Ashley Lelie Rumors

Denver is going to deal Ashley Lelie. He has basically made it impossible for them not to, but as Mike Shanahan said "no one is beating down the door to get him." Reporters are trying to figure out where he might end up, so anything that makes sense they will jump on. A story on Darrell Jackson not being back until the third preseason game hit the AP news wire, and it was not a coincidence that immediately after that we heard talk of Lelie coming to Seattle. The same thing happened when Thomas Jones reported late to minicamp in Chicago and Lelie for Jones rumors started.

Many times these rumors are just plausible situations, rather than anything substantive. It is basically like my discussion of Tim Rattay coming to the Seahawks, although that was based on some real events. Tim Rattay did give an interview saying the Seahawks wanted his phone number on draft day and Mike Kahn and others said his name had been thrown around by the Seahawks. With Lelie, any team with weak starting receivers or a potential injury problem to a starter are considered "in the running" for him.

As for my take on Lelie as a Seahawk, I think he would be a great fit with the team on the field. He is a good player and excels at getting deep, which opens things up underneath for everyone else. It would give the offense another dimension. Hackett provides some of this, but Lelie is much better even if he plays soft at times. Lelie is a great complimentary receiver - if he had gone to Carolina, I would have been very afraid of that offense because he could have stretched the field and opened up Steve Smith for those short and medium routes he turned into big gains last year.

However, Lelie is not happy with that role. He thinks he is a number one receiver, but he has not done enough on the field to justify that. I guess he thinks being drafted in the first round is all that it takes. He only had 42 catches for 770 yards with 1 TD last year. The only thing I hear about the Broncos right now is about Lelie and Shanahan is always answering questions about him. That would be Holmgren if he was in Seattle, and we do not need the distraction. Lelie also becomes a free agent next year, so anyone picking him up would need to address his contract immediately.

One thing I find oddly interesting is that Lelie and Javon Walker were working out together in Arizona even before Walker was acquired by Denver. Lelie and Walker were also drafted back-to-back in 2002 with the 19th and 20th picks. If I was Lelie, I would stick around in Denver one more year and fight for playing time by giving 100% effort all the time. Walker is coming back from surgery and Lelie knows the offense. Rod Smith will probably retire after this year, which would set up Denver with Lelie and his buddy Walker as the starting receivers for years to come with Jay Cutler as the quarterback of the future. He will not find a much better situation anywhere in the league, so we should expect to hear a lot of complaining from him wherever he ends up for years to come. Or maybe he will get traded and become the next Santana Moss, you never know.