Seahawks Sign Russell Wilson To Extension
12:13pm: Wilson has signed his new contract, and the Seahawks have officially confirmed the contract, per Tom Pelissero of USA Today (Twitter link).
8:47am: The Seahawks have agreed to a contract extension with Russell Wilson, beating the quarterback’s self-imposed deadline, reports Peter King of TheMMQB.com (via Twitter). According to King, it’s a four-year, $87.6MM deal for Wilson, including a $31MM signing bonus and $60MM in guarantees (Twitter link).
With the Seahawks set to have their first training camp practice today, Wilson was prepared to shut down contract talks and focus on football if the two sides hadn’t worked out an agreement within the next few hours. Instead, he’s poised to sign an extension that will keep him under contract with Seattle through the 2019 season.
The new contract doesn’t make Wilson the highest-paid quarterback in the league, but he comes very close to matching Aaron Rodgers‘ $22MM per-year salary, with an average annual value of $21.9MM. We’ll have to wait to hear how the deal is structured, and how many of that $60MM in guaranteed money is actually fully guaranteed, but it appears Wilson’s new contract strongly resembles Ben Roethlisberger‘s pact with the Steelers – Big Ben also got a $31MM signing bonus on his four-year, $87.4MM deal.
Earlier in the process, we heard that Wilson was aiming to top Rodgers’ salary, perhaps seeking an annual salary approaching $25MM, so it appears he made some concessions to get something done this week. The Seahawks may have made some concessions of their own, as most quarterback extensions are for longer than four years. The relatively short term, which is in line with extensions Seattle has done for other key players, will allow Wilson to enter the final year of the contract when he’s just 30 years old.
The negotiations between Wilson and the Seahawks have been one of the NFL’s top stories all offseason, as the Super Bowl-winning quarterback had been set to earn a very modest $1.542MM salary in 2015. He and agent Mark Rodgers were reportedly comfortable with playing out the season on that deal, potentially forcing Seattle to use its exclusive franchise tag on Wilson next winter. However, that drama will be avoided now that the two sides have agreed to terms on a long-term contract.
Because Wilson’s 2015 salary was just $1.542MM, his overall five-year contract won’t look quite as impressive as the new-money figures suggest. Again, we’ll have to wait for the full breakdown of the deal to be sure, but it appears as if the extension is worth $87.6MM in new money for four new seasons, and those new-money amounts are typically how the industry evaluates contracts. Still, once we take into account the ’15 season, Wilson’s overall deal will likely be worth $89.142MM over five years, an average of about $17.8MM annually.
Wilson, 26, has led the Seahawks to three straight playoff appearances and consecutive division titles since joining the franchise as a third-round pick in the 2012 draft. With a career 36-12 regular-season record and a Super Bowl victory under his belt, the Wisconsin product has put himself among the top tier of quarterbacks in the NFL. In 2014, he completed 63.1% of his passes, throwing for 3,475 yards, 20 touchdowns, and just seven interceptions. He also adds value with his legs, running for a career-high 849 yards and six touchdowns last season.
While there had been some questions about whether Wilson deserved a contract in line with the league’s top quarterbacks, given how much the Seahawks lean on their running game and defense to win games, the new deal clearly shows how much the club values its quarterback.
With Wilson now locked up, the Seahawks will be free to focus on a handful of other contract situations. Linebacker Bobby Wagner looks to be next in line for an extension, and left tackle Russell Okung is another candidate for a new deal. However, general manager John Schneider and the Seattle front office may also have to figure out what to do with a couple other players — safety Kam Chancellor is reportedly set to hold out from camp in search of a new deal, and defensive end Michael Bennett is unhappy with his contract as well.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
No Deal Close For Russell Wilson, Seahawks
With Russell Wilson‘s self-imposed deadline for a contract extension right around the corner, the Seahawks and Wilson are talking and trying to work out a deal, reports Ian Rapoport of NFL.com (via NFL.com’s Kevin Patra). However, according to Rapoport, there’s pessimism that a deal will get done before Seattle opens training camp tomorrow.
