Ignore the spin: If Seahawks really wanted to keep Russell Wilson, he'd still be in Seattle | Opinion
It’s too bad the Seattle Seahawks didn’t just hand this one off to Beast Mode.
As Russell Wilson was introduced Wednesday as the new face of the Denver Broncos, the three most powerful figures in the braintrust of his former team — Seahawks owner Jody Allen, coach Pete Carroll and GM John Schneider — unleashed a barrage of statements that they undoubtedly hoped would settle the issue of exactly why they would trade away their star quarterback in his prime.
He wanted out.
If only it was that simple.
Wilson, it stands to reason, has been contemplating a move out of Seattle for some time. And as last offseason’s rumblings spun forward to the new offseason, he has his wish for a fresh start.
Yet for the Seahawks to publicly heap the blame for this on the quarterback that they failed to fully support (see the O-line and running back issues) while thanking him for his years of service is some serious spin gone bad.
During a news conference in which the 33-year-old declared that he intends to play 10 to 12 more years (hello, TB12) and aims to win “three or four” more Super Bowls, Wilson maintained that the decision for him to move on was “mutual.” Maybe that’s some spin, too. But the messy departure is rooted in reality.
No matter how bad Wilson may have wanted out, the Seahawks could have resisted. They could have said “no way” to the player who three years ago they gave a $65 million signing bonus to that was at the time the highest in NFL history. They could have rebuffed offers.
It’s not like NFL teams haven’t used the leverage afforded in the system in playing hardball.
Instead, the Seahawks — not long after Carroll contended during the NFL combine that they had no “intention” of trading Wilson — decided to move on and in classic NFL market style, they settled for the best offer. Sure, there’s something to be said of not wanting to keep players who may not be “all-in” for the program. There’s also something to the notion of not throwing him under the bus to try saving face.
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In dealing Wilson and a fourth-round pick, the Seahawks obtained two first-round picks, two second-round picks, a fifth-round pick, an emerging star of a tight end in Noah Fant, defensive lineman Shelby Harris and a young quarterback, Drew Lock, who entered the NFL in 2019 as a first-round talent.
Maybe this should have been the Seahawks' statement:
“Thanks, Russ, for allowing us to parlay the third-round pick we originally invested in you into such a major trade-market haul. We appreciate your years of service, the two Super Bowl appearances, the one Super Bowl win and the general electricity you provided. We should have let you cook or at least developed a better wall of protection. Best wishes in the future. And one day, you’ll be in the Seahawks Ring of Honor as the greatest quarterback in franchise history.”
Of course, the Seahawks can win big with this trade, given the draft capital they’ve obtained. It’s just a pity that they couldn’t bring themselves to issue a series of statements on Wilson without throwing shade.
The worst came from the top as Allen proclaimed that she “looks forward to welcoming our new players and to everyone being fully engaged.”
Quick, somebody insert the footage of former safety Earl Thomas flashing a middle-finger salute towards Carroll as he rode off on a golf cart in Arizona with a season-ending broken leg and made a statement of his own in his final act as a Seahawk.
Wilson, for sure, is too classy to sling mud. At least not now. Perhaps someday, as he alluded to during his press conference, he will reveal more in a book about his Seahawks saga, which included the goal-line interception in the closing seconds of Super Bowl XLIX that thwarted a repeat title and fueled so much controversy about the decision to not give the football to Marshawn Lynch, aka “Beast Mode,” while at the goal line. The Seahawks, who once seemed like a dynasty in the making, never fully recovered from letting that Super Bowl crown slip away.
At the moment, though, nobody can blame Wilson for directing his energy toward this new challenge rather than dwelling on the past.
You probably don’t have to remind Wilson, or fanatical Broncos fans, that the past two offseasons provided fresh starts for two high-profile quarterbacks — Tom Brady in 2020 and Matthew Stafford in 2021 — and they both wound up winning Super Bowls in their first seasons with their new teams.
In today’s crazy NFL, it’s not far-fetched to think that the dynamic Wilson, Houdini in cleats, can continue the trend as he collaborates with new Broncos coach Nathaniel Hackett. And just a hunch here: Hackett will let Russ cook.
Yet Hackett, who rolled with Aaron Rodgers in Green Bay, had better provide Wilson with a solid rushing attack, too. Denver ranked 13th in the league for rushing last season (two slots lower than Seattle, by the way), but has pieces in place with running backs Javonte Williams and Melvin Gordon. For all of Hackett’s new-age persona, his coaching style has been laced, too, with some old-school principles that value a balanced attack. The young receiving targets, Courtland Sutton and Jerry Jeudy, haven’t established themselves like the receivers Wilson had in Seattle in DK Metcalf and Tyler Lockett, but with Wilson in tow it’s a given that the expectations to blossom have ratcheted up a few more notches.
And maybe Hackett gives Wilson a better chance to thrive in the type of creative scheme that Wilson lacked in recent years in Seattle.
Time for a fresh start. Maybe both sides will agree that the feeling for split is mutual ... because it happened.