'I’m sure it’ll be awkward': Seahawks welcome Lane back after failed trade

RENTON – Of COURSE it’s awkward.

A day after finding out he’d been packaged with two draft picks and sent to the Houston Texans for offensive tackle Duane Brown, Seattle Seahawks cornerback Jeremy Lane failed his physical and found himself still playing for the team that had traded him away.

It’s what they call a management challenge.

“I’m sure it’ll be awkward between him and some people,” fellow cornerback Richard Sherman said during a press conference at the VMAC on Wednesday. “He knows the teammates and the coaches don’t have much say-so. It’s the front office, and thankfully front-office guys don’t have to see him as much.”

To make the trade work, the Seahawks and Texans renegotiated the draft picks involved. The deal as originally designed would’ve sent Lane to Houston, as well as a fifth-round pick in 2018 and a second-round pick in 2019, in exchange for Brown. Instead, the Seahawks will send a third-round pick in 2018 and a second-round pick in 2019 to the Texans, and will get Brown and 2018 fifth-rounder in return.

“We’re lucky we’re getting him back,” Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said. “We’re better the way this turned out. We’re fortunate it turned out this way”

Does Carroll think it’ll be difficult mending fences? Spoiler alert: No, he does not.

“I think if we didn’t have longstanding serious relationships with our guys, I think things like this – maybe it could be an issue, I don’t know,” Carroll said. “I don’t see a problem at all.

“We tried to communicate on the way out as this happened, and then back on the way in as this was happening.”

Sherman said he thinks things will be fine.

“He’s a pro,” Sherman said. “At the end of the day, you know how much this is a business. And if you’ve been in this game long enough, you know this is a business and I think at the end of the day, he understands that. He’s always been a consummate professional, and I think he’ll approach this in the same way.

“I think it’ll be a blessing in disguise. He’ll be fine when he comes back.”