Lynch’s agent discusses the deal and his client

Lynch on Super BowlDoug Hendrickson, the agent for Marshawn Lynch, said the running back never wanted to leave Seattle and has not mentioned retirement to him, and Seahawks general manager John Schneider pushed a contract extension hard starting the day after the Super Bowl.

Talking to KJR Radio about Lynch’s three-year, $31 million contract, Hendrickson said Lynch was Seattle’s first priority and Schneider called him the day after the Seahawks lost the Super Bowl — by not running Lynch at the goal line — and started talking about getting Lynch’s deal extended.

“They wanted to get it done, and they wanted to get it done fast,” Hendrickson said.

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Lynch deal overshadows the bad news

Lynch with the wry smileIt was a good news-bad news day for the Seahawks.

The release of Zach Miller and double dose of bad news from the Bears-Jets trade Friday was trumped by the great news that Marshawn Lynch is set to return for another season.

After various reports had him making $11 million for one year, $24 million for two years or $31 million for three years, it appears the latter is correct. He will get $12 million in 2015, up from his scheduled $7 million. His cap hit will remain the same, though, at $8.5 million, because he will get $4.5 million in salary and $7.5 million in a signing bonus (he had $1.5 million in bonus proration from his previous deal).

He is signed through 2017, if he chooses to return. He would make $9 million in 2016, counting $11.5 million. He would make $10 million in 2017, including a $3 million roster bonus, and count $12.5 million. If he retires after 2015, the Hawks would take a $5 million cap hit in dead money next year.

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What will Hawks do in free agency? Check out the last three years

John Schneider (via Fresh Files)Over the past three years, we have gotten a good idea of how John Schneider leads the Seahawks in free agency.

Outside of the big blockbuster deal for Percy Harvin in 2013, Schneider typically has moved at a measured pace in March — making as many roster deletions as additions and signing only mid-priced free agents.

It should be more of the same this month.

Schneider said it himself at the Combine last month: “We are going to keep doing things the way we started here: Just keep drafting people and playing young people and trying to keep the players that we can keep, try to identify the players that we have to reward and make those tough decisions about players that are under contract that you may have to let go to create some cap room. Those are just tough decisions as you go. We are not going to change anything we do.”

So what have they done the last three years?

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Hawks on the hunt for veteran corner

Hawks vs Packers MaxwellThe Seahawks apparently are willing to spend some money on a second starting cornerback this year.

It’s not a surprise considering their injuries and lack of depth at the position.

According to 710 ESPN, the Hawks are willing to pay Byron Maxwell up to $6.5 million — not that it will be enough, but it might indicate what they are willing to pay in general.

They reportedly are showing interest in veteran corners Cary Williams and Tramon Williams.

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Conspiracy talk aside, all signs point to Lynch returning

Lynch on Super Bowl

It has been exactly a month since the Super Bowl debacle, and we still don’t know for sure whether Marshawn Lynch will return in 2015 for his sixth season with the Seahawks.

But the signs all seem to indicate he will — even if he apparently thinks Pete Carroll and Darrell Bevell tried to sabotage Lynch’s MVP chances by not handing him the ball on the Seahawks’ final offensive play.

While in Istanbul for American Football Without Barriers, Lynch said he expected and wanted the ball on the final play but had no problem with the fact that he didn’t get it, even though he vaguely referenced the conspiracy theory that arose immediately after the game (probably started by him).

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CHAWK LINES -- Week in review

The Seahawks are already snooping around pre-released free agents. Ricky Jean Francois got everyone excited, but then he signed with Scot McCloughan — the man who drafted him in San Francisco.

There are a bunch of veteran defensive linemen already available, and we agree with Danny Kelly: The Seahawks are likely to explore that market closely.

Earl Thomas had his torn labrum repaired, and Tharold Simon apparently had shoulder surgery this week as well.

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Hawks need to ‘find a way’ to keep Mebane?

Brandon Mebane and Zach Miller (Seahawks.com)Brandon Mebane apparently is in danger of being cut.

On 710 ESPN, John Clayton said, “I think they’d like to find a way to be able to keep him.”

That’s both ominous and surprising.

