Seahawks Notebook | Buffalo safety now has chance to back playoff boast

RENTON — Two months after that bold — some called it something much less flattering — guarantee of a playoff berth for his Buffalo Bills, Donte Whitner gets the chance to put his money where his mouth is.

If Whitner's Bills defeat the Seahawks, it will make his July promise perhaps a little easier to keep. If the Bills lose, well, Whitner will look more like another boastful player from a losing team who could be embarrassingly wrong about his team's fortunes.

"Do I expect us to make the playoffs?" he asked The Sporting News on July 6. "I'm guaranteeing it."

That took some guts. The Bills haven't been to the postseason since 1999. Their past three records are 5-11, 7-9 and 7-9.

"My feeling is I'm glad he's confident and glad he's expressing how he feels," Bills coach Dick Jauron said. "I'm 57 years old, and I don't predict anything. I have seen enough to know you don't know what's going to happen."

Jauron didn't back Whitner directly, but appreciated his safety's confidence.

"Are we confident? Yes. If we aren't confident then we have no chance at all," Jauron said. "Do I like our players? Yes, I do. We have high-character guys who work really hard. Do we have a chance to succeed? Yes, we do. But a lot of things have to go right, and we have to make them go right."

Expectations for the Bills are higher this season in Buffalo, though the team isn't expected to win its division, the AFC East, which features the New England Patriots.

"I feel like there's a reason for that. We got guys in here that can play," defensive end Aaron Schobel said. "I think we've obviously gotten better. ... We're going to see what happens when it starts for real."

Frequent fliers

Always among the NFL leaders in air mileage, the Seahawks will be No. 1 in the league in that category this season. Seattle will fly 34,766 miles around the country, beginning with this weekend's trip to Buffalo.

The Seahawks' first three trips are three time zones away on the East Coast — games at Buffalo, the New York Giants and Tampa Bay. They also go to Miami in November.

To put it in perspective, the world is about 25,000 miles around at the equator. The Seahawks will fly 182 more miles than all the teams in the AFC North combined in 2008 and will have traveled 68,622 miles this season and last.

The Seahawks' plan for East Coast games is largely the same as every year — leave Seattle on Friday, meetings, game, return right after the game. The difference will be in the curfew, coach Mike Holmgren said. It used to be 11 p.m. local time, but that's 8 p.m. in Seattle.

"I'm letting them stay up," Holmgren said. "We've created like a game room of sorts, maybe a movie, some food, some things like that. Extend the curfew on Friday night so it's a little more realistic to Seattle time. Let them get a good night's sleep, hopefully, and kind of get them acclimated that way. Other than that, it's business as usual. I haven't changed anything."

So what time is Friday curfew?

"It's later," Holmgren said.

Notes

• RT Sean Locklear missed Thursday's practice, his third absence in a week because of a knee injury, so it seems highly unlikely he will play Sunday.

• LB Lofa Tatupu participated briefly in the team portion of Thursday's practice, increasing his chance of playing.

• WR Deion Branch still is limited in practice.

• DE Baraka Atkins practiced for the first time this week. He had been dealing with a back injury.

José Miguel Romero: 206-464-2409