[EmpireWF]

..from yahoo!....

NFL Most Valuable Player Shaun Alexander has agreed to a $62 million, eight-year contract to remain with the Seattle Seahawks, his agent said Sunday night.

Jim Steiner said the deal is the richest ever for an NFL running back and will pay the league's leading rusher over $15.1 million in guaranteed cash, through signing and other bonuses and 2006 base salary.

Steiner told The Associated Press of the signing in a telephone interview, minutes after the NFL pushed back the start of the free-agent signing period 72 hours to Thursday.

The league still must approve the contract, and Alexander has yet to sign it.

"They definitely wanted to do this," Steiner said of the Seahawks bringing back Alexander, who set an NFL record with 28 touchdowns last season. "And Seattle was Shaun's first choice all along."

[Gotham Dark Knight]

Hey Empire ...we were ahead of that news man...look at our Mock draft that we are runnning...Seattle had already gambled that Shaun would sign...we took a risk on the Draft board...sooo...yeah...we were right...

[Lefty Noob]

Kudos to Seattle - they've done an excellent job so far of keeping their squad in tact. Alexander was a guy they really needed to hang on to. He's such an important part of that team. Richest ever for a running back? That's something, but I think he's earned that kind of money. Everyone agree?

[DrCool]

Great contract and very fair on both sides.

The up front money for the first year is "only" $15.1 mil total including the salary and signing bonus. I would guess that would be around a $11 mil signing bonus and $4 mil salary. Since the $11 mil is spread out over 4 years that is only a $6.75 mil cap hit this year which isn't bad at all. Those numbers are just conjecture though so don't take them as truth.

If there was a new CBA I would have expected to see a $20 mil signing bonus but since the bonus can only be spread out over 4 years instead of the length of the contract I think Shaun lost out on a few mil up front.

With this contract Shaun Alexander should be able to retire as a Seahawk, be only the 2nd real Seahawk in the HOF, have his number retired, and make it into the teams Ring of Honor. Also because he signed a long term deal I can now buy one of his jerseys to add to my collection and book some plane tickets to Miami for Super Bowl XLI (assuming the Hawks lock up Hutch as well).

[desertrat]

What is the status of Steve Hutchinson with the signing of Alexander? Will Seattle have enough room under the cap to retain him? The strength of the Seattle offense is there line, I think it is crucial that they keep these guys together.

[DrCool]

Seattle still has plenty of room to get Hutch resigned. My feeling is it is pretty much a done deal and they just need to work out some particulars. Tim Ruskell (the GM or President or some title like that) has said that he can't see a scenario where Hutchinson isn't a Seahawks next year.