Russell Wilson: "There's Great Potential"...

[NorthHawk]

Guaranteeing a contract like that could be disastrous for the cap if he were to get hurt or if his play were to fall off the face of the earth

That's the downside.
If we signed him to a 4 Year deal at $40 Million per, and he got seriously injured in the first game, we would also be out of pocket Cap wise.
It's a risk all players and teams make.
I don't think his play will fall off much because he has too much pride to be JAG.

[RiverDog]

Guaranteeing a contract like that could be disastrous for the cap if he were to get hurt or if his play were to fall off the face of the earth

That's the downside.
If we signed him to a 4 Year deal at $40 Million per, and he got seriously injured in the first game, we would also be out of pocket Cap wise.
It's a risk all players and teams make.
I don't think his play will fall off much because he has too much pride to be JAG.

And it's a helluva downside, especially when you consider Russell's style of play, the number of sacks he gives up, etc. He's more at risk of a serious injury than someone like Rodgers.

[c_hawkbob]

I'm not so sure Pete's Offense requires a mobile QB.
That Russell is one is a bonus, but look at the QBs he's had in College and you see Palmer (statue), Sanchez and Leinart (slightly mobile), and Josh David Booty (not sure about him).
In the NFL he had Drew Bledsoe.
None of these guys were like Wilson. Not many are and if they throw a good deep ball and make the right calls at the LoS, they can be very successful.

If we want to make a big push for Wilson, how about offering a 10 year deal at $400 Million with $300 Million guaranteed.
It would make him the highest paid QB and he will get about 1/3 of a billion dollars guaranteed and we would get him for
a Cap hit of around $40 Million or less. In 5 or 6 years, it will seem inexpensive.

I was thinking along the same lines but I think we could do it for 6 years $200M, all guaranteed.

It'd be less per year than Rodgers, but all guaranteed is a big incentive. Insurance to cover injury.

By the 4th year he'll look underpaid.

[NorthHawk]

I was thinking along the same lines but I think we could do it for 6 years $200M, all guaranteed.

It'd be less per year than Rodgers, but all guaranteed is a big incentive. Insurance to cover injury.

By the 4th year he'll look underpaid.

All guaranteed is interesting.
That's only $33.333 Million/year so they might push for more.
How about $225 Million which is $37.5 Million/year.

This would satisfy a couple of requests for him, with one being the highest paid player in the NFL
along with getting it all guaranteed. It will also look cheap in a few years, so the team Cap isn't
significantly hit.

[c_hawkbob]

I was thinking along the same lines but I think we could do it for 6 years $200M, all guaranteed.

It'd be less per year than Rodgers, but all guaranteed is a big incentive. Insurance to cover injury.

By the 4th year he'll look underpaid.

All guaranteed is interesting.
That's only $33.333 Million/year so they might push for more.
How about $225 Million which is $37.5 Million/year.

This would satisfy a couple of requests for him, with one being the highest paid player in the NFL
along with getting it all guaranteed. It will also look cheap in a few years, so the team Cap isn't
significantly hit.

Would work for me, and it's certainly the same ballpark ... I was just giving the team something to point to and claim they made a great deal as well, make it more of a "win/win" if you will.

It may well be that Russ' camp wants both feathers in their cap, but the "highest paid" feather didn't seem to matter as much to him last negotiations as it did to his agent.

[idhawkman]

"Highest paid ever..." is a fleeting title that will be long gone within a few days or months. Could be either, right? I'm pretty confident he won't have that title a year after he gets it so what if we paid him $45M this year and then guaranteed $25/year after that? LOL

[NorthHawk]

"Highest paid ever..." is a fleeting title that will be long gone within a few days or months. Could be either, right? I'm pretty confident he won't have that title a year after he gets it so what if we paid him $45M this year and then guaranteed $25/year after that? LOL

QB salaries are shooting straight up, so it doesn't matter what we pay him initially.
But one of the points to be emphasized is it will be cheap in a few years (relatively speaking).
The guaranteed money is the lure.

