Lions Trade Pitch Brings 26-Year-Old Seahawks Pass Rusher to Detroit

Did you think we were out of ways to discuss the Russell Wilson trade? Have I got news for you.

The big NFL news of the week comes courtesy of veteran journalist and podcaster Pablo Torre, who’s uncovered and publicized some fascinating details concerning the recent NFLPA grievance filed against the NFL. Believe it or not, there’s a Russell Wilson angle to this story.

According to the document, which was accessed and published by Torre, “The NFLPA alleged that the collusive agreement of the NFL precluded three other quarterbacks-Russell Wilson, Lamar Jackson, and Kyler Murray-from obtaining fully guaranteed contracts after the [Deshaun] Watson contract.” In the 2022 offseason, Watson inked a fully guaranteed five-year, $230 million deal with the Cleveland Browns several days after Wilson was traded by the Seattle Seahawks to the Denver Broncos.

There are two interesting tidbits that involve Wilson. As you might recall, while the Seahawks weren’t too keen on giving Russ another contract extension, Denver gave him a five-year, $245 million deal. Based on Wilson’s testimony, it looks as if the contract he (and/or his agent, Mark Rodgers) was looking for was a fully guaranteed deal worth over $100 million more.

Here are the details from the document:

Mr. Wilson testified that he asked for a fully guaranteed contract from the Broncos, and I credit his testimony. However, it was clear that the Broncos had no intention of giving him one and told him (or his agent) that repeatedly. Given that position of the Broncos, it is reasonable that Mr. Wilson instructed Mr. Burkhardt to ultimately submit a non-guaranteed offer to the Broncos.

The Broncos’ unwillingness to accept a fully guaranteed contract was not the result of a collusive agreement among team owners triggered by the March 2022 annual meeting or otherwise. The Broncos believed that they had more leverage in negotiations because Mr. Wilson had two years remaining on his existing contract, and therefore there was not a strong incentive for them to accede to Mr. Wilson’s requests for a fully guaranteed contract. He was not in a similar situation to Mr. Cousins when he negotiated his fully guaranteed contract as a free agent, or Mr. Watson, who effectively was a free agent at the time of his contract signing with the Browns.

Further, as explained above, while the emails sent by Mr. Penner indicated that he was aware of the precedent that Mr. Wilson’s contract might set for the rest of the League, the emails do not suggest that in attempting to limiting Mr. Wilson’s guaranteed compensation, the Broncos were fulfilling a collusive agreement struck at the March 2022 owners’ meeting.

Wilson’s Broncos contract (which had $165 million guaranteed) was ultimately not agreed to until September. Russell’s exit from Denver was definitely anything but clean, including his late-season benching.

It’s obviously a good thing for them that they were able to avoid maximizing the damage in case things went south. I shudder to think what would’ve happened if the Seahawks signed up for a fully guaranteed third contract with a declining Wilson.

The other component of this is NFLPA president J.C. Tretter curiously blaming Wilson for not setting a new industry standard of fully guaranteed contracts and settling for something below what Watson received. According to Torre, Tretter called Wilson a “wuss” in a private text exchange and had some other choice words that needn’t be repeated on-air.

By the way, Tretter spent the second half of his playing career with the Cleveland Browns. Shortly before Watson was acquired and extended even amid the sexual assault accusations and lawsuits, Cleveland released Tretter. The week before either event occurred, Tretter was re-elected for a second term as NFLPA president.

Arbitrator Christopher Droney ruled that, “While the NFL Management Council encouraged the 32 member Clubs of the NFL to reduce guarantees in future contracts with players at the March 2022 annual meeting of the Club owners, the Clubs did not join in such a collusive agreement and did not act in accordance with one as to the three quarterbacks named in the initial arbitration demand or to other veteran players.” In other words, Droney dismissed the case, but it seemingly was approaching that collusion line.

There’s a whole lot to unpack and it’d be much easier to defer to the original source (Pablo Torre and PFT’s Mike Florio), but from the Wilson standpoint it sheds some new light on what transpired behind the scenes prior to the trade.