As Rapoport and others have reported, the two sides still aren’t close to agreeing on the amount of cash up front and the guaranteed money in the deal. While the structures discussed by Wilson and the Seahawks have included significant guarantees, the team hasn’t been willing to fully guarantee that money — much of it is guaranteed for injury only.
Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk also reported earlier this week that the $21MM-per-year offer the Seahawks are believed to have made to Wilson refers only to “new money.” In other words, if the Seahawks offered a four-year extension at a rate of $21MM annually, the quarterback would only make about $17.1MM per year over the next five seasons when taking into account his $1.5MM salary for 2015.
As we wait to see whether or not Wilson and the Seahawks can reach a compromise before camp gets underway, here are a few more notes on the situation:
- Per Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com (via Twitter), the Seahawks’ offer to Wilson is very strong by the team’s standards, but it would be viewed as a weak deal by quarterback standards, in terms of guaranteed money.
- In a piece for CBSSports.com, former agent Joel Corry explains why Wilson won’t hold out, and takes an in-depth look at how high the Seahawks should be willing to go to get something done with their star quarterback.
- Former NFL quarterback Warren Moon, a friend of Wilson’s, spoke to Robert Klemko of TheMMQB.com about what the Seahawks quarterback is looking for, explaining that he “doesn’t want to sign a deal that becomes obsolete.”
NFC West Notes: Wilson, Seahawks, Rams
Multiple reports have indicated that the Seahawks are offering Russell Wilson $21MM per year. However, Mike Florio of PFT hears from one league source that they might actually be offering $21MM in new money rather than $21MM annually. If the Seahawks are offering Wilson a five-year deal with $21MM per year in new money, that average applies to the four new years, making the total value in the range of $85.5MM ($17.1MM per year).
Here’s more on Wilson, the Seahawks, and a couple of Seattle’s division rivals in the NFC West:
- If the Seahawks don’t give Wilson roughly $25MM per year, there are six or seven teams lined up that will, tweets Benjamin Allbright of 1340AM in Denver.
- The best chance for Kam Chancellor and Michael Bennett to get new deals with the Seahawks is to go for a rare tandem holdout, opines Joel Corry of CBSSports.com (Twitter link). Legendary Dodgers pitchers Don Drysdale and Sandy Koufax employed this technique decades ago but it has rarely been attempted since in any major sport.
- The Rams are currently on track to have more than a dozen players eligible for unrestricted free agency in 2016, and many of those players are starters or top reserves, writes Jim Thomas of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. While extension discussions take time, the club would ideally like to have a few of those contract situations resolved before the end of the season, says Thomas.
- In the wake of the Cardinals‘ addition of Jen Welter to their coaching staff – detailed here by Kent Somers of the Arizona Republic – other teams around the league are interested in identifying other potential female coaching candidates, says Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link).
Zach Links contributed to this post.
Latest On Seahawks, Russell Wilson
9:07pm: The training camp contract deadline has been in place since talks began in early February, Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk tweets.
4:37pm: Russell Wilson will shut down contract negotiations with the Seahawks if he does not have a new deal by the time Seattle begins training camp on Friday, sources told ESPN’s John Clayton and Jim Trotter. Although a long-term deal for Wilson remains Seattle’s top priority, the star quarterback does not want contract talks to extend into training camp, according to sources who spoke with the ESPN duo.
Meanwhile, Jason La Canfora of CBSSports.com would be “very surprised” if we see things change between Seattle and Wilson. La Canfora doesn’t see either side flinching at this point and despite some reports to the contrary, he hears that true guaranteed money remains a sticking point. Ultimately, he sees this all resulting in a franchise tag for 2016.
How much guaranteed money is the quarterback looking for? Apparently, if he can’t be the highest paid player in the NFL, Wilson wants the mantle of earning the most guaranteed money in NFL history, Jason Cole of Bleacher Report (video link) hears. The two sides are “inching” closer to a new pact, but with Wilson looking to top Ndamukong Suh‘s guarantees, that could be too big of a gap to bridge. If things continue to stall, Cole expects the NFLPA to look into the “funding” rule, which effectively limits the amount of guaranteed cash a team can give a player.
