Seahawks, Russell Wilson '10s of millions' apart on contract
By Jason Rowan
If the Seattle Seahawks and Russell Wilson are eventually going to find a middle ground and draw-up a contract that is amenable to both sides, the two parties have a huge monetary expanse to traverse … as in a speculated “10s of millions” of dollars.
710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny O’Neill paints a fairly convoluted picture regarding the ongoing contract negotiations between the Seahawks and Wilson, suggesting that the parties are so far apart it indicates they are no closer to coming to a mutually satisfying resolution anytime soon.
O’Neill sketches out the contractual impasse in a well-laid-out Q&A which specifically addresses how all indications point to the Seahawks’ standing offer to be in the four-year, $80 million range, well short of contracts recently doled out to franchise-caliber quarterbacks such as the Packers’ Aaron Rodgers.
To put it in perspective, the 49ers and Colin Kaepernick agreed to a six-year contract extension worth up to $126 million. The megadeal also includes $13 million in guaranteed money with a potential for that sure money to reach up to $54 million.
Addressing the reported $120 million deal — with half of that money guaranteed — that had been bandied about of late, O’Neill believes that’s never going to happen.
O’Neill believes that a deal in some form ultimately will get done, but notes that it’s not too often where a quarterback coming off his rookie contract are of Wilson’s caliber and pedigree, which complicates matters. Wilson’s rookie deal has one year at $1.5 million remaining, meaning a four-year deal at $80 million essentially means a new contract would be a five-year deal at just over $80 million.
Those terms obviously are a far cry from Kaepernick’s deal — who has been a successful quarterback but falls short when compared to what Wilson has done in his short career. Further, it’s a pittance to the five-year, $110 million deal that Rodgers signed in 2013, one that O’Neill deems as the “gold standard” for contracts for top-tier quarterbacks.
Given that both sides have some semblance of logic inherent to their positions — Wilson arguably deserves to be paid accordingly and the Seahawks can rely on the fact the team utilizes a tried-and-true contractural formula when dealing with star players.
In other words, plenty of work remains.
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