[Anthony]

...for him to sign the biggest football contract ever.

https://www.12up.com/posts/6321390-russ ... jBdL2jOeso

It sounds like we can dispense with any hopes of a home town discount.

So with Frank Clark threatening a holdout, Bobby Wagner's contract coming up next season, and Russell talking about the biggest contract ever, something's gotta give. We can't keep all 3.

the phrase was potential, also that greatest ever could be 35 mil a year which would be the largest ever. So let's stop guessing, making things up or whatever and let's wait. Some of you did this before his last contract and that turned out just fine. Also interesting how no mention of the fact he also said he does not think Seattle will let him go, or that he said on the tonight show he loves and wants to stay in Seattle. So let's stop cherry picking and wait till we see what happens.

[NorthHawk]

It’s called conjecture, Anthony. His contract is almost due and there’s
nothing else going on so we’re discussing possible future events and offering
solutions.

[c_hawkbob]

"Highest paid ever..." is a fleeting title that will be long gone within a few days or months.

True that. Anyone is only the "highest paid ever" because it's their turn. It'll only last until the next elite QB's turn at a money contract.

[RiverDog]

It’s called conjecture, Anthony. His contract is almost due and there’s nothing else going on so we’re discussing possible future events and offering solutions.

Couldn't have said it better myself. Join in on the fun, Anthony. It won't cost you a dime and has zero impact on reality. We're nothing but a bunch of pot bellied, beer slinging armchair quarterbacks.

[jshawaii22]

but...but...but... some of you actually have the audacity to talk about trading Russell to gain the cap space back.

I don't think It will happen, but I also don't think we will be signing the other big 2 and Reed next year, too. If we F-tag Russell, which I think is where we're headed we have to sign them sooner rather then latter as they can walk. If you want to have Russell now, to open up the F-Tag for someone else, I think $150 million guaranteed (100%) over 4 is what it would take.

With contracts like Trout's, even in another league, there's no doubt the NFL underpays it's stars.

[NorthHawk]

We're only a few weeks from the draft, so I suspect the Front Office is focusing on their strategy for getting the players
they want, if not doing final evaluations via meetings and background checks. After the draft we may see some movement
on some of the contracts for the core players.

[idhawkman]

QB salaries are shooting straight up, so it doesn't matter what we pay him initially.
But one of the points to be emphasized is it will be cheap in a few years (relatively speaking).
The guaranteed money is the lure.

"IF" and ONLY IF, he stays healthy. If he gets a neck stinger like Avril or Kam, it could be one of the biggest albatrosses around our neck that you've ever seen.

[idhawkman]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Join in on the fun, Anthony. It won't cost you a dime and has zero impact on reality. We're nothing but a bunch of pot bellied, beer slinging armchair quarterbacks.

I'm going to steal Cbob's comment to me and respond to your post here with... "True That!"

[c_hawkbob]

"IF" and ONLY IF, he stays healthy. If he gets a neck stinger like Avril or Kam, it could be one of the biggest albatrosses around our neck that you've ever seen.

No, just as baseball does, you buy insurance to cover injuries with a guaranteed contract. We'd be on the hook for his cap only for the rest of the season he gets injured. After that he'd be on the exempt list.

[mykc14]

No, just as baseball does, you buy insurance to cover injuries with a guaranteed contract. We'd be on the hook for his cap only for the rest of the season he gets injured. After that he'd be on the exempt list.

Not exactly. He would be on our cap for as long as the Hawks needed to spread the rest of his salary out. Let’s say he gets 300 mil guaranteed over 10 years. The Hawks have to account for every guaranteed dollar on that contract against the cap eventually. So let’s say they set it up for him to get 30 mil a year. If he got hurt during the first season- career over the Hawks would have to keep him on the exempt list and have a 30 mil hit every year for the rest of the contract or eventually take one (or two if they do a post June 1st cut) big cap hits. If his play declined or he got a career ending injury it could have huge negative cap implications that they would be stuck with for most of the 10 years unless they wanted to take two huge cap hits of like 70 mil, which would be very unlikely.

