It's one down, 15 to go for the Seattle Seahawks.
The NFC West champions entered the offseason with more available salary cap space than any other team in the league -- about $30 million -- but also with 16 players eligible for unrestricted free agency on March 2. That list included their three most important offensive players -- quarterback Matt Hasselbeck, tailback Shaun Alexander and left tackle Walter Jones. With their franchise-player tag available to be used on only one of those players, the Seahawks had plenty of work to do.
They're off to a good start, agreeing late Tuesday night to a seven-year contract extension with Jones. The deal apparently includes approximately $16 million in bonus money and is worth about $52.5 million overall.
Now the ideal scenario for the Seahawks is to lock up either Hasselbeck or Alexander with a long-term deal in the coming days. That would enable the club to use its franchise tag to retain the other, and keep the nucleus of its offense intact. The Seahawks seem further along in negotiations with Hasselbeck than with Alexander.
The problem would come if the team is unable to agree to a contract with either. Then the Seahawks would be forced to pick one as the franchise player, and would have to take their chances with the other on the open market. At this point, it appears that the club would be more likely to use the franchise tag on Hasselbeck if it must choose. The league-wide deadline for teams to designate franchise players comes Tuesday.
The decision-making process has been complicated for the Seahawks because they still haven't hired a new president of football operations to replace the fired Bob Whitsitt. They lost vice president of football operations Ted Thompson, who was hired as the Green Bay Packers' general manager, and college scouting director Scot McCloughan, who became the San Francisco 49ers' vice president of player personnel.
The Seahawks were rejected by New England Patriots' front-office chief Scott Pioli, who turned down a reported $3 million-a-year offer from Seattle to remain with the Super Bowl champions. The members of Seattle's search committee have had several conversations with Denver Broncos General Manager Ted Sundquist but continue to sort through their list of candidates and might conduct another round of interviews before making a choice.
In the meantime, the club brought aboard Mike Reinfeldt, a former Seahawks executive, as a front-office consultant to assist Coach Mike Holmgren and General Manager Bob Ferguson. Reinfeldt perhaps has boosted his candidacy for a more permanent job with the Jones signing, and probably would boost it further by managing to keep both Hasselbeck and Alexander in the fold.
Bruschi Hospitalized
Patriots linebacker Tedy Bruschi was hospitalized Wednesday after complaining of headaches. Bruschi was admitted to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. A Patriots spokesman said in a prepared statement Wednesday night that Bruschi was "in good condition and will be held for further evaluations."
Boston's WBZ-TV reported that Bruschi, 31, was suffering from stroke-like symptoms, including blurred vision and partial paralysis. There were other reports that Bruschi was taken to the hospital by ambulance and may have suffered a mild stroke but his condition was improving Wednesday night and a full recovery was possible. Patriots owner Robert Kraft reportedly visited Bruschi in the hospital.
Bruschi played in his first Pro Bowl last Sunday in Hawaii after helping the Patriots to defeat the Philadelphia Eagles in the Super Bowl a week before in Jacksonville, Fla.
Mid-March Labor Deal Possible
Participants in labor discussions between the league and the NFL Players Association say they won't have an agreement in place to extend their collective bargaining agreement by March 2, the start of the league's business year. But they are holding out hope that there could be an accord by mid-March, before the league's team owners are scheduled to meet in Hawaii.
The two sides are attempting to complete a deal to extend the labor agreement three years, through the 2011 season. The negotiations are more complicated than usual because the union is pushing for an overhaul of the sport's economic model, but the participants are encouraged that the league has agreed to consider including a broader scope of revenues in the pool of funds from which the players are compensated. . . .
The owners' finance committee is scheduled to meet March 9-10 in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., and will consider the proposed sale of the Minnesota Vikings from Red McCombs to Reggie Fowler for approximately $625 million.
If the finance committee can complete its deliberations quickly, it could make a recommendation regarding the transaction to the full ownership body by the March 20-24 owners' meeting in Maui. The deal requires the approval of at least 24 of the 32 owners. The full ownership body generally follows the recommendation of the finance committee.
But it seems unlikely that the matter will be resolved that quickly. There have been questions raised about whether Fowler has the personal wealth to be able to structure the deal to meet the league's stringent financing requirements.
It's unclear whether the issues raised Wednesday, when Fowler's representatives released revised biographical information about him after some elements of the version provided to reporters earlier in the week were disputed by the Minneapolis Star Tribune, will play any role in the approval process.
Fowler would be the first African-American majority owner of an NFL franchise if the deal is approved.
Brees To Be Tagged Today
The San Diego Chargers plan to place their franchise-player tag on quarterback Drew Brees today. It remains unclear whether the Chargers will make Brees their exclusive franchise player, which would keep him off the free-agent market altogether.
