American Football: Shaun Alexander could be tagged, traded

Post-Intelligencer columnist Art Thiel thinks that the Seahawks could make Shaun Alexander their franchise player rather than Matt Hasselbeck. Tagging Alexander would make him easier to trade.

Franchising Alexander and his automatic one-year contract -- the average of the five top salaries at the position is $6.3 million -- would give the Seahawks the flexibility to keep him or trade him.

If he's to be dealt, the Seahawks would seem well served to hire one of the engineers of the last trade of a franchise player, which turned out to be the best deal in club history.

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Add Seattle Seahawks franchise halfback Shaun Alexander to join the competition for finding a trading partner in a tight, tough market for tradable running backs.

The Seahawks informed Alexander's agents Jim Steiner and Mark Heligman that they would be willing to take less than a first-rounder for their client.

source

ESPN

I'd have thought they could at least get a first-rounder for Alexander, he's shown he's capable of making big plays and has been pretty durable.

I'm almost ashamed to say this, but I think I'd prefer Alexander to Portis...

They're actually pretty similar backs. They're both exceptionally quick and have breakaway speed and can run between the tackles if needed. It appears as both had mediocre at best offensive lines to run behind last year, but I cant imagine any coach that wouldn't want either one of them in their backfield.

Which one of the two do you think is more selfish?