The Seattle Seahawks are unlikely to make the NFL Playoffs this season, and they lack draft picks due to their trade with the New York Jets for Jamal Adams. With the NFL trade deadline about to come and go, we take a look at potential Seahawks trades that could happen.

It is hard for the Seahawks to admit defeat, but this season, they have to be honest about who—and where—they are: Buried several games behind the Arizona Cardinals and Los Angeles Rams in the NFC West. Seattle is not likely to make the postseason, and it has to consider the possibility that after another wasted season of Russell Wilson's career, the veteran quarterback will look around at everything he sees and declare that he has had enough.

The Seahawks could try to make a run at a postseason spot, but if they do, they would be acquiring assets with short-term value and ceding the future. They already lack 2022 NFL Draft picks due to the disastrous Adams deal, which has given them far less of a return on their investment than they hoped. They simply can't think that they can grab more short-term players in exchange for losing future leverage. They need to be sellers at the NFL trade deadline rather than buyers.

Here are two Seahawks trades that could happen before the NFL trade deadline.

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Seahawks Trade

LJ Collier

The Seahawks and general manager John Schneider have to square with reality and concede that they have whiffed on too many draft picks in recent years. One is LJ Collier, who made a few game-changing plays in his Seattle tenure (on late goal-line stands) but has been conspicuously inconsistent and unreliable over a longer run of time. His draft position required steady, every-game production, and the results have been nowhere close to that.

Collier is a bust, and the organization has to ship him for some draft picks in which it can compensate for this mistake. It's a drop-back-five-and-punt approach for a franchise that has to eat the bitter herbs of the miserable season and the lack of fulfillment it represents. It's not fun, but it's the responsible, mature move for general manager John Schneider and coach Pete Carroll.

Rashaad Penny

Speaking of admitting to mistakes, the Seahawks made an even worse pick than Collier when they took Penny—a running back—late in the first round of the 2018 NFL Draft. The reality of the modern NFL says that running backs can be found cheaply and that first round picks should very, very rarely—if ever—be used on running backs, given the injury-prone nature of the position. The New York Giants could tell you that story after taking Saquon Barkley.

The Seahawks need to punt with Penny, get some draft choices in exchange, and build back their stash of 2022 picks so that they earn chances to draft better players. The series of draft misses by Schneider and Carroll is a core reason the team has not been able to maintain the standard set by the Super Bowl teams of 2013 and 2014. This is elite competition, and no one in the war room—as an executive or coach—likes to admit a big mistake was made. Yet, when reality hits, the worst response is to ignore the facts. Seattle has to face facts on so many levels as a franchise. Shipping Penny is part of that necessary but painful process.

The Seahawks have to start fresh.