Seattle Seahawks Signed Away Their Future With The Russell Wilson Contract
Photo Credit: Ron Jenkins/AP
Look I’m not a hater of Russell Wilson per se, granted some fellow Sports Chief writers who thought he was better than Big Ben circa 2014 might tell you otherwise, but this contract is terrible for the Seattle Seahawks. I feel like there are are two issues with this contract. To start, no NFL player deserve that much money in a salary cap league. Maybe if the NFL was like MLB where you can throw whatever at a player but it’s not. Also, if anybody is getting that type of money why is it Russell Wilson of all people? Russell Wilson is a very solid quarterback in my opinion and a top 10 QB in the league on most days, but in no way shape or form does he deserve to be the highest paid quarterback in the league. First off, the Seahawks are still what I would consider a run first offense. I mean in the most pass friendly era in professional football history where a 37 yr old Eli Manning can throw for over 4,000 yds, Russell has only done that twice in his 7 year career. Your team isn’t built around passing the football so putting roughly 1/5 of your team’s salary cap towards a QB doesn’t exactly make a lot of sense. Secondly, as I just mentioned $35 million a year is 18.6% of the $188 million salary cap for the upcoming season. So again, roughly 1/5 of the salary cap for a single player. It doesn’t matter who your giving that type of money to, but I can assure that it’s not going to work well for them in a salary cap league. You know what made the Seattle Seahawks so good back in 2013 and 2014? It’s the fact that they were able to pay Russell Wilson peanuts because he was still on his rookie deal. This allowed for money to be spread around to other players because in football, every position is important. In the 4 seasons since Russell signed his first big pay day in 2015, the Seahawks have won only 2 playoff games and have failed to make it past the 2nd round of the playoffs. Again, prior to that 2015 extension the Seahawks had appeared in back to back Superbowls. And lastly, it’s a well known fact that Russell Wilson isn’t a pocket passer. His entire career has been him escaping the pocket and extending the play, which if I’m right requires some speed. Russell Wilson currently still has that speed but he’s also now 30 years and one would have to think that that speed will regress as it does in all athletes.
Is anybody left from the Legion of Boom??
Photo Credit: Seattle Times
In the end, if you thought that Russell’s first deal of $22 million a year put a stranglehold on the team just wait till this new deal of $35 million a year kicks in. To me it seems that Seattle was happier to just make Russell Wilson the face of the franchise and the city for years to come rather than try to actually be a superbowl contender over over the next 5 years. Who knows, maybe I’m wrong. Maybe Russell can catch lightning in a bottle and lead this team to a deep run in the playoffs. Their definitely going to have to draft well and have as many players on rookie contracts as possible. If I’m the rest of the NFC though, I’m loving this deal.