Agamemnon wrote:

In a close call between tight ends coach Rob Boras and quarterbacks coach Frank Cignetti, coach Jeff Fisher has decided upon Cignetti as his new OC, while Boras will be promoted to assistant head coach/offense

Interesting. And, impossible to say what it means yet.

Winnbrad wrote:

So the Rams will run the same “system”, whatever that means, as last year?

Appears that way.

Now all we need is them to do so well on offense, both are offered head coaching jobs.

Need more birthdays.

Cause. Cake.

snowman wrote:

October 2nd. Kelly Ripa, Sting and I send each other cards and flowers.

zn, i don’t know when your birthday is…

Feb 20th.

You know what they say…beware the Ides of February.

wv wrote:

15 million means they cant
add two New excellent players

But again, though. Look at their roster. Where are the expensive free agents. They don’t use them.

wv wrote:

I don’t really understand how you can think there’s no contract penalty
when he’s been playing for less than a million and now he’ll be playing
for fifteen million. I mean, thats a fourteen million dollar
penalty they way i look at it. Thats fourteen million dollars
they would have been able to spend on other players and now they cant.
Maybe this is just semantics, i dunno.

w
v

Because they have the cap space in 2015 and 2016 to handle it, and only a couple of major guys (Okung, Mebane) coming up in 2016 but that’s it.

It may be more money than before for Wilson, but they planned around it.

The point is they’re not going to lose anyone.

Yes it’s also true they can’t add anyone in terms of FAs, but…go through their roster and name their FAs.

The next 2 years also means trades and/or draft picks, and they’re good at both, and both are cheap.

Agent’s Take: What Russell Wilson’s blockbuster deal will look like
By Joel Corry | Former Sports Agent

http://www.cbssports.com/nfl/eye-on-football/25005783/agents-take-what-russell-wilsons-blockbuster-deal-will-look-like

The Seattle Seahawks are prepared to make Russell Wilson the NFL’s highest paid player during the offseason, according to NFL Media’s Ian Rapoport, even if he isn’t the same caliber quarterback as Tom Brady, a healthy Peyton Manning or Aaron Rodgers.

Wilson was the NFL’s biggest bargain in 2014 with a salary of $662,434. After the Super Bowl, Wilson will enter the final year of a four-year, $2,996,774 rookie contract he received in 2012 as a third-round pick.

Joe Flacco forced the Baltimore Ravens to briefly make him the NFL’s highest paid player with a six-year, $120.6 million contract, including $51 million in guarantees, after capping off a stellar postseason in a contract year by being named Super Bowl XLVII MVP. Nobody was considering Flacco as an elite quarterback. Eli Manning was arguably a top 10 quarterback when the New York Giants made him the highest player in 2009 with a six-year, $97.5 million contract extension.

Wilson has just as many Super Bowl victories with better statistics and more accolades than Flacco and Manning had when they got their big deals. Wilson is the game’s best dual quarterback. Although Wilson doesn’t have the same type of offensive responsibility as elite quarterbacks and has the luxury of playing with NFL’s best defense, he is the first starting quarterback to ever make it to two Super Bowls in his first three NFL seasons.

Wilson’s most lucrative contract will likely come from letting Andrew Luck set a new NFL salary standard. According to ESPN’s Adam Schefter, a contract extension making Luck the NFL’s highest paid player is on the horizon. Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay and Luck have separately downplayed the notion of an extension since Schefter first broke the story. If the report is true, Luck could become the NFL’s first $25 million per year player with his new deal.

…

Seattle’s contract preferences and conventions

Seahawks contracts typically are structured where the guaranteed money consists of base salary guarantees and a signing bonus. Base salary guarantees after the first contract year are for injury only initially at signing in most instances but become fully guaranteed usually five days after the start of the waiver period in each specific year. The waiver period begins the day after the Super Bowl so the guarantee date this year is Feb. 7.

The second contract year was fully guaranteed at signing in some deals before 2013. Marshawn Lynch’s $7 million 2013 base salary was fully guaranteed when he signed his deal in 2012. Per game roster bonuses are starting to become more prevalent in Seattle’s contracts. Michael Bennett has $1 million and $1.5 million of per game roster bonuses in the 2016 and 2017 of the four year contract he signed in the offseason.

One dynamic that could have an impact on the structure of Wilson’s contract is his decision to fire Bus Cook as his agent, who negotiated Jay Cutler’s player friendly deal. Wilson has hired his baseball agent, Mark Rodgers, who doesn’t have any other NFL clients. The football agent community gets nervous anytime someone perceived as inexperienced is negotiating a lucrative contract, especially with a quarterback, because the likelihood of the player signing a team-friendly deal that could impact future negotiations in the marketplace seems greater.

The concern may be unwarranted with Rodgers. He negotiated an eight-year, $121 million deal for Mike Hampton in 2000 with the Colorado Rockies, which was the richest contract in baseball history at the time. Rodgers being used to fully guaranteed contracts with baseball could work to Wilson’s advantage instead. It could be necessary for the Seahawks to make structural concessions with Wilson, like the Green Bay Packers have with Aaron Rodgers. He is the only player on the Packers with a veteran deal that has guarantees after the first contract year.

