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Seattle Seahawks

Seahawks make no moves as trading deadline passes

The Seahawks have announced their plans for 2017 training camp. (Peter Haley / Tacoma News Tribune via AP)

SEATTLE – Any help for the Seahawks’ sagging offense for the rest of the season will have to come from within as Tuesday’s NFL trade deadline passed without Seattle making a move.

That was not necessarily a surprise as NFL trades are rarer than in other sports, and there had been no indications that the Seahawks were involved in anything serious talks with any other team.

Still, many around the league had wondered if the Seahawks might be tempted to make a run at two perennial Pro Bowl left tackles who had been rumored as potentially being available – Cleveland’s Joe Thomas and San Francisco’s Joe Staley.

Instead, the Seahawks, well, held the line, and will now go the rest of the season with the line that they have –one that makes less as a group than either Thomas or Staley make individually.

Standing pat means the Seahawks will go the rest of the season with a line that, according to OvertheCap.com, has a total salary cap charge this season of $8.7 million – almost $5 million less than the next team on the list, the Giants at $13.5 million. Thomas has a cap charge this year of $9.5 million and Staley $8.3 million.

Sunday, the Seahawks played with a line making barely more than $4 million combined as two of the team’s three-highest paid linemen didn’t see action on offense (J’Marcus Webb, $2.4 million, and Bradley Sowell, $1 million. Webb is resigned for now to a reserve role and Sowell missed the game with a sprained knee).

Making the most of any of the linemen who played Sunday was first-round pick guard Germain Ifedi ($1.5 million). The rest of Sunday’s line consisted of center Justin Britt ($942,00), guard Mark Glowinski ($611,000), right tackle Garry Gilliam ($604,000) and left tackle George Fant ($450,000) who got his first career start with Sowell out with a sprained knee.

Seattle ended up being especially young on the line this year due in part to losing a handful of veterans in free agency the last few years, including left tackle Russell Okung and right guard J.R. Sweezy following the 2015 season.

Before the season, general manager John Schneider said the Seahawks ended up with the lowest-paid line not as part of any grand plan to spend less on that position but simply due to a series of decisions regarding individual players.

Signing the likes of QB Russell Wilson and linebacker Bobby Wagner to significant extensions before the 2015 season, for instance, left little room left to re-sign the likes of Sweezy (who got five years and $32.5 million with Tampa Bay) and Okung (who got 5-year, $53 million deal with Denver, though with only one year and $5 million guaranteed) following the season.

We didn’t go into this thing saying, ‘We’re gonna financially scrimp on the (offensive) line or anything,’ ’’ Schneider said. “You have to (scrimp) somewhere and we’re not in the business of letting damn good football players leave.’’

The result of that, Schneider said, is that it “just happens to be’’ the offensive line where Seattle ended up being young and with most players still on inexpensive first contracts.

“Now we like the group,’’ Schneider said. “It just so happens it’s younger guys that people don’t necessarily know.”

But if anyone wondered if Seattle’s faith in the line had been shaken as the offense embarked on an uneven, at best, first seven games of the season, the trade deadline coming and going without a move would seem to indicate otherwise (or maybe the Browns and 49ers really didn’t want to move Thomas and Staley despite reports to the contrary).

Hopes for a big step forward rest largely on the continued progress and maturation of the players on the line – every starter Sunday is their first, second or third year in the NFL.

The Seahawks remain particularly high on the potential of rookies Ifedi and Fant. Ifedi has played just four games after suffering a high ankle sprain in the preseason while Fant – an undrafted free agent who is in his first full season playing left tackle at any level –got his first start Sunday.

Assessing Fant’s play on Monday, Carroll didn’t seem to rule out that he could hold on to the job even when Sowell returns, which could be by Monday’s game against the Bills but might also be another week or two.

“Once George got going and he settled in, he did well,’’ Carroll said. “He did some very good things. We were very pleased with his ability to be consistent throughout the game and do the right thing and make his calls and all that. So for his first game it was impressive. It gives us a chance to think of him as a guy that can compete and play there, so it was a successful game.’’

Ifedi, meanwhile, has rebound from what Carroll called “a hard game’’ against Atlanta two weeks ago to inspire confidence he can live up to the lofty praise heaped on him in the preseason.

“Germain played better (against the Saints),’’ Carroll said. “Again he did a nice, solid job for us.’’

Now to see if the jobs Ifedi and the rest of the current Seahawks – all now safe for the rest of the season – will be good enough.