KIRKLAND — A few hours before the official start of NFL free agency, Seattle Seahawks president Tim Ruskell said that he already has a pretty good idea of what his team will look like in the fall.
That vision includes veteran running back Shaun Alexander and franchise cornerback Marcus Trufant.
Ruskell said Thursday afternoon that the team has no plans to trade Trufant or release Alexander.
Their current salary figures — Trufant has a $9.465 million franchise tender awaiting his signature, while Alexander’s 2008 base salary is $4.475 million — would seriously hamper what the Seahawks can do in free agency. Yet Ruskell wants both players back with the team.
“Any move we make (in free agency), you almost have to make another move to make it work,” Ruskell said, referring to the need to cut a player or restructure a veteran’s contract in order to sign free agents under the Seahawks’ current salary cap situation. “I don’t like it. I’d like to be more flexible.”
Ruskell also said that Seattle’s two most high-profile free agents — kicker Josh Brown and wide receiver D.J. Hackett — were likely to test the market as the hours ticked down toward Thursday’s 9 p.m. deadline.
Brown’s agent has been in serious negotiations with the Seahawks, but Ruskell said Thursday afternoon that no deal was imminent.
“We’re still aggressively pursuing Josh, and we’ll work up to the 11th hour,” Ruskell said Thursday afternoon. “But we kind of have the feeling that he’s going to test the waters.”
Brown was the team’s franchise player last season, but the Seahawks have been unable to sign him to a long-term deal.
Hackett was also scheduled to become a free agent as of late last night. The 26-year-old wide receiver has been a playmaker when healthy, but he struggled with ankle injuries in 2007.
Ruskell’s focus heading into the free-agent signing period was to keep as many players as possible, including Brown and Hackett. The Seahawks aren’t expected to be quite the players they were in recent free-agent signing periods.
“We’ve done more in free agency than I thought we would,” Ruskell said, referring to big-name signings like Patrick Kerney and Julian Peterson that happened since he took over as team president in 2005. “It’s leveling out now. I really want to concentrate on signing our own (players) and keeping the continuity going. If you dip into the well too many times, you’re going to get burned.”
The most important free agent to keep is Trufant, which is why Ruskell has no plans to trade him — despite the high cap number. Ruskell would love to get Trufant under a long-term deal, but he admitted Thursday that the sides are far apart in terms of a contract.
“It’s more than a money deal; it’s a philosophical debate,” Ruskell said. “It’s a question of: who is in the elite class?”
Ruskell went on to say that the team does not regard Trufant as a “lockdown corner” like Denver star Champ Bailey or former Pro Bowler Deion Sanders. The Seahawks, Ruskell added, are willing to pay the Pro Bowl cornerback at the top of a list of players who “are very good and do everything well.”
Seattle isn’t ready to pay Trufant upwards of $10 million a year, which is the average salary that San Francisco gave cornerback Nate Clements last spring. But Ruskell said the Seahawks have expressed willingness to offer a deal in the neighborhood of Champ Bailey’s Denver contract, which was scheduled to pay him around $50 million over the first six years of the deal.
“We’ve been willing to offer up to Champ Bailey on the guy,” Ruskell said of Trufant. “But they (Trufant’s representatives) are in another hemisphere.”
Of the negotiations, Ruskell said: “Who will blink and go across the bridge? We’re both pretty staunch in our views.”
Alexander’s situation is far different in that the Seahawks already have him under a long-term deal. The 30-year-old running back struggled with injuries last season and was ineffective for most of the year.
But Ruskell said the team wants to see how a healthy Alexander — he had wrist surgery in January — performs behind a rebuilt offensive line that includes veteran Mike Wahle at guard and new position coach in Mike Solari.
The Seahawks could add another running back to the mix in free agency or the April draft, but for now the team is set on bringing Alexander back.
“We want to get the running game back to where it was,” Ruskell said. “We’ve got new coaches, we signed Mike Wahle, and we’re looking at everything. Nothing is set in stone. We want to make sure we turn over every rock.”
As for the start of free agency, Ruskell didn’t expect to make the quick splash that the Seahawks have made in recent years. And he’s also crossing his fingers that the core of the team can stay in tact.
“It’s anguishing because you hate to lose players,” he said. “But inevitably, it’s going to happen.”
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