Thomas and Sherman’s contracts should be the team’s most relevant deals to Wilson’s negotiations. Those are Seattle’s only contracts that set the marketplace at a position. Thomas’ $10 million average per year is 14.29 percent greater than the $8.75 million average of Jairus Byrd’s deal with the New Orleans Saints. Byrd preceded Thomas as the NFL’s highest paid safety.

Sherman’s contract, which averages $14 million per year, is 16.67 percent higher than the one year, $12 million deal Darrelle Revis signed last March with the New England Patriots to become the NFL’s highest paid cornerback. Technically, Revis signed a two-year, $32 million contract but it was designed to be a one year deal. Thomas and Sherman’s deals combined are 15.66 percent greater than the previous salary benchmarks at their respective positions. When this percentage difference is applied to Rodgers’ deal, it yields approximately a $25.5 million average per year for Wilson.

Thomas received $25.725 million in guarantees. His signing bonus was $ 9.5million so 36.93 percent of his guarantees are in that form. Thomas’ signing bonus was layered on top of the 2014 salary he was scheduled to make prior to his new deal.

Precisely $11 million of Sherman’s $40 million in guarantees was a signing bonus. Just over 27 percent of his guarantees are signing bonus. Sherman’s 2014 base salary remained the same as it was before the extension.

The percentage of Wilson’s guarantees as signing bonus should fall somewhere between Thomas and Sherman’s based on how these deals are structured.

Result

Objectively, the data suggests that a contract averaging in the $24 million per year neighborhood with $65 million in guarantees and slightly over $73 million in the first three new years is appropriate for Wilson. Seattle has preferred four-year deals or extensions in recent years. Cliff Avril, Bennett, Kam Chancellor, Lynch, Sherman, Thomas, Max Unger and K.J. Wright signed for this length of time. A five- or six-year extension may be in order for Wilson to mirror the length of most lucrative quarterback deals.

Thomas and Sherman’s structure suggests that Wilson should receive a $20 million to $25 million signing bonus. Wilson earned the fourth year “proven performance” escalator for third- through seventh-round picks under the 2011 Collective Bargaining Agreement’s rookie wage scale. His 2015 salary increases to the lowest restricted free agent tender since he hit the 35 percent offensive playtime mark in two of his first three seasons. If the 2015 salary cap is $142 million, the lowest restricted free agent tender will be $1.528 million. Wilson’s 2015 base salary will likely equal whatever the final number is because that would be consistent with their deals.

The effect on Seattle’s salary cap

Schneider acknowledged Jan. 27 at Super Bowl media day that a new Wilson pact would present roster challenges the team hasn’t faced before with Wilson under his rookie contract. Wilson’s 2015 cap number shouldn’t be more than $6.75 million with the new deal. The bigger impact will begin taking place in 2016 when Wilson starts having large cap numbers.

The deal won’t prevent the Seahawks from keeping Lynch in 2015 at his $8.5 million cap number. That’s because no more than $5 million of the team’s projected $18.618 million in cap space once the top 51 players are accounted for by including tenders for restricted free agents and exclusive rights players with expiring contracts should be used with Wilson. There should still be enough cap room to extend linebacker Bobby Wagner’s contract while retaining Lynch. Wagner’s deal shouldn’t take up more than $2.5 million of Seattle’s existing 2015 cap room based on how the team structures contracts.

Defensive tackle Brandon Mebane and tight end Zach Miller, who are on injured reserve, could be cap casualties. The Seahawks would gain $5.5 million cap space by releasing Mebane. $2,890,625 of cap room would be freed up by parting ways with Miller.

It may become more challenging to re-sign left tackle Russell Okung with Wilson’s new deal. 2015 is also his contract year. Although he hasn’t consistently played at a high level since his 2012 Pro Bowl season, he probably won’t be interested in a new contract that’s less the six-year, $48.5 million deal (with $29.3 million guaranteed and worth a maximum of $58 million) he signed in 2010 as an unproven commodity when he was the sixth overall pick in the Draft.

I was an American sniper, and Chris Kyle’s war was not my war

Don’t make the mistake of thinking the hit movie captures the truth of the Iraq conflict. I should know. I lived it

Garett Reppenhagen

http://www.salon.com/2015/02/01/i_was_an_american_sniper_and_chris_kyle%E2%80%99s_war_was_not_my_war/

I spent nights in Iraq lying prone and looking through a 12-power sniper scope. You only see a limited view between the reticles. That’s why it’s necessary to keep both eyes open. This way you have some ability to track targets and establish 360 degrees of awareness. I rotated with my spotter and an additional security team member to maintain vigilance and see the whole battlefield. I scrutinized every target in my scope to determine if they were a threat.

