Here’s an omnibus thread for NFL off-season news. I assume we will have a separate thread for the draft.
I guess we found out what Calvin Ridley’s personal issue was: betting on games. He gets an indefinite suspension and can apply for reinstatement after a year.
The Packers are said to have offered a large, long-term contract extension to Aaron Rodgers, and are currently awaiting his decision as to whether he wants to remain in Green Bay, which may come as early as tomorrow (the deadline for franchise tender offers, which the Packers are expected to make for Davante Adams).
And there it is:
Another glorious 4 years of regular season dominance and embarrassing 2nd round playoff exits.
This is the cue for Rodgers to hit a big decline.
Big news day on the quarterback front – the Seahawks are trading Russell Wilson to the Broncos. It’s not yet clear what Denver is sending to Seattle in return, but one would suspect it would be a substantial package of high draft choices and/or players.
There’d been a lot of rumors that Rodgers would wind up in Denver, particularly after the Broncos had named former Packers OC Nathaniel Hackett as their head coach, but it appears that Wilson was their primary target all along.
Looks like it’s Wilson and a 4th to Denver for Drew Lock, Shelby Harris, Noah Fant, 2 firsts, 2 seconds and a fifth, according to Dov Kleiman. I think he’s usually pretty reliable?
That seems like a lot to me, but I’ve never been a big Russell Wilson fan…
It’s supposedly historic. It’s bigger than the Matt Stafford trade, which was considered huge at the time.
The Rams sent two 1st round picks. a 3rd round pick, and a mediocre QB to get Stafford. The Broncos reportedly sent two 1st round picks, two 2nd round picks, a 5th round pick, and three mediocre players to add depth. That’s a huge haul.
Wilson envy? 
As a Seahawks fan, I see this as a sign they are rebuilding, unless they have their eye on a QB. (Lock is not it, and I think the only other QB they have is Geno Smith, who is a decent backup but no starter.)
Hey, when I picked the user name, Russell was 12.
When Luke Willson (that is 2 L’s) was a tight end for the Seahawks, he used to joke that Russell didn’t like him because he felt threatened by another Wil(l)son on the field.
Huh. I didn’t expect this.
So I dunno much about football, relatively speaking, but conventional wisdom seems to be that you keep the one really good player even if he costs you a lot of money and headaches (see: other big news). I can’t imagine this decision was made lightly, so what is the argument for it? Folks (especially heartbroken fans, of course) seem to just assume it’s rank incompetence, and I suppose it could be, but I’m just not sure.
I suspect that the argument is that Seahawks management believes that they are in need of a major rebuild, after finishing last season 7-10. They were middle-of-the-pack on offense, and fairly bad on defense. I would imagine that they decided that the window had closed on the playoff chances for the team as it stood.
I’m sure it wasn’t easy to give up a very-good-to-great quarterback, who’s been the face of their franchise. But, in return, they are getting a bunch of early-round draft choices, which can assist with the rebuilding process.
As far as competence (or incompetence), their GM, John Schneider, is generally felt to be among the best executives in the league, so I don’t think it’s a matter of them not knowing what they are doing. (Then again, I am likely biased – Schneider attended my high school, and I’m friends with his older sister.)
The situation is a little different in Green Bay. As much as Rodgers is a PITA, he’s also the reigning MVP, they had the #1 seed in the NFC last year, and they still have a strong core of players to set up for another playoff run or two.
Russell has had some friction with the team the last couple of years, and his agent has made it clear that he was open to a trade. He is also probably looking to get a massive contract when his current deal ends. Expect 45-50 million per year if he has anything like his typical productivity when he gets to Denver. (He has been consistently and statistically one of the best QBs in the league since he entered it, breaking a number of records, but last year he was hurt and missed games for the first time after never missing a game for more than a decade.) Rather than bearing that expense, Seattle must have decided that they’d be better off getting what they can out of him when he is in such demand (and once Rodgers was off the market, Wilson was clearly the most attractive potential trade item from any team in the NFL, considering other great QBs aren’t on the market at all).
I still don’t think it was a great move. Seattle has a spotty record drafting well. Early draft picks haven’t always been to their benefit, especially in the first round. Wilson himself was drafted in the 3rd round, after all. He is by far the best QB in franchise history, and in all likelihood will continue to be. You don’t find a player like him every day. Heck, his success paved the way for folks like Mahomes and Murray, who in the past would probably have been overlooked as not being the traditional tall QBs who stay in the pocket like a turret with a football.
But it’s consistent with other moves they’ve made recently. They replaced a lot of coaches, including their DC. I can only assume Carroll and Schneider (HC and GM respectively) have a plan.
The Seahawks probably wanted to keep him but the relationship went bad and they’re not going to seriously contend for a few years.
Wilson definitely wanted out and reportedly wanted out last season as well. The question was when, not if, and the Seahawks maximizing what they could get for him.
Hm, thanks for the answers, all. I guess I’m trying to wade through hot takes, finger pointing, and initial shock to get a proper perspective on this. I do get the sense that something on this scale doesn’t happen very often, but the reactionary emotional takes are sort of interfering with my judgment.
I’m surprised that I’m first to point out that Wilson is now a member of the team he beat in the Super Bowl.
I hope he doesn’t wear his ring around. (Or maybe he’ll just wear it the first day, to remind people who he is. That would be a baller move.)
So I’m assuming right now that this whole deal isn’t, on its face, such an obviously bad idea that the decision making (either in the deal itself or in the circumstances leading up to it) must be suspect? I think that gets to the heart of what I’m wondering. I mean, such deals have happened before, and it certainly seems to be a net negative for Seattle, but how far does that go?
I tend to ignore the “hot takes” commentators – their job is to generate clicks and generate buzz.
Prior to the Lions trading Stafford last year, the last time I can think of that a top-tier quarterback was actually traded was when the Packers dealt Brett Favre to the Jets in 2008. In that case, the Packers were tired of Favre’s annual “not sure if I’m coming back” dance, and had what they hoped was a capable replacement (Rodgers) already with the team. Favre had retired a few months earlier, then decided to come back out of retirement, after the Packers had committed to Rodgers.
Other movement of that caliber of quarterback in recent memory (Brady to the Bucs, Manning to the Colts, Brees to the Saints, and even Favre to the Vikings) was in free agency.
facepalm That should have been “Manning to the Broncos.” And, for that matter, one could add “Philip Rivers to the Colts” to that list.
No. He was rumored to be going to the Giants a year ago, but that was ultimately just a rumor. While people questioned the wisdom of such a trade, it wasn’t seen as suspicious or anything.
In this case, it would certainly be suspicious if Seattle didn’t get a king’s ransom of picks from it, but what they got out of it was huge. You can call a player like Wilson “priceless”, since normally you just can’t get them. If a top tier QB is traded or cut, there is usually something seriously wrong with them, such as being way past their prime.
I don’t think that’s the case with Wilson. He was doing pretty well last year before he was hurt (not his best, but he was dealing with a new offense). He was hurt and missed a few games, and when he went back onto the field sooner than you’d expect, he was not himself. His accuracy was garbage. Clearly he wasn’t ready. In the last handful of games, presumably when his hand was finally healthy again, he was doing quite well.
I don’t think Seattle pulled a fast one, and I don’t think this is incompetency. I think this is a team saying they won’t part with the best player in franchise history until they receive a ridiculous offer, and Denver called their bluff with a ridiculous offer.