While today’s updates don’t seem to point to a deal getting done, Jason Fitzgerald of Over The Cap is fairly optimistic. If the two sides can agree to a $21MM average annual value, then he feels there is little reason for the Seahawks and Wilson to not get a deal done.
Wilson, 26, is currently is scheduled to make $1.54MM this season, which marks the fourth and final year of his rookie contract.
Latest On Russell Wilson Extension Talks
The Seahawks have offered quarterback Russell Wilson a extension that would guarantee him less than $20MM up front, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com. Calling a Saturday report that pegs the annual value of Seattle’s offer at $21MM “essentially accurate,” Rapoport says that Wilson hasn’t actually turned the deal down — rather, he just hasn’t accepted it.
Sources with the Seahawks tell Rapoport that the contract offer does contain significant guaranteed money, but the NFL.com scribe hears that most of those guarantees are for injury only. Wilson is likely looking for a large total in terms of fully guaranteed money, and the benchmark he might be shooting for that is $30MM, the figure the Cam Newton secured through his extension with the Panthers.
Newton will earn more than $50MM during the first 12 months of his deal, and according to Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times, Wilson doesn’t plan on agreeing to any extension that guarantees him less than Newton. Whether that means Wilson is seeking more in terms of guarantees, total value, or simply wants a similar cash flow structure is unclear, but Newton’s pact definitely looks like the floor for a Wilson deal.
Wilson and his camp are expected to meet with Seahawks brass this week and attempt to work out a deal before the beginning of training camp, writes Condotta. Previous reports have indicated that negotiations will be shut down once camp gets underway.
Russell Wilson Declines Lucrative Extension Offer?
The Seahawks reportedly offered Russell Wilson a contract that would pay the fourth-year quarterback among the top-five signal-callers in the league, reports Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk.
But the former Wisconsin and North Carolina State standout’s crusade at an evolutionary pact apparently will continue, with Florio pointing out Wilson’s camp declined the offer worth nearly $21MM per year. That figure, which came in an offer containing “significant” guaranteed money, would place the two-time Pro Bowler third among all quarterbacks, with only Aaron Rodgers ($22MM/year) and Ben Roethlisberger ($21.85MM/AAV) exceeding $21MM per year.
Florio notes the Seahawks don’t want to exceed the Rodgers figure.
Just as it’s done with almost all of its key bastions in recent years. Seattle appears to be making the effort to retain its top free agent. But even though Wilson’s statistics don’t place him among the candidates to earn the aforementioned offer, although he surely has the postseason victories to stack up with the bulk of that quarterback tier, agent Mark Rodgers has steered the quarterback into an intense negotiation that has less than a week to be completed, per the Wilson camp’s figurative pre-training camp deadline looming.
Since Wilson’s salary for this season is a paltry $1.5MM, Florio posits the Seahawks can appease the determined quarterback without reaching the Rodgers threshold. Just by triggering a contract to begin immediately, the Seahawks could sign Wilson to a five-year $100MM deal — or a six-year, $120MM deal — with a new money amount that surpasses Rodgers’ deal but not a per-year contract that does.
Former Seahawks coach Mike Holmgren claims to have knowledge of the contract terms and would advise Wilson to accept the deal rather than play for $88K per game this season. Holmgren also said Wilson’s contract will be worth $20MM+ per season, while Florio points out Wilson taking this deal now rather than after the season would put him back at the bargaining table sooner when it comes time to negotiate his third contract.
“I know the Seahawks have not lowballed Russell Wilson. Now, is it an Alex Rodriguez contract, which is twice as much as anybody’s ever made in their life? No. But they have not lowballed him,” Holmgren said in an appearance on The Erik Kuselias Show. “So I think it’s a fair deal, looking at it from an outsider looking in. I have no skin in the game, but I just think — I think he should do this.”
