Posted by Andy Benoit

There could finally be some movement on the Vincent Jackson front. According to Jason Cole of Yahoo! Sports , the Seattle Seahawks have been given permission to discuss contract terms with the star receiver. This suggests that a trade could be on the horizon.

The Seahawks say they have talked to Chargers general manager A.J. Smith about trade compensation for Jackson. If Jackson gets his way, a new contract would likely be in the neighborhood of $9 million per season. Jackson would instantly become the No. 1 receiver in Seattle, relegating T.J. Houshmandzadeh to a more-fitting underneath role and allowing second-round rookie Golden Tate to assume the slot duties.

The Dolphins’ acquisition of Brandon Marshall from Denver will likely set the bar here. Miami gave up two second-round picks for Marshall (one in 2010, another in 2011).

Jackson’s holdout stems from his displeasure with being tendered as a restricted free agent. Jackson refused to sign the one-year tender of $3.268 million by June 15. The Chargers reduced the one-year tender to $583,000, which only widened the gap between the player and team.

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Posted by Andy Benoit

As expected, Seahawks linebacker Leroy Hill could be facing another suspension. Hill is already suspended for Week 1 for violating the league’s substance abuse policy after pleading guilty to marijuana charges in Georgia.

In a separate incident in April, Hill was charged with fourth-degree domestic violence in Issaquah, WA. He was arrested after an altercation with his live-in girlfriend who, according to police, showed signs of injury. The alleged victim, however, has not cooperated with authorities.

Hill was facing a trial later this month. But Danny O’Neil of the Seattle Times reports that the sixth-year linebacker has instead entered into a stipulated-order of continuance, which means he’ll avoid trial and have all charges dismissed as long as he complies with the court’s guidelines for the next 18 months.

Pro Football Talk has confirmed that this does not mean Hill is clean under the terms of the NFL’s personal conduct policy. The league will review the situation and likely hand down another suspension. Hill has been a starter his previous five seasons in Seattle, but he’s projected to be the first linebacker off the bench in 2010.


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Posted by Andy Benoit

Just three years ago, the Seahawks invested a first-round pick on defensive end Lawrence Jackson. Now, they’ve shipped him to Detroit for what is believed to be a sixth-rounder in 2011.

To answer the question posed by the headline above, Detroit, Detroit, Detroit, Detroit. Sure, Jackson has been a disappointment at the NFL level. He lacked the size needed to play the Leo position (right defensive end) in Seattle’s scheme, and he was never quick enough to be a true edge rusher. But Jackson isn’t a bad run-defender when he’s able to create space. And he’s capable of posting four or five sacks a season (though, granted, he has just 6.5 total sacks in two seasons thus far). This is excellent value for a sixth-round pick – especially when you’re the Lions and hurting for depth along the front line.

Interestingly enough, the man behind the trade was Jackson’s coach at USC, Pete Carroll.

As ESPN’s Mike Sando pointed out, earlier this offseason Carroll had some very honest comments about Jackson for Seattle radio personality Mitch Levy of KJR:

"You said I thought (Jackson) was going to be a great player," Carroll said. "I thought Lawrence was a very good player for us (USC). I didn't know that he had the ability to dominate in the NFL, but I knew he could be a good solid player."

Levy then said he thought Carroll sounded surprised to see Jackson drafted in the first round.

"Um, I'm surprised about a lot of our guys," Carroll said. "I'm a little surprised by a lot of our guys that got picked in the first round. I've been a lot tougher on our guys than some of the guys that have drafted them."

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Posted by Will Brinson

Kentwan Balmer didn't last long on the trading block -- Matt Barrows of the Sacramento Bee reports that Balmer's been dealt to the division rival Seattle Seahawks.

Terms of the deal are not yet disclosed, but on the front of things, it makes sense: as Barrows notes, Scot McCloughan, the ex-Niners GM who actually drafted Balmer, is currently with Seattle. Seattle also needs help on the defensive line, and they have a coaching staff that's certainly unafraid to bring, ahem, characters into the fold to see if they can perform. (There's also the added bonus of Pete Carroll being able to counsel Balmer through the NCAA interrogation process!)

