Seattle Seahawks general manager John Schneider is preparing for the 2010 NFL Draft as if Walter Jones will not return for the 2010 season.

""I think we should know that fairly soon," Schneider said, according to Greg Johns of seattlepi.com. "We have a lot of needs on this team and we'd approach it like Walter is not going to be here, quite frankly.

"If he is here, that's just kind of an added bonus."

Considering Jones, 36, has not played since Thanksgiving Day of 2008, Schneider's revelation today does not come as a surprise. The Seahawks have drafted just one offensive tackle (Ray Willis) in the last five drafts, operating as if Jones, a future Hall of Famer, would never age, despite him turning 32 a month before Super Bowl XL, which came at the end of former general manager Tim Ruskell's first season at the helm of the team's personnel department.

In addition to Schneider's comments, the first-year general manager confirmed that restricted free agents Ben Obomanu and Chris Spencer, as well as exclusive rights free agent David Hawthorne, have signed their one-year tenders, John Boyle of the Everett Herald adds.

Spencer was a first-round pick (25th overall) out of Mississippi in 2005, and has started 54 of his 64 games, mostly at center. 2009 second-round pick Max Unger was believed to have supplanted Spencer as the starting center, but Spencer has been manning the center position during the team's pre-draft mini-camp, which concluded today.