Originally published Friday, February 20, 2009 at 12:00 AM
PrintSeahawks designate Hill franchise player
The Seahawks have designated linebacker Leroy Hill their franchise player. Hill was scheduled to become an unrestricted free agent next week.
Seattle Times staff reporter
INDIANAPOLIS — The Seahawks needed to do more than just talk over Leroy Hill's future.
They needed to talk with Hill before deciding to designate the linebacker as Seattle's franchise player for 2009, thereby keeping him from becoming an unrestricted free agent.
So Hill came to Seattle last week for a meeting with president Tim Ruskell and the coaches to discuss his January arrest for misdemeanor drug possession and whether he wanted to remain a Seahawk.
"He knows that he made a mistake," Ruskell said. "But I had to see him face to face, and hear that from him and see the sincerity — which I saw — and other people saw, including Jim Mora. That was very important."
The Seahawks decided Hill was important enough to designate him their franchise player. Hill gets a one-year contract offer that will pay him the average of the top five linebackers salaries, which is $8.3 million for 2009. The Seahawks get some protection from losing Hill when the free-agent signing period begins on Feb. 27.
Hill can sign an offer sheet from another team, but the Seahawks would then have the choice of matching the offer and retaining Hill or accepting two first-round draft picks as compensation from the team that signed Hill.
Hill faces a misdemeanor charge of drug possession after he was arrested in Georgia earlier this month. According to a police report, a sheriff's deputy found less than an ounce of marijuana in a backpack on the passenger's seat of a car Hill was driving alone.
Ruskell said the team still hopes to sign Hill to a long-term contract this offseason, which is the path the team went with cornerback Marcus Trufant in 2008.
"We've been negotiating, and that's gone well," Ruskell said. "I wouldn't even say we're even exactly close, but it has been good-faith negotiating, and this allows us to keep doing that while protecting our rights to the player."
Copyright © 2009 The Seattle Times Company
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