Brian McIntyre on Seattle Seahawks contracts

The incomparable Brian McIntyre has done an extensive writeup over on TNT on the contracts of the Seahawks free agents and rookie additions. This includes a lot of contracts that were unknown until now, namely:

OG Robert Gallery: 3-year, $15 million with a $1 million signing bonus and $4 million guaranteed in the first year

DE Jimmy Wilkerson: 1-year, $1 million base with a $100,000 signing bonus.

LB Leroy Hill: 1-year, $685K in base salary, $100K guaranteed and $50K roster bonus per game.

CB Kelly Jennings: 1-year, $1.8 million in base salary, $200K signing bonus.

And by way of twitter, Brian McIntyre lets us know (here and here):

OL Tyler Polumbus: 1-year, $1.2 million (RFA tender)

FB Michael Robinson: 1-year, $1.35 million

S Atari Bigby: 1-year, $685K (vet minimum, like Hill)

LB David Vobora: 1-year, $600K

The highest UDFA signing bonuses went to Doug Baldwin ($17.5K), Jeron Johnson ($15K) and Pierre Allen ($10K). And Ricardo Lockette got $4.5K to sign. The new CBA stipulates all UDFAs get 3-year contracts with a per-team cap of $75K in signing bonuses (check the CBA for details like these), we spent $42.5K of that on the  three top players.

A few observations after the break...

Of Sidney Rice's five-year, $41 million contract, $23.5 million is in the first three years, with a $6 million signing bonus, with his base salaries guaranteed in 2011 ($2M) and 2012 ($4M) and against injury in 2013 ($3.5M of $8.5M guaranteed). The total of $15 million guaranteed compares well to Santonio Holmes' $24 million guaranteed.

Zach Miller is fairly but not exorbitantly expensive. His contract compares to Vernon Davis' extension in total money ($6.8 to $7 million), but not in guaranteed money ($2.6 to $3.8 million). People get distracted by total money but guaranteed is more important. Neither Rice nor Miller makes top-end guaranteed dollar by these numbers (earlier reported numbers put Rice at $18.5 million guaranteed and Miller at $17 million guaranteed), which is good for us.

Gallery is cheap in both, which makes sense because he's not outstandingly good. I guessed him at about $4-5 million prior to the FA period, and that's where he landed.

The Kelly Jennings contract tells us they're serious about him, and people dreaming about him being cut should probably stop doing so. He fulfills a very specific role on our team, one we have no one else for. Doesn't seem to be too much guaranteed in case we do need to cut him.

Alan Branch's contract is low for a starter but with an enormous chunk guaranteed. I still think we overpaid here, but it's a short contract and we didn't overpay to a crippling extent.

The rest is a string of signings at or near veteran minimum, most of them likely to be gone next season if not before. As you can tell, Bigby was brought in one a try-out contract, and probably does not possess any guarantees on his roster spot. He hasn't stood out, and needs to prove he's flexible enough to play multiple spots and special teams well to make the roster.

The UDFA signing bonuses indicate who the FO is most serious about. It's not surprise Doug Baldwin leads the way.