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KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) -- The last piece of an almost perfect offseason for the Seattle Seahawks is now in place.
Coach Mike Holmgren signed a contract extension Wednesday to keep him with Seattle through the 2008 season.
The defending NFC champions have also re-signed NFL MVP Shaun Alexander and Pro Bowl fullback Mack Strong since losing their first Super Bowl to the Steelers. Seattle did lose Pro Bowl guard Steve Hutchinson in free agency to the Vikings, but the sting of that was lessened when the Seahawks added two-time Pro Bowl linebacker Julian Peterson to their defense.
"You guys get tired of hearing this, maybe, but this is another great day for the Seahawks," team president Tim Ruskell said.
Terms of Holmgren's deal weren't disclosed, but Ruskell said the new deal is "in effect, a three-year deal."
That means the final year of Holmgren's original, eight-year contract likely has been redone. Holmgren was scheduled to earn $7 million for 2006.
"The lease on my boat ends in two years, so we had to cover that," Holmgren joked.
Holmgren's agent, Bob LaMonte, didn't return phone calls or e-mails seeking contract terms. LaMonte was in the Seattle area last week for two days of discussions with Seahawks executives.
Those were the first contract negotiations since Holmgren said he was unsure about his future beyond 2006 with the team.
Wednesday, after Ruskell's glowing introduction, Holmgren said: "I'm a little bit humbled."
If he fulfills the new deal -- and he said he intends to -- Holmgren will have coached Seattle for 10 seasons. The only NFL coaches with longer current tenures than that are Denver's Mike Shanahan and Tennessee's Jeff Fisher, both heading into a 12th season, and Bill Cowher, who's been with Pittsburgh for 14 seasons.
Holmgren, the architect and play caller for the NFL's highest-scoring offense in 2005, was entering the final season of the $35 million, eight-year contract he signed upon arriving in Seattle in 1999 from Green Bay.
Holmgren, who will turn 58 in June, coached the Packers from 1992-98 and won a Super Bowl.
"We've got three years left, I look at it that way," Holmgren said. "In this business, that in itself is a pretty good run ... it just felt good to me."
Speculation remains that Holmgren's new deal allows him to pursue any NFL general manager jobs that may come open.
"Who can read the future? I don't think any of us can. But right now, our intention is to very much honor the contract."
Holmgren said that while Ruskell will still have final say on all personnel matters, he is comfortable with how involved he is on all team issues.
He didn't feel that way under former general manager Bob Ferguson and team president Bob Whitsitt. After the 2004 season, team owner Paul Allen pressured Ferguson to resign and fired Whitsitt.
Wednesday, the Microsoft Corp.'s co-founder called Holmgren from London and effectively reaffirmed his confidence in having Ruskell and Holmgren run his team.
"It's a volatile business," Holmgren said. "It seems more and more hard to find that type of relationship for a coach that an owner will kind of work with you through the bumps in the road and believes in you.
"I just thanked him for that."
Holmgren credits Ruskell's arrival 15 months ago as the franchise's final push out of a 29-year rut of mediocrity.
"I'm revitalized," Holmgren said. "The year before was quite a different emotion. Now, I'm so convinced the organization is where it should be and it is headed in the right direction.
"We have a chance to do some really good things here now, something we've been looking for the last seven years to get to this point. It seemed reasonable to extend my deal a little bit to be a part of that as well."
Holmgren said his wife asked him two questions after he decided two months ago he wanted to coach beyond 2006. One was about his health -- Holmgren said he's "never felt better."
Her second question was whether her husband still had the "fire" to dedicate himself to coaching.
"I can honestly say that fire burns brightly, still, inside of me," Holmgren said. "And three, our team is on the verge, I think, of something special ... We do have some unfinished business."
Holmgren still feeling Super Bowl pain
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