Here's a list of the Hawks who will be free agents if not signed by March 1.

Unrestricted free agents
LB Kevin Bentley
PK Josh Brown
DT Chuck Darby
WR D.J. Hackett
TE Bennie Joppru
ILB Niko Koutouvides
OT Sean Locklear
TE Marcus Pollard
CB Marcus Trufant
OG Floyd Womack
DT Ellis Wyms

Restricted Free agents
RB Alvin Pearman
FB Leonard Weaver.

We've generally broken down Seattle's unrestricted and restricted free agents separately, but this chart puts them together. We see the players Seattle signed from other teams, plus the free agents who re-signed with Seattle, plus the Seattle free agents that signed elsewhere, plus the two who remain unsigned.

Josh Brown remains the team's franchise player. Teams had from Feb. 8 until Feb. 22 to name franchise players. Teams have until July 14 to sign franchise players to multiyear deals. If Brown doesn't have a long-term deal by then, he'll be bound to the one-year, $2.078 million franchise tender, which he has already signed. If that happens, Brown would not be able to sign another contract until Seattle plays its final regular-season game.

The five players listed directly beneath Brown in our chart were restricted free agents who played for Seattle last season. Each has signed the restricted tender. Each is eligible to become an unrestricted free agent in March 2008. Each is free to sign a long-term deal with the Seahawks.

The four main unrestricted free agents signed from other teams are counting about $5.5 million against the cap in 2007, compared to $9.2 million for QB Matt Hasselbeck. Of course, Deon Grant's cap figure swells past $7.5 million next season. With big contracts, it's usually a matter of when, not if, the big money shows up on the cap.

There are two kinds of contract numbers: technically correct ones, and real ones. The deal Nate Burleson signed with Seattle last year was technically for seven years and $49 million. The real numbers were four years and $14.5 million. He was never going to get the final three years and $34.5 million unless the Vikings matched the offer, thereby triggering poison pills that would have forced Minnesota to guarantee the full value.

The Vikings did not match. Burleson and the Seahawks revisited his deal this offseason. They made the technical numbers match the real numbers. Burleson signed a new deal that runs through the 2009 season, with a voidable year in 2010. "I knew there would be a point in my career here as a Seahawk when I would adjust my deal," he said. "There was a lot of back-end dollars I knew I wasn't going to see and they knew I wasn't going to see," Burleson said. "I'm a low-controversy guy, so if you ask me to do something and obviously it wasn't changing where I stood financially with this organization, I was OK with it."

That's the thing. Burleson will make no less money even though he wiped out the final two years of this deal. The Hawks would have reworked the deal or released Burleson before the inflated back-end money came due. Now they won't have to do either. Burleson received a $4 million signing bonus and $1.25 million base salary last season. He gets $2.75 million in salary this season, followed by $3.25 million in 2008, 2009 and the voidable 2010 season.

By the way, Seahawks DB Jordan Babineaux did sign his one-year tender as a restricted free agent, according to the Seahawks. This was a matter of when, not if.

The Seahawks announced today that Niko Koutouvides has signed his one-year tender as a restricted free agent. D.J. Hackett, Sean Locklear and Jordan Babineaux are expected to sign their tenders today as well. RFAs have until tonight to sign offer sheets with other teams. The Seahawks expect to have their RFAs back. Also today, the Seahawks signed former Bucs and Falcons center Austin King. He has one start in 34 NFL games.

Restricted free agents have until tonight to sign offer sheets with another team. Seattle's Craig Terrill has already signed his one-year tender with the Seahawks. Sean Locklear, D.J. Hackett and Niko Koutouvides could be next, unless they sign offer sheets. We'll keep you posted on those. Most restricted free agents sign the one-year tenders extended by their current teams. Update: Hackett intends to sign his tender today. I'm not going to break out separate items on these given that it's close to a formality unless an offer sheet is involved.

DT Craig Terrill plans to sign his one-year restricted tender when he arrives in Seattle for the offseason program Monday, his agent said. "The team still left open the possibility of working on a long-term deal over the next few months," agent Brett Tessler said.

Restricted free agents generally sign their tenders and play out the season before becoming unrestricted free agents. Terrill is a popular player who jammed on stage with Paul Allen following Super Bowl XL. He has also made impact plays as a member of the d-line rotation. Terrill forced a fumble in the NFC Championship game against Carolina. He returned an interception against Indianapolis a few weeks before that. And he had three sacks against the Raiders last season.

Restricted free agents have until April 20 to sign offer sheets, giving teams until no later than April 27 -- right before the draft -- to match those offer sheets or let the player leave.

Not long ago, about four people not related to players, agents, personnel types or John Clayton cared about the qualifying offers NFL teams made to restricted free agents. Times have changed.

The chart at right shows how much Seattle offered ("tendered" in legal-speak) to its restricted free agents. Let's take the case of Sean Locklear as an example. He entered the NFL as a third-round choice from North Carolina State. He exceeded expectations, becoming a starter early in his career. Now that he is scheduled to become a restricted free agent, the Seahawks had choices. The choices they made on Locklear and the others in this chart provide clues as to what the team thinks about each player (and each player's market).

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The Seahawks have announced their RFA tenders as follows: Sean Locklear, first round; D.J. Hackett and Jordan Babineaux, second round; LB Niko Koutouvides (fourth) and DT Craig Terrill (sixth) in the rounds they were drafted.

Apologies for being a bit slow on the trigger with the RFA tenders this morning. Gmail is apparently suffering some issues and I'm not getting email regularly. That is a problem today. Craig Terrill's agent did confirm that his client got the minimum $850,000 tender, giving the Seahawks right of first refusal. Terrill was a sixth-round pick, meaning the Seahawks would receive a pick in that round were they to let Terrill leave for another team.

"I would not be surprised if teams were willing to give up a sixth-round pick for a player of Craig's ability," agent Brett Tessler said.

We'll have the official information on RFA tenders a bit later. The Seahawks are expected to announce them. I know what agents have heard on some of these, but they'll be official soon enough.

If the Seahawks hold to form, they will likely announce their qualifying offers to restricted free agents tomorrow. Sean Locklear, D.J. Hackett and Jordan Babineaux are the leading names on that list. Craig Terrill's status might be clouded a bit by his knee situation, but we'll find out how much tomorrow. Locklear seems like a candidate for the first-round tender. Hackett could be in that category, too, although the new second-round tender is another option. More info here.

We'll be doing more on the Seahawks' free agents as we get through the Super Bowl and into the full offseason. I did put together an initial list sortable by name, position and status (rfa/ufa). I added a column ranking the players on a scale of 1-4. These are just general rankings based on what I would perceive the market to be (and what their value to Seattle might be), not based on my own opinions of players. A "1" ranking would be for a Shaun Alexander-type free agent. Seattle has none of those this offseason. I gave "2" rankings to starting-caliber players with youth on their side (Ken Hamlin would be one example). Then I mixed in some "2.5" and "3.5" grades taking into account factors such as age, injuries, production, etc. Also, I left off C Robbie Tobeck because he plans to retire.

Reminder: We link to a free Excel viewer along the right side of the blog.