Seahawks sign Jones to seven-year deal

SEATTLE – All-Pro offensive tackle Walter Jones may have brought some stability to the Seattle Seahawks’ turbulent off-season by signing a seven-year deal Wednesday.

The team still lacks a president and has a number of key unsigned free agents, but Jones’ contract, worth more than $50 million, keeps a potential marquee free agent off the market.

“It’s a great feeling,” said Jones, 31, who could have become an unrestricted free agent on March 2. “I kind of have a feeling now of where my career is going to end.”

Jones played the last three seasons under a series of one-year contracts as Seattle’s franchise player.

Jones’ agent, Roosevelt Barnes, would not provide specific figures, but said the contract includes a signing bonus of more than $15 million and total bonuses of more than $20 million.

The Seahawks have used their franchise player designation on Jones since 2002, keeping him in a series of one-year contracts that paid him the average of the NFL’s highest-paid offensive tackles. Jones made $7.1 million last season.

As a sign of his displeasure at the short-term deals, Jones skipped most of the last four training camps at Eastern Washington University in Cheney. Last season, Jones did not report until a week before the season opener and spent the summer working out at home in Huntsville, Ala., doing what he believed he would have been doing at training camp: physical condition, lifting weights, and drills.

So will the camp-skipping come to an end?

“I’m definitely going to be in Cheney,” Jones said.