With Chris Clemons recovering from a knee injury, second-year player Bruce Irvin was supposed to take over the position, backed up by 8 sacks during his rookie season. Now, the Seattle Seahawks signing both Cliff Avril and Michael Bennett and overloading the pass-rushing situation, as Irvin became another player in a long list of Seahawks members suspended under terms of the performance-enhancing drug policy.

Since 2011, John Moffitt, Allen Barbre, Winston Guy and Brandon Browner have been caught and suspended for PEDs. Richard Sherman won an appeal last season and avoided suspension, but was cited under the mentioned policy.

I am extremely disappointed in the poor judgment I showed and take full responsibility for my actions. I will not appeal the discipline and instead will focus my energy on preparing for the season so I can begin earning your trust and respect again. I look forward to contributing to the team the moment I return.

The usual routine. Apologize, and hope it blows over. But Irvin is suggesting there might actually be a drug problem in Seattle, although it might suggest that the league should look again at its whole policy with Adderall, a psychostimulant sometimes used to treat attention-deficit disorders. Reports linked Moffitt, Browner and Sherman to Adderall. As Mofitt himself said: I don’t think guys realize because it is a medication also. There’s a lot of cases where guys already had prescriptions, but not through the league. It’s just a really weird thing. It’s not like steroids.

With Irvin now suspended for the first four games (although it does mean he can practice with the team and play in the preseason games), the Seahawks have lost their two projected starters at defensive end, and will be looking to work on schemes that incorporate both Bennett (arrived from Tampa Bay) and Cliff Avril (arrived from the Lions) as the starting pass-rushers around the edge, making the decisions to overload the team with defensive ends a little more smarter now.