The ever-vigilant Brian McIntyre has spotted a contract extension for 26-year old OT Breno Giacomini in the NFLPA records. Giacomini was to hit the market, but is now signed through to 2013, with base salaries of $1.5 million in 2012 and $3 million in 2013.

Giacomini was a 5th-round pick by the Green Bay Packers back in 2008. The Seahawks plucked him off the Packers practice squad in September 2010, and while he did not play a game in the 2010 season, he was active for 15 games in 2011, starting 8 as a replacement for inexperienced and later injured rookie RT James Carpenter. He was a very adequate replacement as the season went on, and displayed a mean streak that is definitely desirable from a run-blocking right tackle.

With both Okung and Carpenter rehabbing this off-season, the risk always exists that we might have to shuffle around depth in the early parts of next season. Even if both return fully healthy, Giacomini provides valuable, experienced depth.

Contract details will become available later. Contracts are kind of hard to peg now. The per-team soft salary floor (no hard floor, remember that) starts next season, and the new CBA's rookie cap has shifted contracts so we should expect high-level backups/semi-starters like Giacomini to make much more than they would have under the last CBA.

With the Super Bowl now in the books, with all of us facing the specter of no real NFL football to be played for MONTHS!!, I turn to the calendar to remind me just how quickly this offseason will really go. Luckily for everyone, the NFL offseason schedule is pretty packed with interesting events, from free agency, the Combine, the Draft, OTAs, Training Camp, and finally the preseason.

Because it's a Monday and because you may be depressed to learn that there will be no NFL football games next weekend, I thought I'd run down some of the upcoming events so we can anticipate them with childlike joy.

February 20th, 2012 - Franchise Tag/Transition Tags can be applied to players.

This is the day that teams can begin applying the franchise tag to players they simply must not part with. Naturally, teams will attempt to negotiate with players they want around longer on longer term contracts, but I imagine some teams will use the tag to hold on to an aging, effective player for one more year or for guys that don't want to stick around.

Regardless, in the Seahawks' case, Marshawn Lynch and Red Bryant are the two more likely candidates, though I doubt that Bryant will considered all that heavily with the amount of cheddar those defensive ends make with the franchise tag ($10- $11 milly for one year, per Brian McIntyre). If the Hawks decide to franchise Marshawn Lynch, which seems to be a distinct possibility considering his importance to this offense, he'd cost somewhere in the $7 - $8 million range (again, per Mac's Football Blog).

This is simply the first day that these tags can be applied, and it's likely that most teams will continue to negotiate with their players until the deadline. Which I'll tell you about later in this story so keep reading.

February 22nd - 28th, 2012 - The NFL Combine.

Underwear football! This is where we'll all obsess over measurables and 40 times and eagerly await scouting reports on how cut all these former college players are with no shirt on. In all honesty though, I'm really looking forward to the Combine and it's only a few short weeks away. Nice.

March 5th, 2012 - Deadline for Franchise Tags/Transition Tags.

This is the last day that teams can slap the Franchise Tag/Transition Tag on a player before they hit the open market as an official unrestricted free agent. If the Hawks are unable to reach agreements with their major free agents by March 5th, again - Marshawn Lynch, Red Bryant, Michael Robinson, David Hawthorne, to name a few - the franchise or transition tags may be used.

If the team doesn't wish to use the Franchise Tag on a player, they don't have to. If they want right of first refusal (matching ability) on a player, they may use the Transition Tag. In effect, this makes the player a restricted free agent, I believe.

March 8th, 2012 - Peyton Manning Roster Bonus Due (allegedly, though rumor has it this date can be moved by parties involved).

Because I know some of us are keeping the dream alive of Manning in a Seahawks uniform, this is, as of right now, the date in which the Colts must pay Manning or release/trade him.

March 13th, 2012, 1:00 PM PST - Free Agency starts.

March 25th - 28th, 2012 - NFL Owners meetings in Palm Beach, FL.

I'm not too sure what will be going on in these meetings but the movie Very Bad Things comes to mind.

Mid-April, 2012 - Team OTAs may commence.

Woooo! Offseason Team Activities (?) start! This is, I guess, a good way to see what kind of shape players are in, see how their injuries are healing, and to interview a lot of players on how their offseasons are going. Hopefully a lot of players will be around in Seattle and it will be interesting to see which players are the leaders at these things. Obviously, unlike last year, the coaching staff can be present, but it will be fun to keep an eye on which players emerge as leaders. It's all we got during the offseason, I'm sorry.

April 26th - 28th - The NFL Draft.

April 26 - First round of 2012 NFL Draft
April 27 - Second and third rounds of 2012 NFL Draft
April 28 - Rounds 4-7 of 2012 NFL Draft

The main event. What we've all been waiting for! This is a big year in the Draft for Seattle. The team looks poised to make some noise in 2012 and adding a few key contributors here would be huge. Obviously, the QB question might start to get answered in these three days, as will a few key positions like defensive end, linebacker, and possibly running back or wide receiver. Will be fun.

