2005 Seattle Seahawks Season - Offseason

Offseason

The period between the disappointing 2004 season and the start of the 2005 was marked by major changes for the Seahawks, starting with the front office. Team owner Paul Allen fired 8 year incumbent General Manager Bob Whitsitt on January 14, the same day that Vice President of Football Operations Ted Thompson was hired away by the Green Bay Packers to be their General Manager. Rumors had been floating that Whitsitt's relationship with coach Mike Holmgren (and almost everyone else) was strained and Holmgren later admitted that he had thought about leaving the team after a 2004 season that was personally draining. At the time of Whitsitt's firing the Seahawks salary cap situation was in extreme flux with 16 unsigned free agents on the roster including their 3 biggest stars Matt Hasselbeck, Shaun Alexander and Walter Jones. On February 3 Mike Reinfeldt, who had previously been pushed out of the Seahawks organization by Whitsitt, was hired back as a consultant to try to sort out the mess. Reinfeldt was able to sign Jones and Hasselbeck to long term deals and put the Franchise Tag on Alexander, setting the stage for the rest of the offseason.

After a careful executive search the Seahawks settled on highly regarded personnel man Tim Ruskell as the new President of Football Operations on February 23, 2005. As a part of his roster overhall, Ruskell subsequently released or neglected to resign 6 players (Anthony Simmons, Chad Brown, Orlando Huff, Chike Okeafor, Rashad Moore and Cedric Woodard) who were starters on an underperforming defense during the 2004 season. Over the rest of the offseason and into training camp Ruskell signed a raft of free agents to replace departed players on both sides of the ball, emphasizing character and work ethic in his evaluations.

In the first round of the 2005 NFL Draft the Seahawks traded down from pick 23 to pick 26 to select center Chris Spencer from the University of Mississippi and acquire an extra 4th round pick. They then gave up 2 fourth round picks to trade up in the second round and selected USC linebacker Lofa Tatupu who would start every game of the 2005 season and go to the Pro Bowl as a rookie.