashad Jennings was there for the Seahawks first pick in the 7th (although not sure how he is fairing at this level).

I'm sure Ruskell has big plans with one of our first round picks for 2010 when it comes to RB. I'll bet that why he didn't want to settle for a guy in mid to late rounds when he could get an effective stop-gap like James for 1 season who can contribute just as much as a mid round pick for a season.

im still trying to make sense of this and i think it all leads to forsett being the odd man out. with butler having that great performance theyll probably feel more comfortable with giving burleson the punt returns. forsett doesnt seem like he has a future as returner so the choice of which ones to keep should be entirely based on skill and only jones, james and ducket are known commodities at the position. forsett's performance last week is making this harder to figure out though, he was great at screens but he was only getting like 2 yards per rush

the only thing he does well is short yardage, which is great. Except Edge is better at short yardage then Duckett's top heavy bitch ass. I love this signing, now lets go grab Runyan for the year.

Can you imagine if the Hawks started the season with Julius (injury prone) plus Duckett and Forsett as only RB's? It could get ugly. Both Duckett and Forsett are not complete backs yet so you have to have another guy who can do it all back there. Edge can catch, block, run. If Duckett is in there as a defense you know what the offense will not do. If Forsett is in there you know you don't need to guard the middle of the line much. So you have to have another guy who is multi-dimensional.

Someone will lose their job over this, wonder who it will be...

Perhaps Jones is hurt more than we thought, but I think this is a good move. Remember, Edge was on the cardinals last year and knows the offense. Perhaps we picked him up as a stopgap and that we could use his knowledge of their offensive set and what they like to run out of them to defeat the cardinals this year. Kinda like how the Rams would take our players a few years back.
I would like to see a Duckett/jones, and branch trade for O line help though.

i think its a choice of:
jones/ducket with james as 3rd down back
vs
jones/james with forsett as a 3rd down back

forsett has been dangerous in screens and dump offs but he's shown nothing in rushing so i doubt he'd be a #2 guy. im still sticking with ducket being kept

Either way he's good value 1 year, plus he'll show the youngsters some strong work ethics.

He insisted on being released by the Cards well before the end of the season, but it didn't happen until they drafted Wells. So he wasn't cut by the Cards, he wanted to leave, so perhaps he still has some of the ability that made him one of the best that ever played.

Yea guys James is a future hall of famer, and like said above hes only 31. He always struck me as a guy who can play for years past the dreaded "30" that seems to kill RBs. I'm excited about the prospects of James in a WCO. Good hands, good blocker, good all around player.

very interesting signing. (it hasn't been confirmed by the seahawks yet, so i still want to hear the officia release.) but i can't say i was over-enamored with the line-up we had. edge has a chip on his shoulder, and i expect he's got some gas n the tank.

i am interested to see a) who gets released initially to make room on the current roster, and b) who is the odd man out on the final roster.

does anyone have stats on how edge has done in short-yardage situations? because i would take a guess that edge making $2 million would leave either duckett or jones out of the mix. no way do they keep three rbs making over $2mil/year.

i like the move. he can run, catch and block. can you say that any of our current backs are as good at all three?

Didn't james get into some legal trouble? wasn't there a rumor of him being a bad locker room guy?

Other than our season is getting off to a crappy start and we aren't even in week 1 yet.

This is a move by a clueless GM in his last year of his job.

The ship in sinking becase it has a hole in the bottom, and he is fixing the top.

BillT, hope you are reading this, Ruskell is on his way out.

at least that is what the talking heads are saying. I thought I remembered that he was not always keen to fully participating in the Colts offseason program and kinda had his own thing going, but he certainly always brought his A-game during the season.

Someone mentioned his pass blocking and it made me think of some of the huge blitz pickups he made last postseason - absolutely blew up some of the game's best LBs and DEs.

This is the depth the team needed at RB. I think the team can feel confident now that this season's rushing attack does not rest solely on the health of Julius Jones.

I have an uneasy feeling that the reason they signed James was that he had his best 2008 game against -- you guessed it -- the Seahawks. Recall that this was one of the justifications they gave for signing Julius Jones, that they were impressed by the big games he had against Seattle. Needless to say, it's daft to judge a player on one or two games rather than his entire body of work.

One could argue that his numbers were diminished by Arizona's lousy blocking, I suppose, but he has over 3000 career touches and is 31 years old. That's about 100 in running back years. I just don't see this bearing much fruit, but let's keep our fingers crossed.

The only clueless one here is the one who's name starts with SF
I cant stand people who think they know everything when they dont know shit.
Do I like this move, Yes, could there be other reasons that we dont know about as to why we made this move, you bet, is this the only tweeking we need to do to this team, hell no!
But I trust Ruskell to make the right call.

The Hawks are refusing to comment today, and by itself, this sits as a somewhat strange and out-of-the-blue move to me. I have a suspicion that this isn't the only move being made, especially if we can find someone with a decent tackle who needs an RB and a second round pick... PURE speculation of course, I'm probably an idiot, haha.

delaying until tomorrow to announce it gives them time to do a few things:

a) finalize the contract
b) talk to the other rbs about the move
c) figure out who gets cut to make room on the roster

the tackle issue is still in flux, and the tackles that are available will still be available in a week or two when timmay knows more about how the line is fitting together.

Meanneon, I don't give a shit what you think. You can go FU*K yourself, you piece of shit. Take your advise and shove it up.

I think we can't wait longer than next week at the 1st cut (between preseason games 3 and 4) to grab an OT and insert him into the rotation. Granted, the ZBS is supposed to make it easier than usual for a lineman to jump into and some of the available guys have experience in the scheme already, but we can't delay the obvious and wait too long. It takes a few weeks of solid practice to even contribute at a game level with some effectiveness, especially a position that demands continuity and cohesion. Maybe Ruskell is shopping the trade market but I can't think of any good Tackle out there who wants to be traded or should be at this point...

Opinions are like assholes SF, everybody's got one.
Some are just bigger then others.
(especially from your part of the country)

Woohoo its like X-mas.... I dont know about the rest of you hawk fans, but I am glad to see Duckett go! I could not stand watching him run. THE WORST RB in the league by far!!!! thats my opinion tho'

We don't need this piece of crap troll talking shit here. 49'rs are crap and don't have anyone but Goe. They don't even have a freakin qb. HA HA HA

That's Gore, not goe. Like when we disable Alex Smith again

Has anyone bothered to note that:
A) Duckett isn't a great blocker
B) We have (at the moment) an iffy LT
C)James is a great blocker, plus he's very good at the outlet pass
Perhaps this is a way of killing two birds with one stone...Jones gets help at RB, so we've got some injury protection there, if we keep James in the backfield on passing downs, he can pick up the first guy that gets through, then release for the outlet if Matt hasn't found anyone, this makes up for some noted deficiencies in our Ol vis a vis the passing game...could be, with our OL woes, we're preparing to scrap the running game if it's just not there, and go pass crazy a'la 2007...this COULD work for one season. (and next year Ruskell better damn well get 2 high draft picks and at least a decent FA for the OL...)