KIRKLAND — The Seattle Seahawks have signed former Pro Bowl kicker Olindo Mare to a two-year contract to likely replace departed free agent Josh Brown.
Agent Drew Rosenhaus confirmed the length of the deal in an e-mail on Thursday evening. He declined to comment on terms.
Mare spent 10 years with Miami and is the Dolphins’ all-time leader in field goals (245), scoring (1,048 points) and field-goal accuracy (.809). He was 10-for-17 on field goals for the New Orleans Saints last season.
Brown, a key to the Seahawks’ four consecutive NFC West championships, signed a $14.2 million, five-year contract with the rival St. Louis Rams last month.
Mare has some large kicking shoes to fill in Seattle.
Brown set a career high with 127 points last season, sixth most in the league, and made an even 80 percent of his field goal attempts (116-for-145) in five seasons. He was especially accurate in the clutch and from long range.
The Seahawks thought Brown was valuable enough to offer a contract worth $14 million, but for what Brown said was more years and with more back-loaded money that was not guaranteed. Last year, the Seahawks cherished him so much they used their franchise-player designation on him.
Mare, who also considered signing with the Denver Broncos this week, has six 100-point seasons. In his Pro Bowl season of 1999, he had a career-high 144 points and set a then-NFL record with 39 field goals.
Mare has played in 168 career games and made 255 of 320 field goals (.797), with a career long of 54 yards. He missed the final three games of last season with the Saints after injuring his leg making a tackle on a kickoff.
Even though he is proven, the 34-year-old may have competition for Brown’s job.
On Wednesday, knowing Mare was due to Seahawks team headquarters for a visit, team president Tim Ruskell said Seattle was continuing to evaluate kickers available in next month’s draft.
“We like a lot of kickers in the college game,” Ruskell said. “I could foresee where we have a veteran and a rookie in training camp fighting it out. That would be the perfect world for us.”
Notes
TITANS: Tennessee offensive lineman Benji Olson announced his retirement, having lasted 10 years with just three interior linemen playing more games than Olson in that stretch. Just Casey Wiegmann, Alan Faneca and Chris Gray played more games between 1998 and 2007 than the former Washington Husky on the inside of the offensive line. Olson started 140 of the 152 games he played, not including nine playoff games, which ranks him fourth behind only Hall of Famer Bruce Matthews (296), Brad Hopkins (194) and Hall of Famer Mike Munchak (159) with this franchise. Nobody has started more games with Tennessee since 1999 than the 6-foot-4, 320-pound Olson. NFL: Former St. Louis defensive lineman Tyoka Jackson was ordered by a federal jury to pay a flight attendant $3,000 for pushing him on a plane, a tiny portion of the more than $1 million the attendant and his wife had sought. Jurors on Wednesday ordered Jackson to pay Northwest Airlines attendant Gary Rihn to cover medical expenses for the 2005 incident. Rihn had sought $250,000 in actual damages and $750,000 in punitive damages. Jurors denied the $200,000 sought by Rihn’s wife, who claimed her husband changed after the incident. Rihn claimed Jackson shoved him across an aisle and into another passenger over the proper stowing of a laptop bag. Jackson claimed he acted only after Rihn poked and prodded him.
PANTHERS: Carolina signed guard Toniu Fonoti, giving him another chance in the NFL after his weight soared to nearly 400 pounds. The former second-round pick was out of the league last year after being released by Atlanta before training camp. He played just six games in 2006 and three games a year earlier with Miami, Minnesota and San Diego. Fonoti is listed at 6-foot-4 and 350 pounds. He started 15 games as a rookie with San Diego in 2002. After spending the following season on injured reserve, Fonoti started all 16 games in 2004 for the Chargers. His weight soon ballooned and he has failed to become a full-time starter since.
CARDINALS: Linebacker Clark Haggans signed a one-year contract with Arizona. Financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed. Haggans, an unrestricted free agent, joined the Cardinals after eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers, who drafted him in 2000 out of Colorado State. He finished the 2007 season with 71 tackles (47 solos), three sacks, and one fumble recovery. Haggans lost his starting job to LaMarr Woodley last season.
TEXANS: Houston signed free-agent safety Nick Ferguson. Ferguson spent the past five seasons in Denver, where he started seven games last season and had 55 tackles. His best season came in 2005 when he had 79 tackles and five interceptions. He has 325 tackles and seven interceptions in his eight-year NFL career that began with the New York Jets.
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