Mike Holmgren spoke for about 40 minutes, mostly about his decision to retire. The biggest news out of that is that he said that not only is he open to retiring or coming back, but that he would be open to an extension as well -- though he did say that there are other people (Paul Allen) involved in that decision as well.

Deion Branch did tear his ACL. He will have surgery done by Dr. James Andrews in the next few days and will not be back probably for 9 months, but will not be completely right for a year.

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Shaun Alexander will have surgery to repair the cracked bone in his wrist, which Holmgren said the team hoped would heal by itself but never did.

Walter Jones will have his shoulders worked on, which I assume means they will get scoped but Holmgren was not specific.

Along with Nolan Cromwell going to Texas A&M, assistant quality control coach Gary Reynolds also will be going to the Aggies to be Mike Sherman's assistant. Jim Mora will leave tomorrow to interview with the Redskins.

Frustrations of season:

1) Running game -- which will be a point of emphasis in the offseason.

2) Giving up fourth-quarter leads

3) Road record "No clean answer for that, I just don't."

4) Lost close games they should have won. "I put that on my shoulders," Holmgren said.

POSITIVES:

1) The Nucleus is solid and the QB is in the prime of his career.

2) Young receiver corps.

3) Defense -- though it needs to become more consistent.

4) Ability to bounce back after 4-4 start.

5) Brandon Mebane -- though Holmgren did say he thinks they need another big body along the defensive front. Tubbs is progressing well but it is clear they don't know if he will ever be the same.

Holmgren said he thinks Shaun Alexander can bounce back. He said he doesn't think he can be the 1,800-yard rusher, but that he can be a very productive back. "There is no reason to think that he can't come back," Holmgren said.

Holmgren said he still has a desire to be a GM, but mostly that is his ego talking. He said he thinks that the second time around, he will not make the same mistakes he made the first time and that he can build a winning team. About doing that in Seattle, he said, "That ship has sailed. It's working fine here now."

Holmgren said he thought that Chris Gray had a good year. He also said that if Gray comes back, it is highly likely he will have a reduced role. "We need to add some pieces to the offensive line," he said.

Holmgren talked about the tight end position, saying he thought they were fine there over the course of the season with a bunch of "try hard guys." He also spoke about how that position is important to the offense. I got the feeling that he was not entirely comfortable with Will Heller as the starting TE next year.

Holmgren got misty at the end, talking more about his decision to retire. He is going to go to Arizona with his wife this week, come back next Tuesday, "bang things around" with Tim Ruskell and make a decision. He did not put an exact time frame on it but said he would like to do it sooner rather than later. My guess is a decision will be made by the middle to end of next week. He said he and his wife have made lists about the positives and negatives of the job, and decide what they want to do. I asked him for clarification because it sounded to me like he was saying he wanted to keep coaching but his wife wanted him to retire. He said that was not accurate, but really never answered the question other than that. If I had to guess, based on the way he sounded, I would say a 70 percent chance he will be back, but he has said the decision has not even been made by him so any speculation is premature.