Just like a bad reality show, the NFL career of troubled yet talented wide receiver Terrell Owens seems to have taken another dramatic turn.
NFL teams are making their first round of cuts this week, and are required to slash rosters down, eventually getting to their regular season number of 53. These first round of cuts are typically the guys who were longshots to begin with and guys who most likely aren’t shocked when they get their visit from the Turk.
But for Owens, who’s played 15 seasons in the NFL, nothing is to be taken for granted. And per his Twitter feed today he’s announced that he is no longer a member of the Seattle Seahawks.
Owens has 1,078 career receptions for 15,934 yards and 98 touchdowns. These are amazing statistics and will almost certainly put him part of Hall of Fame discussions. But for now, his NFL career is once again over. Owens missed the entire 2011 season due to injury and lack of interest from any NFL teams. He found his way to the Allen Wranglers of the IFL, but his time there was short lived and ended on a tumultuous note. This was to be expected.
With Owens once again out of work, he will not have to put himself out there and hope a team is in dire need of a veteran wide out with diminishing skills and a tendency to draw in bad attention everywhere he goes. The odds of him making a team for this season, unless there is an injury situation seems unlikely.
My Take. Genius move by Seahawks coach Pete Carroll. He’s going to, at some point this season have a rookie quarterback in Russell Wilson starting and the last thing he needs is a guy like Owens in his ear every time he doesn’t get him the football. There might be a place for Owens in the league, on a team that has a strong veteran presence already in place, but that wasn’t with the Seahawks and I think it was a really smart move to let him go.
I wish Owens well, but if my team needs a wide out, I hope they would look elsewhere. The reward of what talent he has left will never outweigh the risk of all the other things he brings to the team and the Seahawks recognized this. But let me say this. If Owens had been better on the field, this would have been a harder decision by the Seahawks. He has had far too many drops this preseason for a player of his perceived caliber.