QB Rumors: Brady, E. Manning, Wilson
A handful of Super Bowl-winning quarterbacks are in the news this Friday morning, so let’s dive in and round up the latest on the Patriots, Giants, and Seahawks signal-callers….
- A source tells Ed Werder of ESPN.com (Twitter link) that there’s “zero chance” of a ruling on Tom Brady‘s appeal being announced today, meaning the saga figures to drag on until at least next week. As a point of comparison, arbitrator Harold Henderson took 43 days following Greg Hardy‘s appeal to make a decision — so far, it has been 31 days since the appeal hearing for the Patriots quarterback.
- Contract talks between Eli Manning and the Giants have “intensified” within the last few days, with the team making an effort to see if something can get done before training camp begins, according to ESPN.com’s Dan Graziano.
- Graziano’s report echoes one from Ian Rapoport of NFL.com earlier this week, suggesting that the Giants are confident they’ll get Manning locked up “at some point.” Per Graziano, New York would prefer to get it done before training camp, but the club doesn’t mind waiting until after the season, if necessary. According to Graziano, the Giants are comfortable with the idea of paying Manning an annual salary in the range of the $21.75MM Ben Roethlisberger got on his new deal with the Steelers.
- According to Werder (via Twitter), one reason the Seahawks may be reluctant to pay Russell Wilson like a franchise quarterback is the team’s emphasis on its running game and defense. As Werder observes, Wilson’s 26.8 pass attempts per game over the last two years represents the lowest mark in the NFL.
- Former Seahawks head coach Mike Holmgren believes Wilson should accept Seattle’s offer, suggesting that the team has definitely not “lowballed” the quarterback. Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk has the details on Holmgren’s comments, made during an appearance on The Erik Kuselias Show on NBC Sports Radio.
Latest On Russell Wilson’s Extension Pursuit
Russell Wilson‘s latest reported demand seems to fall in line with some of the other rumored sticking points in his exhaustive negotiations with the Seahawks, and Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk writes that the idea of Wilson guiding another team’s offense next season isn’t as ludicrous as it may seem.
Going along with a reported pursuit of a near-fully guaranteed contract or one that eclipses all quarterbacks’ deals, the fourth-year signal-caller wants to be paid like a top free agent right now, Ian Rapoport of NFL.com told Florio during an appearance on PFT Live. This comes after we heard the sides will shelve talks until after the season if a deal is not completed by the time Seattle begins training camp July 30.
With the figurative deadline looming, Wilson’s camp appears to be putting pressure on the Seahawks to reach numbers that aren’t the easiest to conjure up, with the 26-year-old Wilson’s value to his immensely successful team somewhat debatable.
Healthy franchise-caliber quarterbacks no longer reach free agency, but it’s not like Seattle doesn’t have quarterback extension parameters from which to draw figures. There isn’t an immense value gap like the one that vexed the Cowboys and Broncos this offseason in their attempts to find figures between those of Calvin Johnson‘s and Mike Wallace‘s contracts for their top-flight receivers.
With quarterbacks either just above or below Wilson’s talent and production levels being extended frequently, like Ben Roethlisberger or Cam Newton, this process should be able to generate more approximate figures. The length of Wilson’s crusade certainly makes this interesting and looks to hover over a loaded Seahawks team’s pursuit of a second Super Bowl title in three years.
If these truly are Wilson’s demands, Florio does not envision an extension will be reached by the end of the month and foresees a future where Wilson could be attached to the exclusive franchise tag next year and traded for something more or different than the two first-round picks that accompany that distinction.
West Notes: Thomas, Green, Wilson
Although Demaryius Thomas was holding out for a contract that would exceed the value of Calvin Johnson‘s historic deal, the Broncos‘ newly extended wideout now acknowledges it was a negotiating tactic and that no receiver will hit that threshold. At least not for a while.
But the sixth-year target did want to make sure he inked a deal that assured him of greater financial earnings than contemporaries Mike Wallace and Percy Harvin, according to Mike Klis of 9News.
