Jeron Johnson, Lemuel Jeanpierre sign contract extensions

The Seahawks have signed C Lemuel Jeanpierre and S Jeron Johnson to one-year contract extensions, the team announced.

Both were restricted free agents, and Johnson had been tendered at a 2nd round level earlier this week, but apparently each player was able to reach an agreement with the team for one-year extensions. Ostensibly (I'm guessing), these deals will include some guaranteed money. RFA tenders are not guaranteed, so the motivation players may feel is to sign a lower-grossing deal now with some guaranteed money rather than risk getting cut later and getting nothing (perhaps looking at what happened with Clinton McDonald last year: he signed his RFA tender but was then released at roster cutdowns and not signed by any team until the Seahawks re-signed him after a few weeks).

Update: Johnson's deal is what his tender was worth -- one-year, $2.187M. It's unclear if any of that is guaranteed.

Jeanpierre has seen a decent amount of meaningful snaps over the past few years as Max Unger's primary backup, and he also has seen some snaps at the guard position. He's a core special teams player (he operates in the wedge on kickoff returns) and his value to the Seahawks is that he's an experienced backup center and guard.

Johnson was hurt most of the 2013 season and was placed on the IR in December, but he's another experienced backup and special teams player. The Seahawks are thin at safety past Kam Chancellor and Earl Thomas with Chris Maragos hitting free agency, so Seattle likely sees Johnson as a nice hedge against missing on any depth there in the draft.

Doug Baldwin is the Seahawks' sole remaining RFA. He's unlikely to sign an extension right now (he may in the coming weeks though, depending on whether the Seahawks seek to lock him up longer term).