Bob Condotta: Why Bears reportedly offering the kitchen sink for Russell Wilson wasn’t enough for Seahawks | National

SEATTLE – What is worth remembering for all of the past six weeks is that the Seahawks never wanted to trade with Russell Wilson.

But blindly and suddenly caught in a situation they hadn’t foreseen – their franchise quarterback let it be known that while he wasn’t calling for a deal, he’d be fine if Seattle swapped him to one of four teams – the Seahawks – We had no choice but to at least consider their options.

You can argue that, given all that Russell Sea meant, and will continue to mean, Russell Wilson shouldn’t even have done this.

And that $ 39 million dead-cap hit for the 2021 season if Wilson was trading before June 1 – the most logical time to get an immediate draft capital – was a huge drag, even if Seattle tended to to deal with Wilson.

That age isn’t everything, but Wilson turns 33 in November. And while he still has three years to go on his contract, it doesn’t take long in the New World NFL to talk about what Wilson’s next contract could be.

And then there is his obvious misfortune when Wilson’s camp announced that he / she was having some issues with some things, like Pete Carroll’s desire to get back on the run, the way the team was making their offensive line and how much Wilson (or) says his camp) has made in personnel / coaching decisions.

Because of this, Seattle general manager John Schneider met with Chicago Bears GM Ryan Pace on Wednesday morning last week in Fargo, ND, to discuss a possible trade, according to reports from the NFL network.

The two were reportedly there to watch North Dakota QB Trey Lance’s pro day. But the news that Schneider was there raised some eyebrows as the Seahawks through # 56 have no choice and no obvious reason to hire a quarterback.

Schneider wanted to see Lance just in case. After all, it’s a GM’s job to know so much about everything (not to mention the gossip and side conversations with fellow NFL managers and agents that come with such events).

But now we know what the real reason could have been – to hear how serious the bears were, always threatening to make a deal as the most likely of the four teams on Wilson’s list (the others were the cowboys, raiders) and saints ).

According to “The Dan Patrick Show,” the bears ultimately offered three picks for the first round, one pick for the third round, and two unnamed starters.

If you don’t know the unnamed starters this is still a bit difficult to judge. Was it a stellar run on Khalil Mack and recipient Allen Robinson (and yes, we’re putting cap issues aside) or a backup of QB Nick Foles and, hey, maybe one-off Seahawk Jimmy Graham?

According to Ian Rapoport of the NFL Network, the offer was at least enough to get the Seahawks to think.

“The Seahawks slept on it,” he said on Wednesday. “You talked about it. (On Tuesday) they made up their minds – especially coach Pete Carroll doesn’t want to rebuild. They decided, “We’re not going to trade Russell Wilson for the bears.”

The bears then began reaching out to Andy Dalton to effectively end that act of drama (and we suspect it was the bears who leaked the details of the trade on Wednesday to show how deep they were after all criticism really tried to get Wilson to settle on Dalton).

Perhaps if the Bears offered a quarterback in exchange for Seattle to win, then it may be an offer the Seahawks are more seriously considering.

Without that, the offer was indeed tantamount to rebuilding – and draft picks that might not have been so good after all. Chicago has the 20th election this year, and obviously if the Bears got Wilson they would have become even more of a contender for annual playoff bids, and future picks would be in that range or below as well.

Carroll will turn 71 in September, so he wouldn’t want to do the rebuilding at that point, even if he has a new contract that will take him through the 2025 season.

Carroll is also smart enough to know that the difference between 8-8 and 11-5 in the NFL is far less than fans might think, and usually that difference is a quarterback.

When the Wilson trade rumors first broke out, those on the pro-Wilson side pointed to Seattle’s 7-9 records in the two years prior to his arrival and that Seattle has posted to double-digit profits every year since Has.

Close Seahawks watchers know it’s a little more complicated. Bobby Wagner also came here in 2012 to put the finishing touches on a defense that became one of the best in NFL history. In the middle of the 2011 season, Seattle also signed up to a Marshawn Lynch-powered running game (which went down 5-3 in the second half of the season) that complemented Wilson’s running and his ability to read the zone perfectly.

And those in the camp who may have wondered if it was time to trade Wilson will note that Seattle has only won two playoff games in the past six years – and that Wilson’s cap hit it with the Seahawks harder to build that kind of roster around him that they had in the two Super Bowl years.

But while the Seahawks have apparently approached the ledge to figure out what life could be like without Wilson, for now – as Wilson hopes they’ll be on the field more often in the years to come – they seem determined to fit in.

Now is the time to repair the fence and there is much speculation that at this point the Wilson-Seahawks relationship can best be viewed as a year-on-year proposition

That said, Wilson trade rumors shouldn’t be considered over, just put on hold for a while.