For the Niners' part, they were looking to move Balmer quickly -- he'd been AWOL from the team since last week and today was the deadline for him to report or be placed on the "left squad" list, whereby he would be unable to play in 2010.

Plus, you could argue that if the Niners really think Balmer is that bad a player (which they apparently do), they're hurting Seattle with subtraction by addition.

Update (12:48): Awkwardly, it appears, according to CSN Bay Area, that the Niners didn't want Balmer ever coming back to the facility, even the players' parking lot.

Update (1:18): According to Matt Maiocco on Twitter , the 49ers will receive a sixth-rounder in return for Balmer. That's not exactly the greatest bounty for a guy removed from first-round status just two years ago, but it helps to underscore just how little regard the organization had for Balmer. For the Seahawks, that's pretty good value, especially if they can get him fired up to face his former team twice a year.

Follow us on Twitter (@CBSSportsNFL) and check in with our 49ers and Seahawks Rapid Reports for more details on the trade as they emerge.

Stafon Johnson's recovery from a weight room incident that crushed his windpipe, vocal chords and adam's apple was nothing short of amazing. He went undrafted, but was signed by the Tennessee Titans immediately afterwards, and anyone who wasn't pulling for the kid doesn't have a heart.

Which is why watching him get carted off during the Seahawks-Titans game was so painful -- Johnson, on the final play of the third quarter, took a shovel pass from Rusty Smith and ended up in a nasty pile of Seahawk defenders, with his leg twisted up underneath him.

As the telecast resumed, Johnson was on the ground, surrounded by his teammates, coaches and trainers tending to an apparent ankle injury.

Particularly impressive was Pete Carrroll coming all the way over from the Seahawks side of the field to comfort the fr

The Titans huddled in a team prayer as Johnson, openly weeping, was loaded on a cart with an airbag around his ankle. The Seahawks fans stood and applauded as the cart wheeled into the locker room area.

Hopefully -- and it's probably a stretch -- Johnson will be able to return quickly and won't have suffered too tough an injury. The silver lining in this, however small, is that Johnson knows a thing or two about resilience under the duress of being injured.

Update (12:35): Per Jim Wyatt of The Tennessean on Twitter , Johnson dislocated his right ankle. Yikes.

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Posted by Andy Benoit

Wide receiver T.J. Houshmandzadeh has always been a mystery. He’s either super selfish or super honest – it’s hard to tell which. Maybe it’s both. He has plenty of “diva” in him, yet when he was a Bengal, teammates respected him enough to elect him as their player rep.
In a fantastic article by Yahoo’s Michael Silver, Houshmandzadeh offers a transparent look at his mindset as a high-paid NFL receiver, particularly through his candid assessment of his ’09 debut season in Seattle. The highlight of the article is a passage that will surely spark some debates in both Seattle and Cincinnati:

“I evaluate myself,” Houshmandzadeh says. “(Last season) was just one of those things where I wasn’t myself, for whatever reason. I wasn’t getting the ball, and I let that affect me too much. On tape, I looked bad. And I’m sure other people who watched me on tape thought I looked bad, too. I didn’t understand it. That completely baffled me. It took me away from who I was.”
Determined to make a big splash with his new team, Houshmandzadeh got into a funk early when he felt he wasn’t involved in the offense.

“I go back and look at the first three games of the season, and I can probably count on one hand the number of balls that came my way in the first half of those games,” Houshmandzadeh says. “Sure, I might’ve gotten some touches when the games were out of reach, but those were garbage opportunities.

“I came from a team with Chad and Chris Henry, where I was the go-to guy. People on the outside might think it was Chad, but those who were there know better – it was me. Not to discredit anybody, but we didn’t have a Chad on [last year’s] team, and I wasn’t the go-to guy. That confused me.”

