As the NFL regular season approaches, the Seattle Seahawks look to bounce back from what you might call a turbulent offseason.
Seattle’s veteran Super Bowl-winning quarterback, Russell Wilson, wants to be more involved in team decisions where the offense is concerned. This will only become a bigger deal across the league as time progresses. Then news came out that Wilson allegedly wanted a trade out of Seattle, which he has since denied ever making any such request.
Who’ll get paid?
Now in training camp, the Seahawks have two extremely important players in search of big-money extensions. Pro Bowl strong safety Jamal Adams and his agent have been in negotiations with the team since early in the offseason. There is an offer on the table, and the Seahawks are now waiting to hear back from Adams’ agent on whether he will sign it.
Veteran left tackle Duane Brown is also looking for a new deal, but a new contract isn’t exactly a foregone conclusion. The former All-Pro tackle and blindside protector for Wilson turns 36 at the end of the month. At this point, it is not clear if the Seahawks plan to offer Brown an extension.
Both Adams and Brown have reported to training camp, though neither has practiced with their contract situations up in the air.
Earlier this week the Seahawks parted ways with defensive end Aldon Smith after only a few months on the team’s roster. Seattle signed Smith in April hoping to upgrade the team’s pass rush. Smith didn’t even make it through training camp before being shown the door.
Smith was out of the NFL for close to five years before being reinstated and signing with the Dallas Cowboys in 2020. Not long after signing with the Seahawks in April, there was an arrest warrant issued for Smith, who has a lengthy criminal record, in Louisiana for a second-degree battery charge.
So what will the Seattle’s season look like?
With all this drama swirling around Seattle, it will be interesting to see how head coach Pete Carroll and his team look as the start of the season nears. Those back-to-back Super Bowl appearances seem like they happened so long ago. Though it should have been back-to-back victories in the Super Bowl, winning only one of them was still no small feat.
But ever since the Seahawks went away from being a defensive powerhouse that runs first on offense, the result at the end of the season has been the same. Wilson gets the team into the playoffs, but usually exits early.
The Seahawks have not advanced past the divisional round since the 2014-15 postseason. Although they have only missed the playoffs once over that span, a QB of Wilson’s stature must be held accountable for not moving the team further along.
In today’s NFL, a rookie QB that outplays his first contract usually puts teams in a tough situation come extension time. No team wants to allow a franchise QB to walk away, but teams also realize that once they cash that player out with a hefty contract, it limits what they can do with the rest of the team.
When you have a talent in your grasp that can just about guarantee you at least 10 wins per year, it’s hard to let that player go for nothing. Although once a team makes this decision general managers and head coaches must get creative in terms of putting an all-around competitive team on the field.
With the Seahawks being in such a tough division like the NFC West it wouldn’t be a shock to see this team take a step back and potentially fall into third or even last place within the division.
If Wilson ever hopes to garner any MVP votes he’ll need to be great through an entire season. Like last season, there seems to be a point every year where Wilson tends to fall off or run out of steam around the same time other QBs begin to ramp up.
Russ might want to start eating his Wheaties again and continue to eat them through the entire season. Maybe this strategy will produce a different outcome in January. If they get there.
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