The Seahawks' latest free-agent signings include a couple of relative old-schoolers who combined to play only 15 games last season. Brought back was LB K.J. Wright and brought in was LG Mike Iupati, both of whom had injuries sufficient to have their hires bear question marks.

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Good thing Earl Thomas didn't retire when he first thought about it.

After breaking his leg in a December 2016 home game against Carolina, the Seahawks' all-world free safety startle-tweeted from the halftime locker room:

"This game has been so good to me no regrets. A lot is running through my mind including retirement thanks for all the prayers."

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The Seahawks' personnel plan for 2019 took an early hit Tuesday with word from NFL.com that LG J.R. Sweezy has agreed to a two-year deal with the Arizona Cardinals, making him the second starter lost before NFL free agency begins officially at 1 p.m. Wednesday. Over the weekend, nickel CB Justin Coleman was reported to have agreed to sign a four-year deal worth up to $36 million with the Detroit Lions.

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In several ways, Earl Thomas is a unique player -- the best combination of speed and strength at the free safety position, enhanced by a commitment to study that makes him even more formidable on the field. His nine seasons of intense achievement as a Seahawk have made him, when the day comes, a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

Also: He has no filter.

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When last we saw the Seahawks, the defense had just given up to the Dallas Cowboys 380 yards and 24 points, including 130 yards in two touchdown drives in the fourth quarter. So no, DE Frank Clark -- who along with LB Bobby Wagner, were Seattle's only game-changing defenders -- was not going anywhere this off-season.

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The single biggest asset for the Seahawks over the past 20 years was not Pete Carroll. Nor Mike Holmgren. Nor Tod Leiweke. Nor the 12s. Nor John Schneider. Nor Russell Wilson. Nor the Clink.

The biggest asset was franchise ownership by Paul Allen, whose stability, wealth and wisdom to know what he didn't know, was the most important element in the Seahawks' success and prosperity.

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The settlement between the NFL and its player-antagonists Colin Kaepernick and Eric Reid was remarkable on several counts, not the least of which was the underappreciated fact that it was tie. As we all know, Americans don't do anti-climaxes well; our lives are pathetically full of them, so please don't inject them into sports or the conclusion of The Sopranos.

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Recall in September that when the points piled up in most outposts of the NFL, everyone was convinced that next-gen offenses had arrived, with 70-percent passers, hyperkinetic pre-snap motion and short-pass orgies. Defense and the running game were quaint but uncool relics.

Then in the season's championship moment, Fred Flintstone clubbed the crap out of George Jetson.

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Cliff Avril was in an exhibition game during his rookie season with the Detroit Lions when he realized he didn't know his responsibility for the play just called. Before lining up, he quickly asked a veteran defensive-line teammate for help. Instead of helping, the teammate told him to do the opposite of the call.

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After what must be recognized as the most entertaining championship Sunday in NFL history, the sporting nation is left not with the afterglow of a great meal/sex/national park visit/drawing to a full house, but with the prospect of another Super Bowl appearance by the New England Patriots.

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The Seahawks have added another former first-round draft pick. At quarterback.

No, not Rick Mirer or Dan McGwire. But as with those two long-ago Seahawks first-round busts, Paxton Lynch didn't play last season either.

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As we all know, Russell Wilson says something original about as often as the Mariners succeed with a high draft pick. But late in the season, the Seahawks quarterback did offer up something I hadn't recalled hearing from him, which may bode well for his future in Seattle (and perhaps might be a rare good omen for the Mariners).

"I just want to be known as the greatest winner ever," he said.

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In a parity-driven season that suggested much competitive balance, the first eight games  of the NFL post-season had a disappointing number of dominant outcomes. If blowouts were wanted this month, we could have looked up online our 401Ks.

However, the Seahawks' one-and-done appearance in the tournament was at least competitive, and  provided a chance the past weekend to look around to see what's working in the NFL.

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Limping off the AT&T Stadium field with a serious injury Saturday was likely the last glimpse the Seahawks will have of their one-season placekicker, 40-year-old Sebastian Janikowski. The club Friday signed free agent kicker Sam Ficken, 26, most recently with Rams, to start a competition for the 2019 roster spot.

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Pete Carroll would never let a game defeat, even one in the playoffs that ended the season, throw shade on his yippee-skippee, the man's most vital organ and the driver of the franchise.

"It was a blast," he said Monday, two days after the 24-22 loss to the Cowboys in Dallas denied the Seahawks a chance to play the Rams in Los Angeles, a playoff match-up they liked and wanted. "I loved that (Cowboys) game. I know it was ugly and hard. But I loved that we were in it, fighting and clawing and scratching up and down the sidelines, seeing guys find their belief, and again rediscover that belief, and why we should keep believing.

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DALLAS -- If there were a Hall of Sporting Justice -- a truly bad idea, actually, taking away the fans' fun of hating the foe and demanding the heads of coaches, players and referees, in favor of the rule of honesty -- it would declare unanimously that the better team won Saturday's little tilt here in Texas.  No appeals possible.

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The season-ending hip fracture to S Delano Hill disclosed this week completes an unusual sequence that lurks in the background of the Seahawks wild-card playoff game against the Cowboys in Dallas Saturday evening.

On the injured reserve list, the Seahawks have had an entire starting secondary.

That accounting doesn't even include Kam Chancellor, nor the departed Richard Sherman, who was recovering from injury when he was cut and signed with the 49ers.

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After the final weekend of the season, eight NFL teams had head coaching vacancies. They included guys long in the job (Marvin Lewis, Bengals, 16 seasons; Mike McCarthy, Packers, 13) and a short-timer (Steve Wilks, Cardinals, one).

Also dispatched: The Jets' Todd Bowles, four seasons; Cleveland's Hue Jackson, Miami's Adam Gase, Tampa Bay's Kirk Koetter, three each, and Denver's Vance Joseph, two.

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Football coaches and players never admit to easing up. But without question, the Seahawks, absent any substantive playoff incentive Sunday against the ever-annoying Arizona Cardinals, let down their guard.

Actually, that's plural -- guards.

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The Seahawks' run of success through the second decade of the 21st century has endured on an axis of power by four men remarkable in their fields -- Paul Allen, Tod Leiweke, Pete Carroll and Russell Wilson.

Longtime fans need no explainers about the quartet's feats. But as the Seahawks prepare for their seventh trip to the playoffs in nine seasons, an appreciation seems worthwhile, since disruption may be in the offing.

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