Late July, 2012 - Training Camp yo!

Training camp gives us a great opportunity to observe and analyze which younger players and draft picks may impress in the coming season. I know that Doug Baldwin was extremely impressive in training camp this year as an undrafted free agent and that won him a roster spot, then translated nicely to the regular season. With the emphasis that John Schneider puts on these undrafted free agent players and the frequency of which they stick with the team, I'm eagerly awaiting this time of year. Plus, training camp at the VMAC with Pete Carroll running your team, is a blast.

Late August, 2012 - It's preseason already!!

Really ugly football commence! See? It's a pretty short offseason guys. Teams will whittle their rosters down to 53. A very interesting time of year. It might start getting sunny in Seattle at about this time.

Most Valuable Player: Aaron Rodgers

Offense Player of the Year: Drew Brees

Defensive Player of the Year: Terrell Suggs

Offensive ROY: Cam Newton

Defensive ROY: Von Miller

Coach of the Year: Jim Harbaugh

Comeback Player of the Year: Matt Stafford

Safe, predictable choices all around. The MVP hasn't been announced yet. There's that whole "NFL Honors" show that's playing on NBC at 6, but as you can see, most of the winners have already leaked, so you probably won't waste your time. Then again, we only have about 24 hours of an NFL season left, so I'll take what I can get.

The offseason wouldn't be complete without a little uniform talk. Here we go. So, I've tried to keep the serious rumor mongering to a minimum here at Field Gulls (I'm all about sarcastic rumor mongering, mind you - which is kind of what follows) but I do want to bring up something that I found interesting. And sickening.

Ok, so first - Danny O'Neil wrote this today - concerning the forthcoming uniform changes that we've all talked about following a Peter McCloughan interview on Softy's KJR show last year.

But - there's one little detail that corroborates an interaction I had as well. Per O'Neil:

What we know: Nike becomes the NFL uniform supplier in 2012, taking over for Reebok. The expectation is the Seahawks will be getting new uniforms.

What we don't know: What those uniforms look like. There are a number of drawings on the InterGoogle, but those aren't official nor are they believed to be close to the actual model.

What we've heard: A little birdie gave out a few hints the helmets will be darker, and there will be some feather trim. The helmets are not expected to go back to being silver. But as McLoughlin indicated, it's not going to be a massive overhaul.

Now, backtrack about a month and I'm just shooting the breeze on Twitter, talking about Oregon's badass metallic silver helmets from the Rose Bowl and how it might be kind of cool if the Hawks did something like that next year (a play on their old silver helmets, not exactly how Oregon did it).

But, BUT, BUUUUUUUUT - I stipulated that I would not enjoy any of the Oregon feathers, obviously.

To which Seattle Seahawk Malcolm Smith replied:

@FieldGulls haha uh oh. You might be upset I hear.

— Malcolm Smith (@MalcSmitty) January 4, 2012

Taking these two clues into account - the likelihood for feather accents or 'trim' as O'Neil put it, on the Seahawks' uniforms in 2012 just went up a little bit. Yeesh. Crestfallen.

Now, this is all random hearsay and twitter banter so I'm not putting too much stock in it. It's why I never mentioned this interaction with Smith before, but now that Danny O'Neil is 'hearing' this as well, I've become worried. I mean - would Pete Carroll really allow an Oregon copycat job with feather accents?? SAY IT AIN'T SO PETE!!

If you can't tell, I don't like the Oregon feather action on their uniforms. I think it's dumb. Either way - consider this my irresponsible rumor mongering of the day. Thoughts?

This is a report from F.I.R.S.T. Fieldgulls Investigative Report, Special Teams

Hours and hours of an average NFL fan's time is spent arguing and debating the merits of the Pro Bowl roster. From Tim Tebow to Brandon Browner, fans want to see their teams make the NFL "All Star" roster as recognition for their hard work. And by see I mean, read a news report. And by hard work I mean, play for the Packers.

However, none of those fans will ever actually watch the Pro Bowl.

You may hear a fan claim to have seen it, or perhaps even claim to have gone to Hawaii to watch the game, but according to my sources: they are all either lying or confused. Because the Pro Bowl has never been played.

Remember that one Pro Bowl that was played? No? Well, do you remember that really famous Pro Bowl play? You don't?

Nobody does. My source, an NFL executive that has asked me to hide his or her identity (it's a guy though) told me that they normally send ESPN highlights from anonymous regular season games like Browns versus Jaguars and that nobody really notices. Said a producer for SportsCenter: "Yeah, the NFL sends us Pro Bowl highlights I think. We've never really shown them or looked at them. Normally we'll just have Chris Berman or someone say "The Pro Bowl happened today" and then move on."

