It looks like free-agent corner Kelly Jennings will be back for another year with the Seahawks. Peter King reported last night that the Seahawks re-signed their former first round pick to a one-year deal. King notes that Jennings will re-test the free agency waters again next year.
I thought this move might happen. I detailed it in a post assessing the roster and though it comes as a bit of a surprise to me this late in the free agency period, it looks like the Hawks made him the best offer.
As I said earlier, Jennings has played here his entire career, played better in 2010 than in past years, and doesn't project to likely start if he goes elsewhere. It's unclear at the moment whether he returns to be a starter or if he'll be more of a depth guy for the Seahawks. If I had to interject my opinion, he's probably more valuable to the Hawks as a nickel and dime package player and because he wants to stay, I welcome the move. Ideally, I'd like to see a healthy Marcus Trufant as our #1 and Walter Thurmond as our #2 corner in 2011, but I still think that Jennings can have value in a more limited role. Everyone knows how much our secondary struggled last season and he didn't help, but Jennings is still very fast, decent in coverage, and is a reliable tackler when matched up against players around his size.
This might not be a popular move, but he's well-liked in the locker room and he's a hard worker so I don't necessarily think it's a bad idea. His ability to play the quicker and smaller slot guys could come in handy and he'd theoretically be more effective in the DB-heavy packages, in slot rather than on the outside against bigger, stronger opponents. This is all conjecture on my part- it's possible they see him as the presumptive starter again, which would worry me quite a bit - but I could see Jennings as a pretty good backup/rotational corner to come in and mark the quicker speed guys the Hawks face.