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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Trickle-down effect


New Seahawks quarterback Charlie Frye works out under the watchful eye of head coach Mike Holmgren. Associated Press
 (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Steve Kelley Seattle Times

SEATTLE – In his brief time with the Seahawks, Bryce Fisher gave them everything they asked. He helped heal a fractious locker room, helped organize marathon Tuesday night bonding dinners.

Fisher was one of the first of general manager Tim Ruskell’s many resuscitating moves.

He led the team in sacks as he was helping the Hawks to Super Bowl XL. The defense, which just a few seasons back was a collection of underachieving sad sacks, got better with Fisher playing defensive end.

Really, that’s all you can ask out of player.

“Bryce was a model of what we want a Seahawk to be,” Ruskell said. “This was agonizing.”

But change is rapid in the NFL.

Rest on your laurels, and you end up resting in January.

Hang on to a player too long, and you can lose your grip. Knowing when to get rid of a player can be as important as knowing when to acquire one.

As good as he had been, Fisher’s time was up in Seattle.

So Tuesday was moving day for the Seahawks.

This day is supposed to be quiet time in the NFL. Players have the day off, and coaches put the final edits on the next Sunday’s game plan.

But Seattle is a kinetic franchise. Ruskell doesn’t rest.

He made a pair of trades, a couple of tweaks on a roster that already is loaded with options.

First, Ruskell did Fisher a favor, trading him to the Tennessee Titans for a 2008 draft pick. Then, Ruskell filled in the quarterback gap, trading a 2008 pick to the Cleveland Browns for their opening-day starter, Charlie Frye, a third-round choice in 2005 who started 19 of 21 games for Cleveland.

In a perfect world, Fisher, who was born in Renton, could have finished his career in his hometown. But this isn’t Disney.

Fisher, 30, is on the slippery slope. The arrival of relentless pass rusher Patrick Kerney from Atlanta on one side, and the continued improvement of Darryl Tapp on the other, marginalized Fisher. Linebacker Julian Peterson had become the third defensive end in the Hawks’ nickel defense.

It is a testament to the growth of the Seahawks’ defense, which didn’t allow a touchdown in Sunday’s opening-day win over Tampa Bay, that a player as experienced as Fisher, someone who has played in eight postseason games, suddenly became expendable.

The speed with which Ruskell acted to move him is an example of the GM’s exquisite timing.

With the exception of the loss of left guard Steve Hutchinson last season, Ruskell always seems to be a jump ahead of the game.

He wooed Kerney from Atlanta in the off-season and he picked defensive end Baraka Atkins in the fourth round of last April’s draft. Atkins lobbied for more playing time with his performance in July and August.

“We were surprised at how quickly Baraka developed,” Ruskell said. “You don’t expect that out of a fourth-round pick.”

Frye, on the other hand, might never play. They don’t call the No. 3 an emergency quarterback for nothing.

In his brief time in the NFL, Frye has thrown more interceptions (24) than touchdowns (14), and his quarterback rating is 70.4.

But Frye’s arrival gives coach Mike Holmgren more flexibility with his offense.

Ultimately, there could be an offensive trickle-down effect from this trade.

Backup quarterback Seneca Wallace could become the next Slash, a pass-throwing, pass-catching, punt-returning dervish.

For years, offensive coordinator Gil Haskell has pined over the idea of playing Wallace at wide receiver. Haskell has talked wistfully about what it would be like having Wallace returning punts.

Holmgren has been smartly stubborn about experimenting with Wallace. The futility of former No. 3 quarterback David Greene would be enough to scare any coach into conservatism.

Now with a veteran like Frye, the threat of Wallace running an early-game fly pattern like the one he caught in the NFC Championship game win over the Panthers in January 2006, the threat of Wallace popping up in unlikely places, is more real: Maybe not now, but maybe deeper into the season, after Frye has become comfortable with Holmgren’s West Coast system.

Starting wideout D.J. Hackett is lost with a high ankle sprain suffered Sunday, which means punt returner Nate Burleson will start in Hackett’s stead.

Eventually Wallace could be a fifth receiver, a second punt returner and still the backup quarterback.

He has the potential to be here, there and everywhere.

It’s something else to think about in this lush beginning to another year.

On a normally quiet Tuesday, Ruskell made a couple of small moves that gave Atkins a chance to play and, maybe someday, Wallace a chance to run.

A kinetic franchise didn’t sit back and enjoy its opening-day win. It found a way to get just a little bit better.