John Carlson signs with Minnesota

Last year when the Seahawks signed Zach Miller, the top free agent tight end, to a contract it didn’t make a lot of sense. They already had Carlson on the roster, they’d drafted Anthony McCoy, and they already had Cameron Morrah on the roster, who looked like a breakout candidate. Tight ends generally are pretty fungible, and since Miller wasn’t some athletic dynamo, it didn’t seem like he was worth the five-year, $34 million deal the Seahawks gave him.

Ultimately with Miller on the roster, if any kind of market were to develop for Carlson the Seahawks would have been fools to bring him back. That happened, and Carlson signed with the Minnesota Vikings for five years, $25 million.

With the aforementioned tight ends still in place, tight end doesn’t become an immediate need position with Carlson’s departure. Don’t be surprised, however, to see the team draft a tight end late.