It’s hard to imagine the Hawks parting with Mebane, especially with so few in-house options at nose tackle. He was playing some of his best football before suffering a torn hamstring in November and being place on injured reserve.

Mebane, 30, is slated to make $5.5 million in the final year of his deal. Clayton thinks he is in line for a pay cut like tight end Zach Miller took last year, when he reduced his 2014 pay from $6 million to $2.88 million and his 2015 pay from $5 million to $3 million.

Of course, the difference is: This is the final year of Mebane’s contract. So they either would be asking him to take a pure pay cut or they could extend his deal by a couple of years. The pay cut does not really make sense, but Clayton thinks the Hawks think so.

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Is Blackmon the solution to Hawks’ CB conundrum?

Will BlackmonThe solution to the Seahawks’ depth problem at cornerback might just have arrived — courtesy of former Seattle DC Gus Bradley.

Two years after the Hawks let cornerback Will Blackmon go and Bradley swept him up in Jacksonville, Bradley might have returned the favor Thursday by releasing Blackmon.

The Hawks are hurtin’ for certain at the position this offseason, with Jeremy Lane dealing with a broken wrist and torn ACL, Richard Sherman healing up a torn ligament in his elbow, Tharold Simon possibly facing shoulder surgery and Byron Maxwell poised to leave March 10 when some team (possibly Jacksonville) offers him a monster contract.

That leaves all of one guy healthy: Marcus Burley.

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The return games were pathetic, but free agents aren’t the answer

Bryan WaltersWithout a doubt, the worst part of the Seahawks last season was the return game — which is why many fans are taking notice every time a team cuts a return specialist these days.

In the last few days, Ted Ginn Jr., Jacoby Jones and Reggie Bush have been cut, but Seattle fans shouldn’t get too excited about any of them. The Hawks can do better.

They certainly need to.

In 2014, they ranked 30th in kickoff returns, at just 21 yards per attempt. And they were 25th on punts, at seven yards.

It was the most pathetic combined return performance by a Seattle team since the 2005 unit, which averaged 27.8 total yards behind kick returner Josh Scobey and punt returner Jimmy Williams and coincidentally also lost the Super Bowl.

You know you are horrible when (a) Bryan “Wave It Off” Walters is your best return guy, (b) it’s a victory just to hold on to the ball and (c) a touchback is typically your best kick return.

Continue reading The return games were pathetic, but free agents aren’t the answer

Bush/Carroll news is a good excuse to rip the NCAA one more time

Reggie Bush and Pete CarrollReggie Bush and Pete Carroll together again?

Don’t count on it. Bush, cut by the
Detroit Lions on Wednesday, is
going to be 30 in March, and the Hawks have no room for him in their backfield.

But the dual news surrounding the former USC duo (USC is giving Carroll an honorary degree in May) took us on a trip down memory lane — back to 2010, when Carroll came to Seattle and the NCAA’s good ol’ boys showed once again what a bunch of corrupt hypocrites they are.

One little sheep actually bleated for the Seahawks to fire Carroll in the wake of the NCAA’s vindictive and heavy-handed sanctions against USC. We laughed at that bozo, knowing the NCAA to be one of the most unethical organizations in America and any of its sycophants (like Mike Florio and Steve Sarkisian) to be mindless chuckleheads. We were too busy explaining why Carroll was not Dennis Erickson, despite the seeming similarities.

A few months later, we ripped the spineless fools — especially Sarkisian — who backed the farcical, two-faced, money-grubbing, oppressive establishment and blamed Bush for pulling back the curtain.

We were never USC fans, but the fact is Carroll, Bush and company dominated on the field like no other team in the 2000s. Carroll went 97-19, won two national titles and lost one he could have won.

The NCAA can do whatever it wants on paper (it vacated the 2004 title and all 12 wins in 2005), but it doesn’t change what really happened.

With two national titles and one Super Bowl title, Carroll has proven without a doubt that he is one of the great coaches of this era. (Just imagine if he had finished his two championship losses properly: five titles.)

And he clearly is a better human being than anyone who has ever been part of or supported the greedy, phony, spiteful, evil empire known as the NCAA.

USC obviously thinks so, or it wouldn’t be honoring him twice in two days in May. Good for USC.