[c_hawkbob]

On a fully guaranteed contract the cap hit would be equal every year, and stop altogether as soon as he goes on the exempt list.

[idhawkman]

I was under the impression that guaranteed funds are on your cap number over the length of the contract whether to player is able to play or not. I'll defer on this though as I am not as confident as Cbob is on this issue and I know Bob doesn't just pop off without checking into stuff.

[mykc14]

On a fully guaranteed contract the cap hit would be equal every year, and stop altogether as soon as he goes on the exempt list.

The cap hit doesn’t have to be equal every year they can set it up anyway they want. They can have a 50 mil cap hit one year and a 20 mil the next, but I would imagine it would be close to equal most years. As far as going on the exempt list I don’t know about that for sure, but I do know every guaranteed dollar has to be accounted on the cap at some point. A good example of that is Kam. He had a career ending injury in 2017 and his $$ counted on our cap in 2018 and the rest of his guaranteed $$ will count in 2019 (or 2019/2020 if we designate him as a post June 1st cut). If we were to sign RW to a fully guaranteed contract and he had a career ending injury the rest of what we owned him would have to be accounted for on the cap whether we keep him on the PUP list, like we did Kam, or he retires due to injury, or whatever the case may be we will have a one or two time huge cap hit or we will be paying that 30 mil/yr for the rest of his contract.

[NorthHawk]

Then the answer is to sign players to 1 year contracts.
You can't play this game on either the field or in negotiations with a fear that a player will get a career ending injury.
It happens occasionally but not that often and less so for QB's.

[c_hawkbob]

On a fully guaranteed contract the cap hit would be equal every year, and stop altogether as soon as he goes on the exempt list.

The cap hit doesn’t have to be equal every year they can set it up anyway they want. They can have a 50 mil cap hit one year and a 20 mil the next, but I would imagine it would be close to equal most years.

How? They do it now with variable signing bonuses, roster bonuses and incentives, if it's 100% guaranteed all of that goes away.

[mykc14]

How? They do it now with variable signing bonuses, roster bonuses and incentives, if it's 100% guaranteed all of that goes away.

The signing bonus is fully guaranteed and has to be accounted for on the cap no matter what. Roster bonuses and incentives aren't usually guaranteed at the signing of the contract so they don't have to be accounted for on the cap unless the player hits those things. There are all types of ways to manipulate a contract, but whatever is guaranteed at the signing of the contract will eventually have to be accounted for on the cap. If a player meets a roster bonus and it states that it becomes guaranteed at a certain date, if they are on the roster on that date then that bonus must be accounted for on the cap.

[obiken]

River, Cbob, ID hawk, everybody else: I have an ugly feeling in my gut that is we don't sign RW by the 15th of April, he will be gone. I am I being my usual pessimistic self, or just realistic?

[RiverDog]

River, Cbob, ID hawk, everybody else: I have an ugly feeling in my gut that is we don't sign RW by the 15th of April, he will be gone. I am I being my usual pessimistic self, or just realistic?

I honestly dunno. I think he means it when he says that if he doesn't get a deal by the 15th that he won't negotiate until after the season, but whether or not that means he's not coming back if it doesn't get done is anyone's guess.

I was watching Colin Cowturd earlier this afternoon, and he noted how Russell has changed since his divorce and marriage to Cierra, and it's more towards the Hollywood, glamorous lifestyle rather than the aw shucks innocent Bambi in the woods persona of his younger years. That doesn't speak well to the possibility of finishing his career in Seattle.

[obiken]

I honestly dunno. I think he means it when he says that if he doesn't get a deal by the 15th that he won't negotiate until after the season, but whether or not that means he's not coming back if it doesn't get done is anyone's guess.

I was watching Colin Cowturd earlier this afternoon, and he noted how Russell has changed since his divorce and marriage to Cierra, and it's more towards the Hollywood, glamorous lifestyle rather than the aw shucks innocent Bambi in the woods persona of his younger years. That doesn't speak well to the possibility of finishing his career in Seattle.