“It wasn’t about asking for more than Calvin because I knew I wasn’t going to get that,” Thomas told media Friday. “It was trying to make a new slot for guys because the second receiver was Mike Wallace and Percy Harvin. I think I’ve outplayed them, so I tried to set a new mark. But nobody is going to get Calvin money.”
The former first-round pick out of Georgia Tech also told Klis turning down the Broncos’ seven-year, $100MM offer was difficult, but with the uncertainty that could arise in the final two non-guaranteed years of that proposed deal, Thomas figured it was best to accept a five-year contract that could still enable him to sign a lucrative third accord by the time his second expires after his age-31 season.
Here is some more news from the Thomas fallout and from the Broncos’ Western brethren.
- Training in Atlanta while slapped with the franchise tag, Thomas intends to play this season with a slimmer frame, dropping down to 222 pounds from his usual 228, per Klis.
- Regardless of what weight Thomas plays at this season, A.J. Green was sure to thank his Pro Bowl wideout compatriot via text message shortly after word leaked of Thomas’ deal, according to Gregg Rosenthal of NFL.com. The Bengals‘ contract-year receiver said he will play this season under his fifth-year option of $10.76MM and wait until the offseason for a potential new deal. But with two receivers on his tier attached to values, Green now has a benchmark at which to aim. Although the Bengals’ four-time Pro Bowler doesn’t quite have Thomas or Bryant’s stats, the soon-to-be 27-year-old is just as valuable to his team’s offense, and those numbers come with an inferior quarterback than the ones throwing to Thomas and Bryant.
- Mark Rodgers and top client Russell Wilson speak each day, with those conversations often including discussions about the fourth-year Seahawks quarterback’s contract negotiation, Bob Condotta of the Seattle Times reports. In a profile of the baseball-first agent’s relationship with Wilson, Condotta notes Wilson sought Rodgers due to his experience with two-sport athletes.
Wilson Negotiations To End When Camp Begins?
Neither the Seahawks nor Russell Wilson‘s camp has publicly set a deadline for the two sides to reach an agreement on a contract extension. However, according to Ian Rapoport of NFL.com, even though neither party has come out and said it, negotiations will likely be shut down once training camp gets underway.
Wilson and the Seahawks have been having discussions about an extension ever since the Super Bowl ended in February, but have yet to find a common ground. According to Rapoport, the two sides figure to ramp up negotiations in the coming weeks, with Seattle set to begin training camp at the end of the month. As we saw this week with a handful of franchise-tag players, deadlines often lead to deals, but for now, Wilson and the Seahawks aren’t close.
Once training camp begins, Wilson will focus on his play on the field rather than his contract, and agent Mark Rodgers’ history representing baseball players suggests that the closer Wilson gets to free agency, the less likely he is to sign an extension — in other words, if the two sides don’t agree to terms by start of camp, Rodgers may not be eager to negotiate a deal for his client following the season either.
Citing a source who has spoken to Wilson, Rapoport explains that the quarterback doesn’t necessarily want to hit free agency, but he wants to be paid as if he did. The 26-year-old also hasn’t totally given up on the idea of landing a fully guaranteed contract, particularly given Rodgers’ extensive experience with baseball negotiations, where guaranteed deals are the norm.
If the Seahawks and Wilson don’t reach an agreement this summer, the team will still have the option of using the exclusive franchise tag – likely to cost around $25MM in 2016 – to keep the former third-round pick off the free agent market. As I alluded to above, this year’s franchised players proved that receiving that tag can be the first step toward completing a deal. Still, Wilson has expressed a comfort level in playing out the 2015 season without a new contract, so it’s reasonable to expect him to continue to play hardball if he’s franchised by the club next year.
With Wilson reportedly looking to become the league’s highest-paid player, and the Seahawks looking to work out a deal that can accommodate the other big-money investments on their roster, time will tell if the two sides are able to reach a compromise. But it sounds like it won’t happen in 2015 unless it happens by the end of the month.