Let’s evaluate what’s being said. Houshmandzadeh wasn’t focused at times last year. Okay – at least he’s the one calling it out. He didn’t like the offense. Okay – neither did the rest of the organization, apparently, as coordinator Gregg Knapp is no longer here. He was the go-to guy in Cincy. Okay – wait…what? The “go-to guy”? He’s kidding, right? Houshmandzadeh hovered around the 100-catch mark each year in Cincy primarily because he was an underneath receiver who benefitted from defenses rolling safety help over the top against Chad Ochocinco.

Of course, his Bengals days are moot now. Looking forward, what we take away from Silver’s article is that Houshmandzadeh is confident almost to the point of arrogant. It’s doubtful he’ll keep his emotions in check if he doesn’t feel pleased with his role in Jeremy Bates’s new offense. Houshmandzadeh says because he missed so much offseason action with an abdominal injury, he’s not yet completely comfortable in the new system. Fortunately, he still has the entire preseason to get ready.

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

Leslie Frazier still has faith that, one day, he will earn a head coaching job. Seven times, he’s been interviewed. Seven times, the job has gone to somebody else.

And though the Minnesota defensive coordinator – who is one of the most respected assistant coaches in the league – has been a beneficiary (and probably had his heart broken because) of the Rooney Rule, which requires an NFL team to interview at least one minority candidate for every head coaching or front-office job opening, he’s felt that he’s received a fair shot in each his interviews.

Well, except for one.

In this St. Paul Pioneer Press story, Frazier doesn’t name last year’s Seattle interview as the one he “was a little concerned about,” but it doesn’t take much imagination to reach that conclusion.

It was widely thought that Pete Carroll was the only coach the Seahawks had in mind in the offseason, but they granted Frazier an interview. In reality, Frazier – who also interviewed with Buffalo in the offseason – never had a chance in Seattle.

From John Shipley’s article:

"With those interviews that I was in back in January, I went into them with the best intentions, based on advice I got from key people, and just tried to approach it the right way," he said. "Now, I can't answer for ownership, you know, what they were looking for and what they wanted out of the interviews. But I went into it believing each one would be a legitimate interview.

And did he come out feeling they were legitimate interviews?

"Um, I don't want to say which team, but one of them I was a little concerned about, and we went right down to the wire about whether I should even do the interview," he said. "On one of them, I left just wondering."

So, is the Rooney Rule, at this point, even a worthwhile venture? Frazier thinks so.

"The Rooney Rule serves its purpose. It still needs to be in place," Frazier told the paper. "There are so many great minority candidates out there, and hopefully teams will give them the opportunity to interview, and hopefully someone will be hired through that process.

"It hasn't happened of late. It seems like guys have been hired from within as ownership has gotten comfortable with them. Maybe soon somebody will be hired through an interview."

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Posted by Josh Katzowitz

There’s been something on referee Bill Leavy’s mind the past four years. On Friday, he finally apologized for it.

Leavy admitted to blowing two calls in Super XL that he said might have affected the outcome of Pittsburgh’s 21-10 championship victory against Seattle.

From the Seattle Times :

Speaking to Seattle-area reporters Friday about NFL rules changes this season, Leavy said he's still bothered by his gaffes.

"It left me with a lot of sleepless nights, and I think about it constantly," he said. "I'll go to my grave wishing that I'd been better. I know that I did my best at that time, but it wasn't good enough.

"When we make mistakes, you got to step up and own them. It's something that all officials have to deal with, but unfortunately when you have to deal with it in the Super Bowl, it's difficult."

As MLB umpire Jim Joyce discovered after ruining Armando Gallaraga’s perfect game earlier this year, apologizing is the key to absolution. Perhaps Leavy is hoping for some of that forgiveness or, at least, to lessen the weight on his conscience.

"It was a tough thing for me," Leavy said. "I kicked two calls in the fourth quarter, and I impacted the game, and as an official you never want to do that.”

Responded QB Matt Hasselbeck in another Seattle Times story: "I think all of the officials we have in the NFL are stand-up guys and Leavy is no different ... He's a great guy. He's actually a really, really good official. It's just one of those things where like I said sometimes you don't have your best days as a player and it's the same thing as a coach."

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