Expect the road to the NFC title to keep running through Seattle

GLENDALE, Ariz. - Love them or loathe them, the rowdy Seahawks will have first dibs on the NFC title for the foreseeable future.

Yes, the Seahawks who started a fight during New England's victory formation at the end of the Super Bowl.

Yes, the Seahawks who took two penalties at the game's end, and led the league in penalties this season.

Yes, the disrespectful, disrespected Seahawks, whose bunker mentality and persecution complex make them a dangerous cell of football fanatics.

They're going to be good for a pretty long time.

"I expect us to continue to win," said third-year quarterback Russell Wilson, who twice went to the Pro Bowl, won one Super Bowl and nearly won another on Sunday. "I expect us to move forward. I believe we will be back."

Pete Carroll, who oversees all football matters, consistently has developed low-round picks into flat-out stars. He has created a buffer in which troubled running back Marshawn Lynch can thrive. He has manufactured an environment in which players fully commit, every day, to nothing but the task at hand.

He has persuaded core players to forgo free agency to stay tucked into the beautiful, insular Northwest, often at a discount.

There, they can ignore league rules and boycott the press.

There, they can call questioners "dumb," as, ironically, defensive end Michael Bennett did, not long after his offsides penalty ensured his Seahawks could not win on a last-minute miracle.

There, Carroll can throw mud on the game's unlikely, feel-good hero, undrafted rookie Malcolm Butler, who cemented Carroll as the worst play-caller in NFL history.

Lynch, the game's premier power back, was healthy and willing; second-and-goal, ball at the Patriots' 1, 26 seconds left.

Carroll instead asked Wilson to throw a quick slant across the middle. Butler, a part-time player who worked his way from Division II West Alabama, easily jumped the route and intercepted the pass.

Carroll's gracious description of Butler's shining moment:

"An incredible play that nobody would ever think he could do."

Carroll didn't think he could "do" that play, anyway.

Wrong.

Really, the apples don't fall far from the petty, petulant tree in Seattle.

While in-game play-calling and postgame manners might not be a strength for Carroll and his staff, they seem to have mastered roster planning.

They are sitting pretty when free agency descends this spring; they are expected to be at least $20 million below the salary cap, which will increase. They can extend Wilson and still have cash either to spend now or roll over to 2016.

The Seahawks might lose starting cornerback Byron Maxwell to free agency, a possible boon for the Eagles, whose cornerback situation remains undetermined; Bradley Fletcher is a free agent and Cary Williams is expensive. The Seahawks are negotiating an extension with Maxwell, but he might not be worth it. After all, Maxwell is a sixth-round pick who only recently earned a full-time starting spot in his fourth season; determining his value will be difficult.

Determining the value of Wilson should be less complicated. He will join the ranks of Jay Cutler and Aaron Rodgers as the league's highest-paid players.

Seattle also reportedly has begun to discuss extending Lynch's deal beyond 2015, which could afford the Seahawks even greater salary cap maneuverability.

Regardless of how they approach their top two offensive players, the Seahawks should have plenty of cap room to extend the contract of tackling machine Bobby Wagner, who next season will play in the final year of his rookie deal. They won eight in a row after he returned form a toe injury to anchor the linebacker corps.

This is how they have done business . . . the way the Eagles did for nearly 20 years when Joe Banner ran the team.

In December, the Seahawks locked up linebacker K.J. Wright through 2018, the latest in a string of proactive extensions that make the Seahawks look like a terrifying specter of consistency.

Safety Earl Thomas and Richard Sherman, the brightest stars in the Legion of Boom, will be around through 2018, too. Pass rusher Cliff Avril was extended through 2018 despite mediocre sack numbers in his first two seasons as a Seahawk. Big safety Kam Chancellor and defensive end Michael Bennett are signed through 2017. Top receiver Doug Baldwin will be a Seahawk for at least the next two seasons.

"We expect to be here every year," Sherman said. "That's the kind of team we are. That's the expectation now, every year. We'll see how it goes."

For better or worse, it goes through Seattle.

On Twitter: @inkstainedretch