Lofa Tatupu has a decision to make, according to reports, and it could end his time in a Seattle Seahawks uniform. After bursting onto the scene early in his career, Tatupu earned high accolades and the contract to go along with them. But since signing an extension with the Seahawks, he's fallen off significantly as his body succumbs to injuries, leavikng the front office with an overpaid and underperforming linebacker in the middle of a rebuilding process. You can probably tell where this is going.
Tatupu has reportedly been asked to restructure his contract as training camp gets underway, and if he decides not to, he may be on his way out. And it may come soon.
Well, there is a certain degree of uncertainty about his future with the team, and the reality is that he has been asked to adjust his contract.
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If he does not accept a reduction in salary, it presumably could lead to his release.
While the rest of the players under contract have been a practice and in training camp, Tatupu has been conspicuously absent. Mysterious reasons have been given for his absences, but the prevailing sentiment has been that Tatupu is being held out as the team decides what to do next while working with him to restructure his contract.
If Tatupu were to agree, he'd take a significant pay-cut. At present, the veteran middle linebacker is under contract until 2015, the product of a six-year, $42 million extension signed in 2008. But with multiple holes to fill on both sides of the ball, and a large rebuilding process to go along with them, the Seahawks need all the cap room they can find. Tatupu, unfortunately, may end up being a casualty of the process as the Seahawks try to get younger while building to the future.
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