I agree! He was a guy to be admired, and now she is turning him into just another Pro athlete that says: mine. When I wrote the other thread asking the question, should/will he leave, I have the answer for me now, and its not going to be popular on the site, but I say trade him or let him walk. Yes, we will hurt bad, but its better than paying him 35 million, and watching a One Trick Pony run around and get hurt or throw picks; better than turning into the GB Packers of the NW; better than seeing the entire era go down the tubes. But that's just me.

[jshawaii22]

Evidently the 'negotiation' hasn't gone very far. This would seem to predicate that Russell is asking for more then he knows the team can/will pay. He knows he can't walk away, but If he's decided that he's 'gone' it's not until after 3 more years, unless he intends to retire from the game.. No -- that's not Russell -- so he honors the team for 3 years and then walks away.

We actually get a deal putting the FTag on him for 2 more years. It would give us the cap to sign Wags and Clark now.

God, I hope I'm wrong, but I saw it coming. It started years ago in the locker room. "Whitey" Wilson. Not the same person now and who can blame him at this point. It seemed to me, just following the news flow over since SB1, that Pete was not connected in the locker room and allowed some very bad sh#t to happen, based on Pete giving locker room control to the so-called leaders to take care of it. The 'leaders' were all on defense... ET, Kam, Sherman, Bennett. The same ones perpetuating the issues against the offense and Russell. Human Nature took over. It maybe too late to save it.

[c_hawkbob]

I think the only thing that is evident is that they are negotiating. Both sides are saying so, and beyond that the only evidence will be a signed contract.

I was less worried than everyone the last time around, looks like I'm fixing to be this time as well.

[NorthHawk]

River, Cbob, ID hawk, everybody else: I have an ugly feeling in my gut that is we don't sign RW by the 15th of April, he will be gone. I am I being my usual pessimistic self, or just realistic?

Pessimistic.
Negotiations have just started and he will be here for at least the next 2 years and most likely 3.

There is an article in PFT that suggests Wilson's camp is looking for a deal that has a Cap % so
he would get a raise each year. For instance (just taking numbers out of the air for demonstration
purposes) if he gets a 20% Cap association, and the Cap goes up by 10%, he would get a 10% raise.
The Cap % would stay the same but his salary would increase by 10%.
It's never been done before in the NFL and there might be some push back from the owners, but
who knows if this is something that can create stability in the QB market.

https://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2 ... lson-deal/

[RiverDog]

I saw the article posing the possibility of RW's contract being tied to a percentage of the salary cap. I didn't realize it was 'legal', but apparently it's in the CBA and the lack of teams using it has caused some to claim that the owners are colluding to keep it from becoming commonplace. It's an interesting idea.

The good news in all of this is at least we won't have to wait very long for this deadline. The 15th is a week from next Monday.

[Rambo2014]

I see he and his squeeze are in Brazil

[NorthHawk]

I saw the article posing the possibility of RW's contract being tied to a percentage of the salary cap. I didn't realize it was 'legal', but apparently it's in the CBA and the lack of teams using it has caused some to claim that the owners are colluding to keep it from becoming commonplace. It's an interesting idea.

The good news in all of this is at least we won't have to wait very long for this deadline. The 15th is a week from next Monday.

The problem might be that QB salaries are escalating at a faster rate than the Cap for the most part, so it wouldn't address him no
longer being the highest paid QB. I might keep him in the top 5 or 10, though.

[RiverDog]

I saw the article posing the possibility of RW's contract being tied to a percentage of the salary cap. I didn't realize it was 'legal', but apparently it's in the CBA and the lack of teams using it has caused some to claim that the owners are colluding to keep it from becoming commonplace. It's an interesting idea.

The good news in all of this is at least we won't have to wait very long for this deadline. The 15th is a week from next Monday.