If the Chargers make Brees their franchise player but not their exclusive franchise player, he would receive a salary next season that would be locked in at $8.078 million, the current average of the five highest-paid quarterbacks in the league. Brees could negotiate with other teams and sign an offer sheet with another club if he chooses. But the Chargers would have the right to retain Brees by matching any offer sheet, or would receive two first-round draft choices from Brees's new team as compensation if they permit him to leave.
If Brees is made the exclusive franchise player, he would be prohibited from negotiating with other teams. But the $8.078 million figure for his salary next season could be adjusted upward in the coming months to reflect upcoming signings around the league.
Brees has expressed a preference for a long-term contract. But the Chargers have sufficient salary-cap space and might opt to keep Brees under the franchise-player deal for one season, rather than paying him a hefty signing bonus as part of a multi-year contract, before deciding in a year whether to retain Brees or prized young quarterback Philip Rivers for the long term. That way, the Chargers could try to be sure that Brees's highly successful 2004 season wasn't an aberration before making a long-term financial commitment to him.
There also is an outside possibility that the Chargers could trade Brees or Rivers. . . .
The Broncos appear close to agreeing to a restructured contract with Jake Plummer to keep the quarterback with the team. . . .
The Buffalo Bills' decision to release veteran quarterback Drew Bledsoe and make J.P. Losman their starter entering next season continues the recent NFL trend of clubs making quarterbacks drafted in the first round starters by their second pro seasons.
All four of the quarterbacks selected in the first round of the 2003 draft -- Cincinnati's Carson Palmer, Jacksonville's Byron Leftwich, Baltimore's Kyle Boller and Chicago's Rex Grossman -- entered last season as starters. The Bengals benched a veteran coming off a solid season, Jon Kitna, to give the job to Palmer, and the Jaguars traded Mark Brunell to solidify Leftwich's hold on the starting job.
Losman was the last of the three quarterbacks drafted in the first round last year, following Eli Manning and Rivers. Manning took over as the New York Giants' starter midway through this past season. Rivers is the exception to the rule, likely remaining stuck behind Brees entering next season.
Losman gets the starting job in Buffalo even after a rookie season in which he made no starts, played in only four games and threw only five passes. His progress was slowed by a broken leg suffered in training camp, and Bledsoe helped the Bills to a 9-7 record that nearly got them into the playoffs. But Bledsoe was only the NFL's 25th-ranked passer, and the Bills decided to move on.
"With the meeting time and the practice time, we felt like [Losman] got a lot accomplished without even stepping on the field," Coach Mike Mularkey said during Wednesday's news conference at which the moves were announced. "It's not risky at all. We have a lot of confidence in J.P."
The Bills say they're willing to live with Losman's mistakes and believe that his athleticism will allow Mularkey to diversify his offensive approach after having to be careful this past season to ensure that the immobile Bledsoe had sufficient protection.
"We took a quarterback in the draft last year," said Tom Donahoe, the Bills' president and general manager. "We like him a lot, and we have to find opportunities to play him. . . . Knowing Mike and what he wants to do offensively, it's a lot more varied than what we were able to do this year."
Bledsoe questioned the move, telling reporters in a conference call that he was upset about it and didn't agree with the Bills' reasoning. But Mularkey said he's confident that his players will accept the move eventually, if not immediately, and confident that they will accept Losman as their new offensive leader.
"He was a leader when he had chances in the preseason and during practices," Mularkey said. "Obviously he has a strong arm. He has running ability. He had a good pocket presence. With the addition of some more time and some more coaching, we're going to try to scratch the surface of his ability. . . . I don't think it will be a huge distraction. I think the guys understand the direction we're going and that it's our best chance to take a step forward. They'll see it in time, the ones that don't now. . . . This has been an ongoing process -- what would be the right time [for the switch]?"
Mularkey and Donahoe were careful not to get into a public war of words with Bledsoe, going out of their way to praise him and saying they weren't blaming him for the team's offensive shortcomings.
"This doesn't just speak to Drew Bledsoe," Donahoe said. "This speaks to our offense. Our offense isn't good enough. . . . Our defense is, we feel, playoff-caliber. Our special teams ended up ranked first in the league. If we're going to take that next step, we need to get better on that side of the ball." . . .
St. Louis Rams Coach Mike Martz told reporters Wednesday that Steven Jackson will be the team's starting tailback, ahead of Marshall Faulk, next season as a second-year pro. Martz also indicated that Jeff Smoker, a sixth-round draft pick last year, will be the club's backup quarterback next season, behind Marc Bulger. . . .
Houston Texans defensive line coach Todd Grantham likely will decide today or Friday whether he will become the defensive coordinator in Miami or Cleveland. He apparently can have either job, and seems to be leaning toward the Browns. The Dolphins and Browns pursued Patriots defensive backs coach Eric Mangini, but he chose to remain in New England as defensive coordinator.
