| A.J. Smith Says Chargers "Fell Into" Trading Charlie Whitehurst | | |
Charlie Whitehurst was the little-known and even lesser thought of No. 3 quarterback in San Diego, behind starter Philip Rivers and backup Billy Volek, and four years into his NFL career, he's still waiting to throw his first regular-season pass. But that didn't stop the Seahawks and Cardinals from getting into a bidding war of sorts over him, a war Seattle wound up winning by swapping second-round picks with San Diego (the Bolts make an eye-opening jump from the 60th overall pick to the 40th) and sending the Chargers a third-rounder in 2011, then awarding the unproven ex-Clemson product a two-year, $8 million contract that includes another $2 million of incentives. Wanting to know more about Seattle's would-be savior, Don Banks of Sports Illustrated called Chargers general manager A.J. Smith on Thursday afternoon. "We just fell into it," Smith said of the trade talks that emerged after San Diego tendered Whitehurst, a restricted free agent, at a third-round level (his original draft slot). "We tendered a third, at a $1.1 million (salary) this year, [thinking] if he returns to us this year, we'll have the same rock and roll band again this season with Rivers, Volek and Whitehurst. But now here comes the activity, and it's between Arizona, which had a standard third-round pick, and Seattle. 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. I think they liked him in Clemson and they tracked him through college and in the preseason. They've done their research and made a judgment. They've looked at his intangibles, his background, where he's been trained, what kind of a guy he is, and what his study habits are. I think that's all positive. I think the only thing missing is the body of work as an NFL player."
Source: Sports Illustrated
| |
|
Linear Mode
