Seattle Seahawks will have Russell Wilson for 2021 and beyond
There have been many conversations surrounding Russell Wilson and his future in Seattle, but the latest reports around the NFL indicate a trade won’t be happening anytime soon.
Recently, Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson, through his agent Mark Rodgers, named four teams he prefers a trade to. These teams were the Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys, New Orleans Saints, and Chicago Bears. To get Seattle to the table, any potential trade partner team would need to pay at least four first-round picks (plus other considerations). Seattle wants to stack talent if they’re going to get rid of their franchise quarterback. Compensation aside, most of Wilson’s preferred destinations won’t work.
Eliminating the contenders
New Orleans is over the cap. They are finding ways to cut and restructure players to get under the $182.5M mark before the new league year begins on Wednesday. Drew Brees’ retirement helps, but the Saints are still almost $9M over the cap. Considering the huge contract given to Taysom Hill, the Big Easy isn’t an easy place to send Wilson. Dallas just re-signed Dak Prescott to a four-year extension worth up to $160M, including a whopping $126M guaranteed, which eliminates them from consideration as well.
Chicago is in a worse financial spot than New Orleans. Although they restructured some contracts over the weekend, the Bears is still $19M over the cap. The only way Chicago affords Wilson is if they part ways with a player like Khalil Mack. That leaves the Raiders as the only team from Wilson’s list who could try and make a move for the 32-year-old quarterback. From all indications, Las Vegas will stick with Derek Carr under center. So at this point, the places Wilson would go to aren’t viable. Besides, the Seahawks don’t want to trade him anyway.
On Sunday, reports surfaced from Ian Rapoport of NFL Network that the Seahawks currently have no active deals or negotiations in place for RW3. Rapoport mentioned that some teams, the Chicago Bears mainly, are calling Seattle about Wilson, but the Seahawks don’t seem as interested as the media portrays them.
As our Free Agency Frenzy coverage begins: Will the #Seahawks trade QB Russell Wilson? pic.twitter.com/5jvl2T9ExW
— Ian Rapoport (@RapSheet) March 14, 2021