Seahawks Trade Percy Harvin To Jets

In a stunning development confirmed just a little while ago, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Percy Harvin was traded to the New York Jets for a conditional mid round pick in the 2015 draft:

The #Jets have traded for #Seahawks WR Percy Harvin, source confirms (as @JayGlazer reported). Compensation is conditional mid-rounder

— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) October 17, 2014

To say this came as a surprise is an understatement, and it makes me wonder that if Harvin can't play for two of the most player friendly coaches in the NFL in Leslie Frazier and Pete Carroll...how will he be able to fit in with Rex Ryan? And if Harvin wasn't happy in Seattle, where he won a Super Bowl and has one of the best young quarterbacks in the NFL throwing to him...how in the blue hell (as Fearless Leader would say) will he get along with Geno Smith and the talent wasteland that is the New York Jets offense? Yeah, Geno is an upgrade over Christian Ponder from his Minnesota days...but the Jets have literally nothing else in terms of offensive weapons, and a pretty bad offensive line.

And Geno's not all that much better than Ponder, so yeah. I just see this as another train wreck already in the making, but who knows, stranger things have happened.

So with Harvin now on the Jets, let's take on final look back on the trade that got this all started. In March of 2013, the Vikings sent the disgruntled but ridiculously talented Harvin to Seattle. In return the Vikings received Seattle's first and seventh round pick in the 2013 draft, and their third round pick in the 2014 draft.

So, who were the players the Vikings ended up with? With the first round pick from Seattle, Minnesota selected CB Xavier Rhodes. Rhodes is developing into a very good cornerback, and is one of the main reasons the Vikings pass defense has gone from last into the top 10. But realizing they needed a playmaker to try and replace Harvin, GM Rick Spielman made a trade with New England to get back into the bottom of the first round to get WR Cordarrelle Patterson. The cost for that trade was, essentially, a fourth and a seventh. Granted, the trade was for Minnesota's second, third, fourth, and seventh, but the Vikings already had a fourth round pick (which they used on Gerald Hodges), and they ended up having two third round picks in the 2014 draft. So while they didn't have a third rounder in 2013, there was no net loss, per se, of third round picks. They just had to wait a year to even the balance sheet out.

And with Seattle's third round pick in the 2014 draft, the Vikings used that to select Jerick McKinnon, who is now, for all intents and purposes, the Vikings starting running back. So, the Vikings get rid of Harvin, and gain Rhodes, spur another first round trade to get Patterson, and Jerick McKinnon.

And the Seahawks? Well, they won a Super Bowl, so it's hard to feel sorry for them or Harvin. But they did it largely without Harvin, and are talented enough to win it again without him. Still, when you look at the totality of this trade, this is a clear victory for the Vikings, and if/when the Vikings get back into contention, people will look back on this trade as the starting point that helped make the 2013 Draft possible.