While the Hawks lost three starters the first day of free agency, they also kept one and another player who could start or will play a vital role in the Legion of Boom. Wide receiver Jermaine Kearse and cornerback Jeremy Lane both elected to stay in Seattle, which is extra significant for Kearse as he has never played football for a team not in the Puget Sound area.

A Lakes High product and University of Washiington star, Kearse is a fan favorite. And why not? His game-winning catch in the NFC championship game against Green Bay and tumbling catch in the Super Bowl loss that put the Seahawks within grasp of winning back-to-back championships didn't hurt either. This year, with no Percy Harvin to feed the ball to, Kearse saw his numbers rise too, putting up his highest production levels of his career across the board. Fact is, reliable receivers are hard to come by in the NFL nowadays, and as Harvin and Jimmy Graham's complicated integrations into the offense have proven, chemistry is not instant. Therefore when it comes to Seattle and who they look for on offense, they are better served to pay a premium for past history over a marquee name from the outside.

On the other side of the ball, the Seahawks did well to keep Lane. His two predessors who lined up opposite Richard Sherman both left for big money, although did not put up the matching production. From all accounts within the Seahawks organization, Lane is different, a cut above those before him. Although the numbers of his deal have not yet been made official, it definitely will be nowhere near what Byron Maxwell signed for with the Philadelphia Eagles last offseason. And therefore John Schnieder and Pete Carroll were smart to lock Lane up before the rest of the league fixated on him, and evenutally overvalued him past the possibility of him sticking around in the Emerald City.

Plus a team that has been to the playoffs four straight years, with four 10-win seasons, three division titles, two Super Bowl appearances and a Lombardi trophy to boot usually doesn't have too many holes. At this point is more about keeping together the young rising talent already here, cutting the fat that is at the point of spoiling and then replacing through the draft. And the coaching staff has shown it can coach up players better than any staff in the league. This team isn't in need to bringing in a bevy of free agents each offseason, they're like a college dynasty program (that is actually allowed to officially pay their players) and Pete Carroll should be familiar with how to run that operation.

 Photo: Flickr/Ben Rea