Seymour traded to the Raiders

This is a stunner. The Oakland Raiders have traded their 2011 first-round pick to the New England Patriots in exchange for five-time Pro Bowler Richard Seymour. Something ain’t right here and once again, we have no idea what the Raiders are doing.

If Richard Seymour really was at the elite level with a bunch of great years ahead of him, would Belichick really hand him over? We guess it’s possible that he either didn’t think he could sign both Seymour and Vince Wolfork in the coming years, or maybe he didn’t want to. Sometimes guys are at that “well yeah you are really good now but I’d really rather not be the one to give you that next contract” stage of their career.

“From nearly the day he arrived in 2001, Richard Seymour established himself as one of our premier players for nearly a decade,” Patriots coach Bill Belichick said Sunday. “His presence has been felt as a force on the field, a respected man off it and a multiyear champion.”

“Any transaction we make is with the goal of what is best for our team and, as difficult as it is to part ways with a player of Richard’s stature, many factors were taken into account when we considered this trade,” Belichick said.

“As an organization, we feel the trade with Oakland brings sufficient value and is in the long-term interest of the club,” he added. “We are extremely grateful for the huge impact Richard’s elite level of performance had on our success and we wish him the very best during the rest of his career.”

In other words, “there is a huge chance that it will be the #1-overall pick as we continue to watch JaMarcus Russell take huge, wet dumps on the field and call it playing football.”