The problem might be that QB salaries are escalating at a faster rate than the Cap for the most part, so it wouldn't address him no longer being the highest paid QB. I might keep him in the top 5 or 10, though.

It's worth consideration, though. From Russell's POV, it would guarantee that his contract would rise with the salary cap, and from a team POV, they could work their budget so as to figure out how much of the cap they need to dedicate to other positions and remain competitive. It would seem to be a good compromise.

[idhawkman]

River, Cbob, ID hawk, everybody else: I have an ugly feeling in my gut that is we don't sign RW by the 15th of April, he will be gone. I am I being my usual pessimistic self, or just realistic?

I honestly dunno. I think he means it when he says that if he doesn't get a deal by the 15th that he won't negotiate until after the season, but whether or not that means he's not coming back if it doesn't get done is anyone's guess.

I was watching Colin Cowturd earlier this afternoon, and he noted how Russell has changed since his divorce and marriage to Cierra, and it's more towards the Hollywood, glamorous lifestyle rather than the aw shucks innocent Bambi in the woods persona of his younger years. That doesn't speak well to the possibility of finishing his career in Seattle.

Yeah, I'm with Riv on this. It doesn't look good.

What we don't know is how this season would play out. If he's healthy after this year, he'll either be extended or Tagged. After that, if he's still healthy, I think he's gone.

I think it was interesting that the Seahawks signed a couple of DEs and announced that Bobby was going to be a Seahawk for his entire career after RW made his statement.

[RiverDog]

We're a week away from Russell's April 15th deadline, and there doesn't appear to be any progress towards a new deal:

https://www.seattletimes.com/sports/sea ... ign=buffer

[c_hawkbob]

It's going to appear as though there is no progress right up until there either is a deal or time runs out.

[NorthHawk]

We really don't know what's actually happening behind the scenes, but April 15th is an arbitrary date and I think
like most artificial deadlines, it could change.
Florio of PFT posed the question of if the Seahawks offered him everything he wanted in early July, would he
turn it down?
I personally doubt he would as it would send a message to all teams that might otherwise be interested to
have doubt if/when Wilson hit the Free Agent market.

[RiverDog]

We really don't know what's actually happening behind the scenes, but April 15th is an arbitrary date and I think
like most artificial deadlines, it could change.
Florio of PFT posed the question of if the Seahawks offered him everything he wanted in early July, would he
turn it down?
I personally doubt he would as it would send a message to all teams that might otherwise be interested to
have doubt if/when Wilson hit the Free Agent market.

We don't really know what the real purpose of the 4/15 deadline is. If you take Russell for his word, it corresponds with the beginning of team activities and he doesn't want to deal with all the questions and speculation. I personally have a hard time buying that reasoning as he has to know that j/b he's not in active negotiations that it's not going to stop the rumors and speculation. The only way for him to stop it is to sign a new deal.

One POV is that he's trying to flush out the Hawks best offer and to do so prior to the draft, which is just a couple weeks away. That way, if the offer doesn't meet his expectations, he and the Hawks can start working on a trade. If that's the case, then it is not an arbitrary date.

So we'll see. I think you're right, the two parties will continue to talk, deadline or no deadline. Both sides seem to be holding their cards close to their vests.

[NorthHawk]

I look at it as more of a pressure tactic.
His best leverage is now and the teams best leverage is after the draft and nearer TC.
But it's all part of the dance of negotiations and like some writers suggest, it might be
that Wilson really does want to become a Free Agent and get Market value and this is
part of the process to get there.

[RiverDog]

I look at it as more of a pressure tactic. His best leverage is now and the teams best leverage is after the draft and nearer TC.

Yea, that's definitely a possibility and could explain why the team seems to be dragging their feet.

But it's all part of the dance of negotiations and like some writers suggest, it might be that Wilson really does want to become a Free Agent and get Market value and this is part of the process to get there.

Or that he wants to be traded now, before TC starts. If the Hawks did come up with their highest offer and it still wasn't good enough, both sides might be inclined to seek a trade.