Gregg Rosenthal of ProFootballTalk.com was one of the first people to ask the question.

Is there any chance the Seahawks are going to cut T.J. Houshmandzadeh, he wondered during Seattle's first exhibition game?

The numbers didn't seem to point in that direction. Not the 79 passes Houshmandzadeh caught last season, not the 373 receptions over the previous four years and certainly not the $7 million Seattle was contractually obligated to pay him even if cut him.

The second time the topic came up was during a radio-show appearance on 710 ESPN Seattle when Mike Salk pointed out that just looking at the numbers on the roster, it didn't seem like Seattle would keep both Houshmandzadeh and Deion Branch.

Nope. It didn't add up that way. Not since coach Pete Carroll had repeatedly expressed his belief in Branch, and then there was the fact that Houshmandzadeh was owed $7 million even if Seattle cut him. At that point, it was a sunk cost and the question wasn't whether Houshmandzadeh was worth $7 million, but whether Houshmandzadeh was better than the receiver you were going to keep instead of him like Ben Obomanu or Ruvell Martin.

Now, five days after Brock Huard expressed his belief that Houshmandzadeh's future was in doubt, it truly, truly is. In fact, it seems like they've reached the point of now return not only with the report that Seattle is seeking trade offers, but the fact Houshmandzadeh knew of that fact before the report.

It's a thorny situation, and a resolution that sees Houshmandzadeh playing for the Seahawks this season is becoming increasingly unlikely.

Houshmandzadeh, 32, already was targeted the most of any Seahawk receiver last season, and led the team in receptions. He was signed to a contract befitting a No. 1 receiver though his production has mainly come in the middle of the field and between the 20-yard lines, not inside of them.

He is a tough, tough player with a knack for winning one-on-one balls in traffic.

Instead of increasing his second season, Houshmandzadeh's role is clearly diminishing. The emergence of Mike Williams on the outside, and the coaches' continuing commitment to Branch will cut into his opportunities.

So what happens now? It seems hard to believe Seattle is going to find someone willing to cough up anything for the right to pay $7 million when it has become pretty clear the Seahawks are looking to unload him.

And if Seattle can't find someone to take him off its hands, does it bring him back and hope to keep the peace with a player who is not only going to have a lesser role, but knows the Seahawks put him on the corner with a sign that said, 'Take me' hanging around his neck?

It's hard to believe that just two years after Seattle went through a rash of wide-receiver injuries that was downright biblical in number that the Seahawks would be looking for a way to dump a receiver who caught 373 passes over the previous four seasons.

This isn't just a proven player. He's a proven producer, and Seattle is putting a lot of faith in Williams' staying power as well as the emergence of two shorter receivers in Deon Butler and Golden Tate to believe they're better off without Houshmandzadeh.

Competition has been cited incessantly since Carroll took over, and there is no better competitor than T.J. Houshmandzadeh. It's how he got to this point, someone who didn't graduate from high school, but instead earned his GED, proceeded to community college before playing his way to stardom after entering the NFL through the back door of the seventh round.

Last year, I asked Houshmandzadeh about his "Welcome to the NFL" moment, and he thought for a second before saying it was his first minicamp when he realized he was the best receiver out there.

It's a glimpse of the self-belief that has carried him this far. Of course, that may also be the reason Seattle worries that he wouldn't suffer silently if the coaches decide he is not the best receiver on the team.

So now that all that dirty laundry is there flapping in the breeze, the question is whether Seattle attempts to clean the situation or simply cuts the cord the clothes are hanging from.