Russell Wilson waiving Seahawks no-trade clause to get traded to Denver ‘not yet’ done
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Seahawks trading Russell Wilson
The Seahawks have agreeing to trade franchise quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos for multiple first-round draft choices and additional players and picks.
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Did Russell Wilson’s price just get too steep to keep?
No. He wanted to leave.
That’s what a league source told The News Tribune Tuesday, after the Seahawks altered their franchise’s path by agreeing to trade Wilson to the Denver Broncos for multiple first-round draft choices and additional players and picks.
The franchise-shaking deal is pending the quarterback’s approval.
A league source with direct knowledge of the situation told The News Tribune late Tuesday morning when asked if it was true that Wilson had waived his no-trade clause and was heading to Denver to play for the Broncos: “No, not yet.”
What’s that mean?
Wilson had yet to meet with the Broncos as of noon Tuesday. Nothing is going to be done until he does. That and a physical examination on Wilson for Denver are the last pieces that must happen for the deal to be complete.
But Wilson is indeed to meet with the Broncos, showing how quickly this deal is moving.
The players the Broncos are sending to Seattle are quarterback Drew Lock, defensive end Shelby Harris and tight end Noah Fant. They must also pass physicals before the deal becomes final.
The News Tribune confirmed the Seahawks are receiving five draft picks from Denver: The Broncos’ first-round pick at ninth overall next month and second-round choice this year, a first- and a second-round pick next year from Denver, and a fifth-round selection from the Broncos this season.
Seattle now has eight picks in next month’s draft, including four of the first 74.
Denver gets Wilson and a fourth-round pick from Seattle, in the biggest trade in Seahawks history.
Wilson, 33, is the most accomplished quarterback in Seahawks history since the team drafted him in 2012. He’s won Seattle’s only Super Bowl. In 2021 he passed Peyton Manning to become the winningest NFL quarterback in the first 10 seasons of a career in league history.
Wilson and the Seahawks smashed Manning and the Broncos in Super Bowl 48 at the end of the 2013 season, for Seattle’s only NFL championship.
Now the Seahawks are in rebuild mode without their franchise quarterback of the last 10 years, the best one they’ve ever had. That’s quite a place to be with a 70-year-old coach and ultimate football authority presumably near the end of his career, Pete Carroll.
Wilson has two years remaining on the then-record $140 million contract he signed with Seattle in April 2019. It was his second NFL-record extension with the only NFL team he’s known.
The proposed trade to Denver accelerated after Aaron Rodgers reached agreement earlier Tuesday on a $200 million, four-year deal to stay with the Green Bay Packers. That deal with $153 million guaranteed is the richest in NFL history.
Wilson and his agent Mark Rodgers absolutely noticed the Packers’ new deal. Wilson and his agent will be taking to Wilson’s team this time next year about a new contract beyond his ending at the close of the 2023 season. Mark Rodgers has used Aaron Rodgers’ contract as the comparison to get Wilson his previous extensions with Seattle.
Wilson’s current deal with the Seahawks at $140 million is $6 million more in total value and $1.5 million per year more than Rodgers got from Green Bay in his 2018 extension.
The Seahawks saw Rodgers’ $50 million per year and $153 million guaranteed from Green Bay Tuesday and apparently found it too rich to consider this time next year. That accelerated the talks with Denver, and likely raised the Broncos’ trade cost.
The Broncos had been pursuing possibly acquiring Rodgers if he couldn’t reach agreement with Green Bay.
Last week, Carroll and general manager John Schneider says the Seahawks were “not shopping” Wilson.
Wilson did more than win for the Seahawks. He impacted life in Seattle.
The kids and staff at Seattle Children’s hospital have “Blue Tuesdays” instead of the city’s Seahawks Blue Friday. That’s solely because Wilson visited the sickest of the sick there every week for a decade.
“It’s bigger than just the game,” Wilson said in 2018 talking about his visits to Seattle Children’s, near the northeast Seattle home where he lived in his first Seahawks years. “It’s a lot bigger than that.”
The 6-foot-4, 228-pound Lock was Denver’s second-round pick in the 2019 draft out of Missouri. The 25-year-old is eight years younger and $11 million cheaper this year than Wilson.
Wilson’s salary-cap charge for 2022 is scheduled to be $37 million. Lock’s is $2.2 million. The Seahawks will eat a whopping $26 million in dead cap charges, accelerated bonus money from the final two years of his contract, in the trade.
Lock has won eight of 21 career starts over parts of three seasons that have included injuries with the Broncos. He lost all three starts he made for Denver last season. For his career Lock has a completion rate of 59.3% with 25 touchdown passes and 20 interceptions.
For the sanity of anyone reading this from the Pacific Northwest or with Seahawks allegiances, we won’t list Wilson’s career numbers in comparison to Lock’s.
The haul the Seahawks are getting in trade makes another deal to get another, more veteran and accomplished NFL quarterback possible for Seattle.
Early Tuesday afternoon, the Seahawks’ official Twitter page posted a click of Tom Hanks’ character adrift at sea on his makeshift craft in the 2000 movie Cast Away, yelling: “Wilson! Wilson!!! Wilson, where are you?”
The Seahawks went from 40-1 to win next season’s Super Bowl to 80-1 after the trade of Wilson, according to BetOnline.
This story was originally published March 8, 2022 at 11:19 AM with the headline "Russell Wilson waiving Seahawks no-trade clause to get traded to Denver ‘not yet’ done."
