It sounds like the Chargers didn’t have to work hard to extract trade compensation from the Seahawks for Charlie Whitehurst.
“We just fell into it,” Chargers G.M. A.J. Smith told SI’s Don Banks. The Chargers tendered Whitehurst at a third-round level, happy if the third-stringer quarterback returned to the team.
“But now here comes the activity, and it’s between Arizona, which had a standard third-round pick, and Seattle,” Smith said. “But there’s a little bit of a twist because the Seahawks didn’t have a three. So I presented a package to them that I thought was attractive to us, and it’s accepted. They wanted the player. And that’s how it went down.”
Banks’ column is worth a fill read and gives the impression that Smith knows he got a great deal. It’s also clear the Seahawks like Whitehurst’s makeup more than any tape of so-so preseason efforts.
ESPN’s Mike Sando makes a great point that it sounds like the Seahawks did not want to risk losing Whitehurst by even sending a counter-offer.
They targeted their guy, and let the Chargers dictate the terms.
