If Doug Baldwin Retires...

Why the Seahawks would have a difficult time replacing the uniquely talented veteran receiver.

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On the Monday Morning NFL Podcast, Andy Benoit and Gary Gramling spent 90 minutes recapping the draft’s biggest headlines, including the Seahawks’ drafting two receivers and what it means if Doug Baldwin retires…

GARY: It’s interesting what the Seahawks did. They took DK Metcalf, who slipped to the end of the second round. And everyone says, Oh, he’s raw. Well, of course he’s raw. He was injured for a large part of his college career. Also, I don’t know how much the medicals played into his relative slip. And yes, my heart was completely broken when the Buffalo Bills did not get him because he would have been an utterly perfect fit in every way on the team, and the community, etc. But we can hope that those two get together one day like the end of any good rom-com.

But DK Metcalf is in Seattle, and he fits very well there. If there’s one thing he’s gonna be able to do it’s run past defenders, and Russell Wilson throws over the top, and that’s a very nice fit. They also took Gary Jennings in the fourth round, because we don’t know what Doug Baldwin is going to do next year.

ANDY: I think I know because I was told by someone close to Doug Baldwin he’s going to retire. That was what I heard, that was another combine piece of gossip this year. That’s big.

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GARY: I know they went without Baldwin for a bit last year. But what do they do? Does Tyler Lockett move into that slot role and do it that way? Maybe Gary Jennings is that guy, but he was on the board in the fourth round for a reason—I don’t know if he’s an immediate contributor.

ANDY: Baldwin was the consummate slot receiver, but he wasn’t just that. I guess maybe it's too soon to talk about him in the past tense because you never know, guys can change their mind. But Doug Baldwin has a lot of interests outside of football and he’s had a lot of injuries that have added up. I don’t know if money is important to him but I don’t think it’s as important as it would be to some people, that’s my guess. He doesn’t fit the profile of someone who will change their mind.

But let’s say he’s retired. If he’s going to retire I don’t think you find another Doug Baldwin very easily. You can. It’s just there aren’t many. He’s got such specific attributes in the slot, so much of it’s about body control tempo, which is kind of a variation of body control, shiftiness, quickness, lightness on your feet, deceptive in your movement—things that really you can’t measure, you can’t go plug him into a computer and have it give you a list of Doug Baldwin-type receivers out there. You’ve got to use your eyeballs a little bit on that one. They are out there. New England goes out of their way to find these type of guys. I’ve read that they do have actually some tests that they use to classify these receivers—they're highly specialized tests—and the test I guess can spit out the Amendola, Edelman, Wes Welker types. But you've got to be looking hard The Seahawks have every reason to look hard now. I don’t think Lockett’s the guy. Lockett is a unique talent as well, but he’s a different type of mover than Doug Baldwin.

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