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Contractual obligations Unproven Hasselbeck likely to get lucrative extension
Part 3 of a four-part series By Jon A. Dolezar, CNNSI.com With the trade with Seattle complete, Matt Hasselbeck and his agent, Vann McElroy, expect the Seahawks to negotiate a long-term contract extension before this season. Hasselbeck has one year left on his contract, with a cap figure of $445,000 from his $395,000 base salary and a $50,000 roster bonus. He is eligible for restricted free agency following this season, but neither the team nor Hasselbeck want it to come to that. "We did talk contract before the trade," Hasselbeck said. "When I got to Seattle, Mike Holmgren gave me his word that he would get something done that would be fair. And I'm going to just trust what he says and just worry about football and I think everything should take care of itself." The Seahawks don't expect to begin serious negotiations until early this summer, once the draft is complete and the team holds its second offseason minicamp.
"We haven't exchanged any financial numbers at all," Seahawks senior vice president Mike Reinfeldt said. "With free agency and the draft going on, I think the feeling is that at the right time it's something that we'll take care of and address. I can't tell you what the right time is today, but I think as we go along, that will become evident. There is an advantage to do a longer-term deal, because the closer you get to restricted free agency, there's more risk for the team." More experienced quarterbacks such as Brad Johnson and Elvis Grbac signed five-year deals this offseason worth between $28 and $30 million. Perhaps the most analogous recent transaction was the Bills' acquisition of Rob Johnson from the Jaguars for first- and fourth-round picks in February 1998. Johnson had completed only 25 passes for 368 yards and two touchdowns in his three seasons behind Mark Brunell in Jacksonville, but signed a five-year, $25 million deal with Buffalo. Johnson also was an unproven 25-year-old, 6-foot-4 quarterback who was scheduled to make $400,000 at the time. The Bills rewarded him with a franchise-record $8 million signing bonus, but Johnson has thrown only 22 touchdowns in 22 games with Buffalo. "Matt has two years left on his deal [until unrestricted free agency]," Holmgren said. "But we're going to handle this correctly. He doesn't have to worry about his contract. He wants to buy a home in Seattle, and the prices of homes are a little bit more then they are in Green Bay, but right now he has to concentrate on his football. There are a lot of other things to think about besides football. That will be taken care of."
McElroy expects the Seahawks to reward Hasselbeck's vast potential when the two sides sit down to hammer out a deal later this summer. "They [the Seahawks] felt the criteria that they used was to find the best quarterback, not to go and get some sort of good deal," McElroy said. "They wanted the best quarterback because they need to win, and they felt Matthew was the best quarterback and he's their franchise guy. So obviously we are looking at any quarterback that a team has brought in to be that guy -- whether it was Tim Couch, whether it was Rob Johnson when he had his trade, or any of these quarterbacks that a team decided that he was the guy for their team. I think that's only fair to look at it that way."
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