In like Flynn

Seattle won the Matt Flynn sweepstakes.

The Seahawks signed the Green Bay backup to a 3-year contract for $26 million. This is good money for a career clipboard-clutcher with a total of two career starts under his belt.

By comparison, Tennessee signed Matt Hasselbeck in 2011 to a 3-year contract for $21 million. At the time, the former All-Pro had started 131 games--including a Super Bowl--and had played in three Pro Bowls. Of course, as Hasselbeck heads into the twilight of his career, Flynn's dawns with possible promise.

We'll find out. Signing an untested backup named Matt from Green Bay worked out well the first time, though there were growing pains early on.

If Tennessee manages to sign Peyton Manning and Hasselbeck becomes available, Seattle would be wise to scrap T-Jack and bring Matt home for some real depth at the quarterback position.

The good news is that the Seahawks are competing successfully in free agency, and the Great Collaborators grasped that the free agent market offered surer bets at quarterback than our draft position did.


I'm glad the Chargers grabbed Charlie Whitehurst. Denied an opportunity to compete for the starting job in Seattle, Jesus of Clemson can resurrect his career where it began, backing up Philip Rivers in San Diego.


Although I thought Seattle was misguided in its efforts to court Peyton Manning, it is sobering that the Canton-bound quarterback declined even to consider the Seahawks. It is humiliating that the Colts castoff spurned Paul Allen's plan on the tarmac in Denver.

The face-saving, feelgood explanation is to attribute his lack of interest to the weather in the Pacific Northwest. However, the reality is that Manning only entertains offers from teams he sees as viable contenders by virtue of their coaches and their rosters. Based on those criteria, the Seahawks didn't make the cut.


However, Seattle has made several good moves in free agency.

We achieved our most important priorities by retaining Red Bryant and locking down the Pro Bowl backfield of Marshawn Lynch and Michael Robinson.

By signing Breno Giacomini and Paul McQuistan, we preserved depth on the offensive line at bargain rates, making Robert Gallery expendable. If Russell Okung, James Carpenter and John Moffitt all rehabilitate successfully, then we'll have more starting-calibre linemen (Okung/McQuistan/Unger/Moffitt/Carpenter, plus Giacomini) than starting positions on the line, and that hasn't been true since the Super Bowl season of 2005 (Jones/Hutchinson/Tobeck/Gray/Locklear, plus Womack).


It's unfortunate that Gallery didn't offer to take a pay cut, because there's no such thing as too much depth on the O-Line.

I am reassured that we pursued Steve Hutchinson, though it is hard to blame him for signing with Tennessee. If playing with former Seahawks teammates was a consideration, then he's more likely to have that experience in Nashville than in Seattle. (At this point, no veteran of Super Bowl XL remains on Seattle's roster.)