In a way, it’s an analogy for keeping the whole Iraq mission in perspective and fully understanding the experiences of the U.S. war fighters during Operation Iraqi Freedom. No single service member has the monopoly on the war narrative. It will change depending on where you serve, when you were there, what your role was, and a few thousand other random elements.

For the past 10 days, “American Sniper” has rallied crowds and broken box office records, but if you want to understand the war, the film is like peering into a sniper scope — it offers a very limited view.

The movie tells the story of Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, said to have 160 confirmed kills, which would make him the most lethal American military member in history. He first shared his story in a memoir, which became the basis for Clint Eastwood’s film adaptation. Kyle views the occupation of Iraq as necessary to stop terrorists from coming to the mainland and attacking the U.S.; he sees the Iraqis as “savages” and attacks any critical thought about the overall mission and the military’s ability to accomplish it.

This portrayal is not unrealistic. My unit had plenty of soldiers who thought like that. When you are sacrificing so much, it’s tempting to believe so strongly in the “noble cause,” a belief that gets hardened by the fatigue of multiple tours and whatever is going on at home. But viewing the war only through his eyes gives us too narrow a frame.

During my combat tour I never saw the Iraqis as “savages.” They were a friendly culture who believed in hospitality, and were sometimes positive to a fault. The people are proud of their history, education system and national identity. I have listened to children share old-soul wisdom, and I have watched adults laugh and play with the naiveté of schoolboys. I met some incredible Iraqis during and after my deployment, and it is shameful to know that the movie has furthered ignorance that might put them in danger.

Unlike Chris Kyle, who claimed his PTSD came from the inability to save more service members, most of the damage to my mental health was what I call “moral injury,” which is becoming a popular term in many veteran circles.

As a sniper I was not usually the victim of a traumatic event, but the perpetrator of violence and death. My actions in combat would have been more acceptable to me if I could cloak myself in the belief that the whole mission was for a greater good. Instead, I watched as the purpose of the mission slowly unraveled.

I served in Iraq from 2004 to 2005. During that time, we started to realize there were no weapons of mass destruction, the 9/11 commission report determined that Iraq was not involved in the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center, false sovereignty was given to Iraq by Paul Bremer, the atrocities at Abu Ghraib were exposed, and the Battle of Fallujah was waged.

The destruction I took part in suddenly intersected with news that our reasons for waging war were untrue. The despicable conduct of those at Abu Ghraib was made more unforgivable by the honorable interactions I had with Iraqi civilians, and, together, it fueled the post-traumatic stress I struggle with today.

My war was completely different than Chris Kyle’s war. That doesn’t mean his war is wrong, and mine was right. But it does mean that no one experience is definitive.

The movie depicts compounded action scenes with very little political and regional context. It was a conscious decision by Clint Eastwood, apparently, to leave out the cause of the U.S. invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq. It was a conscious decision, apparently, for multiple characters to describe the Iraqis as “savages” and never show any alternative. When I heard of the bigoted reaction some Americans had after watching the film, I was disgusted, but not surprised. Audience members are mistaking Chris Kyle’s view of the war as “the” story about the war. No wonder someone tweeted that the movie made them “want to go kill some ragheads.” It’s sad that such a nearsighted portrayal of Iraqis has caused more people to fear Arabs and glorify violence against them.

It would be refreshing if a big Hollywood movie would take on the task of creating a less dramatized, more nuanced version of warfare. There are some incredible documentaries on the subject. “Occupation: Dreamland” and “Restrepo” capture the life of a service member in a modern deployment without sugarcoating the hard political environment that is a backdrop to the conflicts.

The responsibility to make a picture that takes into account all of the political and social dynamics might not rest on any individual filmmaker. After all, it is just a movie. But that means the public should treat it like that, and educate themselves before jumping to a conclusion that the whole war was just like that. Especially if they support the democratic ideals that Chis Kyle, me and every veteran who put on a uniform swore an oath to defend with our lives.

If you really want to be a patriotic American, keep both eyes open and maintain 360 degrees of awareness. Don’t simply watch “American Sniper.” Read other sources, watch other films about the conflict. Talk to as many veterans as you can, get a full perspective on the war experience and the consequences. Ensure the perceived enemy in your vision is what it seems.

Mike Sando, ESPN.com @SandoESPN

5th time since ‘01 a tm down 4-8 pts had 2nd/GL from 1 w/20-40 sec left and 1 timeout. 2 ran and fell short. 2 threw TDs. SEA threw INT.

Mike Sando, ESPN.com @SandoESPN

#NFL teams this season threw 66 TD passes with 1 INT on passes from the 1-yard line. That 1 INT was … well … tonight.

Mike Sando, ESPN.com @SandoESPN

Dead horse alert: While I would have called RB run, #Seahawks since ’12 rank 31st in RB TD pct from 1YL at 37.5% (16 att, 0 yds, 6 TD)

Mike Sando, ESPN.com @SandoESPN

335 plays from 1 YL this season. 223 rushes (0.35 YPC with 129 TDs – includes 4 scrambles, all TDs). 67-109 pass with 66 TDs, 3 sacks, 1 INT