Russell Wilson spoke with the media on Thursday for the first time in several months, and he emphatically stated that he never wanted to leave the Seattle Seahawks and has a great relationship with head coach Pete Carroll. Depending on how things go this season, that sentiment could change dramatically.
ESPN’s Jeremy Fowler said on “Get Up!” Friday morning that there is a feeling around the NFL that the situation between Wilson and the Seahawks “could get very ugly once again” if Seattle doesn’t contend for a Super Bowl.
.@JFowlerESPN on Russell Wilson
"There's a feeling around the league that if Seattle is not at least on the cusp of a Super Bowl this year, that this could get very ugly once again." pic.twitter.com/u3xL4g9KlM
— Get Up (@GetUpESPN) June 11, 2021
“Russell Wilson was straight-up frustrated because he felt his name was floated in trade rumors even a few years back,” Fowler said. “And then this offseason, he had ideas to try to get the Seahawks back in the Super Bowl. He wanted to present them to the team, he was calling them up, saying, ‘Hey, what are we doing here, there?’ He felt like that was met with resistance, that they weren’t hearing him. So there was straight-up consternation.”
Some of those issues have been resolved. Fowler noted that Carroll has had several productive conversations with Wilson and included him in the decision to hire new offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. That doesn’t necessarily mean the positive feelings will linger for another year.
“Things are much better now, but his contract is very much tradable next year, where the dead money on the salary cap gets cut in half to $26 million,” Fowler said.
Had the Seahawks traded Wilson this offseason, they would have absorbed a dead salary cap hit of roughly $40 million. That is one of the reasons it was never a viable option.
Wilson’s agent provided a list of teams to which the QB would accept a trade earlier this offseason. Despite that, Wilson insists he never asked to be dealt.
Carroll also recently downplayed the drama (see his comments here), so it’s clear the Seahawks are committed to moving forward. If the team struggles in 2021, the tension could quickly return.
