For multiple reasons, Seattle is starting to ponder life without quarterback Matt Hasselbeck.

Hasselbeck’s biggest supporter, head coach Mike Holmgren, is leaving the team next season and the dynamics of the team will be different. Plus, next season is the last season of Hasselbeck’s contract. It carries a $9.5 million salary-cap number next season.

If Seattle traded or cut Hassebeck, he would count $3.2 million against their salary cap but, more important, he also would free up $6.3 million worth of salary-cap space. The problem is, which quarterback would fill it?

The Seahawks don’t have a QB-in-waiting the way Philadelphia does. If they did, they would have the type of options the Eagles now do with Donovan McNabb. But Seattle has not groomed Hasselbeck’s successor, so the Seahawks might have little choice but to stick with their veteran for one more season.

But the team will explore ways to upgrade the position and, even with all its needs, is expected to draft a young quarterback.

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