The NFL's Monday deadline for franchised players to sign multiyear contracts before the season passed with the Seahawks and kicker Josh Brown unable to come to terms. That means Brown will play this season for $2.078 million, the amount of the franchise tender he signed a few months ago. The Seahawks and Brown's agent had hoped to get a long-term deal done but could not before the deadline. Negotiations must stop until early next offseason, at which time the Seahawks can choose to franchise Brown again or let him go to free agency if they feel they can't sign him. Since Brown has signed the tender, he is required to report to training camp when veterans are expected to be in Kirkland by July 28.

The fact nagged quarterback Matt Hasselbeck and his Seattle Seahawks teammates, and became a topic of conversation in team meetings. Why, for five straight seasons, had the losing team in the Super Bowl failed to make the playoffs the next year? "It didn't make sense to us," Hasselbeck recalled during his recent vacation on Nantucket. "Coach [Mike] Holmgren talked a lot about it, saying he didn't know why, or what it could possibly be, but his message was to make sure we weren't one of those teams. We felt like we were a team on the rise, not the decline. Our focus was, 'Let's beat this thing.' "