For years, the NFL would send players to Hawaii (specially selected because of it's remoteness, distance from the continental U.S., and full of distractions for any fan that might have actually decided to go to the game) and then tell them to just hang out, have fun, take a vacation. At some point during the vacation, players would pose in "Pro Bowl gear" for promotional pictures and then actors would put helmets on and take the "game shots" just in case anyone came around asking.

Except nobody really ever did.

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Free agent QB Matt Flynn seems to be a lightning rod when it comes to sparking conversation among not only Seahawks faithful, but all NFL fans these days. It's no surprise, given the number of teams reportedly seeking a QB this offseason, that a player like Flynn conjures up such strong opinions and generates so much discussion.

Earlier in the week, I tweeted that the Seattle Seahawks had no interest in pursuing Matt Flynn. That news received mixed reaction. Some 12's were delighted by it. Others were disappointed that the front office is in some way missing the boat on Flynn. And then there were the skeptics. "How do you know? I'm not buying it. Why isn't anyone else reporting this?", etc. That can be expected.

Now, Thursday, Green Bay Packers QB Aaron Rodgers went on ESPN Radio in Milwaukee and said, among other things, this about Flynn's potential landing spot:

So, I think you have to look at Miami obviously, Seattle. John Schneider knows Matt and he's pulling some strings up there with them.

I was immediately bombarded with tweets by 12's addressing this contradicting report. So, I wanted elaborate a little bit on the info I received, and also talk a little bit about the how the NFL media rumor mill works for those who aren't familiar with things "behind the curtain", because it's not something written about too often.

I'm not writing this to be pretentious or to stroke my own ego, so hopefully that's not the impression you get. Danny, Davis, and those around here who know me personally, will tell you how far that is from the truth. But if you're interested in this whole Matt Flynn situation you can read more after the jump.

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The St. Louis Rams have announced that Jeff Fisher is going to be the next head coach of the franchise and to my knowledge, they don't even have a GM yet.

Maybe that's part of what appealed to Fisher about joining. Maybe it was having the still best QB in the conference. Maybe it's the fact that San Francisco, while the #2 seed, still appears to be less than a future dynasty. Maybe it's the appeal of the having the second pick in the draft.

There are many reasons why Fisher chose St. Louis over Miami, and why shouldn't there be? This is a huge difference for a coach that was already considered to be a modern coaching legend, despite his lack of championships and playoff appearances relative to years coached.

He spent 16 years in a division that basically coincided with the career of Peyton Manning, and he was not the guy coaching Manning. That's rarely a good thing.

Fisher is 53 years old and can probably coach for as long with the Rams as he did with the Titans and then call it a day, or he might just be here for a few years and move on, unable to turn the Rams around from a bottom-feeding team in most of the last five seasons. Either way, the NFC West just got a little bit more interesting with this new edition. It's certainly a lot more interesting name than Steve Spagnuolo ever was. And that's nothing against Spags, it's just, he's not a name like Fisher.

I wonder how those interviews went.

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The Seahawks signed two more players to futures contracts, according to Twitter anyway, adding WR Charly Martin and RB Tyrell Sutton (ref here, here). Sutton was a UDFA out of Northwestern that (gasp) the Packers signed in 2009 in rookie free agency. He didn't make the 53 man roster there, and though the Packers intended to add him to their practice squad, he was claimed by the Carolina Panthers off waivers.

Sutton is actually a pretty intriguing prospect that Chris mentioned as a possible candidate to be signed at the beginning of this season during 2011 roster cut downs. Chris eloquently put it this way:

"Tyrell Sutton (RB) - The Panthers just cut him. So what? Well, they shouldn't have. He's good. Sutton is like a bizarre hybrid of Justin Forsett (5'8") and Marshawn Lynch (230 lbs). He has surprisingly good hands out of the backfield, and is a perfect zone running back -- one cut and go, all the way." (By the way, I wish that guy would write more around here.... just saying).

Here's what Sutton's NFLDraftScout/CBSSports profile from 2009 says about him:

Positives:

Very tough, productive back when healthy. Low center of gravity, bouncing and spinning off tacklers to maintain his balance. Runs tougher than you'd expect for his size, lowering his pads or shoulder and churning his legs between the tackles and making extra yardage after the catch.

Aggressive blocker who likes to hit blitzers and twisting defensive ends with a shoulder. Excellent receiver, looks natural catching the ball out of the backfield on screens, wheel, jerk and circle routes.

Negatives:

Has improved his overall build over the years but is still a bit undersized. Usually runs out of a spread offense but showed he can follow a fullback on occasion. More quick than fast, Sutton does not have breakaway speed in the open field. Lacks great foot speed, and takes time to change direction or make a cut. Not a short-yardage back.

Whiffs on blocks in the backfield and does not have the size and strength to sustain. His cut blocks in pass protection are not very effective. Durability in question after missing significant time the past two seasons, although he showed toughness returning for (and playing well in) the 2008 Alamo Bowl.

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