Our former compatriot John Clayton of ESPN reported Monday that “… talks between the Seahawks and franchise kicker Josh Brown have been slow.” Clayton cited existing cap room and Paul Allen’s wealth as reasons to be baffled by the hang-up in reaching a long-term deal.

I can’t add much to the specific sticking points on the matter. At the time he was franchised, Brown sounded flattered by the gesture. The $2.078 million he’ll receive this year as a one-year tender is the average of the top five kicker salaries in the league. The tender keeps him off the market as an unrestricted free agent this season.

His four game-winning field goals last season left little doubt that he’s worth retaining. His kickoffs were deeper, too, as he had a career-high 12 touchbacks. If you follow this team, you recognize his enormous value.

It wasn’t until I specifically researched it, though, that I noticed that his 25-31 effort on field goals (80.6 percent) was only the 14th best success percentage in the league. Of kickers to have more than 12 attempts, Stover (Baltimore, 93.3), Elam (Denver, 93.1), Carney (NO, 92.0), Lindell (Buffalo, 92.0), Kaeding (SD, 89.7), Vinatieri (Indy, 98.3), Gould (Chicago, 88.9), Nugent (Jets, 88.9), Kasey (Carolina, 88.9), Hanson (Detroit, 87.9), Andersen (Atlanta, 87.9), Wilkins (St. L, 86.5), Feely (Giants, 85.2), Longwell (Minn., 84.0) and Graham (Cin., 83.3) had higher percentages than Brown.

Remember, though, that the two blocked field goals in the opener at Detroit, when snapper J.P. Darche was ailing, count against Brown, who capped the game with the last-play game-winner. High percentages are one way of measuring the quality of a place-kicker. I’d suggest that a more important question is whether he makes the ones that the team absolutely needs when games are in the balance.

It has never appeared that Brown is in any way unhappy with his circumstances with the Hawks, as he's one of the quickest with smiles and jokes on the practice field and in the locker room.