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The Dolphins under owner Stephen Ross not long ago seemed like a large man with a big bat who simply couldn’t connect on a high and tight fastball. Now, perhaps Ross and the Dolphins are a little kid swinging a cracked broom at a piñata that is hanging too high for him to reach.

Free-agent quarterback Matt Flynn, who set on January 1 a Packers franchise record with 480 passing yards, has agreed to terms with the Seahawks, according to Adam Schefter of ESPN.

Schefter reports that Flynn will sign a three-year deal worth up to $26 million, with $10 million guaranteed. Tom Silverstein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the deal has a base value of $19 million.

The maximum annual value of less than $9 million reflects some skepticism regarding Flynn’s ability to get it done as the week-in, week-out starting quarterback. And the “up to” means that the deal includes incentive payments, likely based on whether he plays.

There’s no guarantee he will. Tarvaris Jackson has a year as the starter, and six total years in the system that Seahawks offensive coordinator Darrell Bevell uses.

And so it’ll be harder for Flynn to get to the field in Seattle than it would have been in Miami. And yet he chose that over a reunion with former Packers offensive coordinator Joe Philbin, now the head coach wih the Dolphins.

Maybe the Dolphins really did lowball Flynn, thinking he’d take less to be with Philbin. Maybe Flynn, like Jim Harbaugh and Jeff Fisher and Peyton Manning, decided not to be a Dolphin.

Either way, it puts the Dolphins in even more of a bind. Their best bet now will be to acquire the starter that gets bumped by Peyton Manning: Alex Smith, Tim Tebow, or Matt Hasselbeck.

Or maybe to make a Hail Mary effort to get back into the Peyton chase.