Russell Wilson's Contract Extension

[McGruff]

There are more forces in play here than Wilson's character and leadership and desire to put the team first.

The agent will be breathing down his neck, because the agent wants his cut of the big deal, and he's the one doing the negotiating.

The NFLPA will be breating down his neck, because they want every player to get the biggest piece of the pie possible for the next negotiation.

The other QB's will be breathing down his neck, because taking a lower contract lowers their negotiating power when their contract comes up.

Keep in mind that Wilson will have gotten paid pennies for million dollar production for three years. A clear argument can be made that we owe it to him to compensate him for past contributions as well as future projections. Also keep in mind that every dollar Wilson takes home is a dollar he can give away to any of the charities he is involved in.

 

[DavidSeven]

Russell will be paid market rate. No discounts. The team and the NFLPA will both he insist he takes market rate. Paying a young star his due is a gold star for the organization. He will forever be Pete and John's poster-boy for "Always Compete." That means you pay the man what he's worth. Don't like it? Good luck drafting another franchise QB in the 3rd round. Only took us 37 years the first time. Paying your young stars what they're worth sets the right example for young players -- this is how companies succeed in corporate America, too.

Brady has already been through multiple big contracts and is married to one of the richest women in the world. And even with all that, he ain't exactly playing for free. His cap number is basically the same as Flacco's, and his money is fully guaranteed until he's 40. Don't act like his team won't be bent over a barrel if he ever gets hurt in the next year or two.

 

[themunn]

It's strange to me how everyone gets so caught up on asking players to take less for the good of the team. Would you take less at your job so your company could hire another mail room clerk or role player equivalent? There is no loyalty in the NFL as it's a business first and foremost. Teams show no loyalty towards players, why would they show loyalty to ownership/teams?

It's not realistic and history shows us it will not happen.

I wish people would stop with this comparison - my job is not to win the Superbowl every year.

A more apt comparison would be if your boss asked you to take a smaller wage so he could hire you a secretary that does tasks like draft emails for you, send letters, sort out your worklist for the day. Instead of working 11 hour days you could cut yourself down to 8 or 9 with this. Do you take a paycut?

Less money to make your job easier. Do you do it?

I'm not saying Wilson should or will... but he might.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

It's strange to me how everyone gets so caught up on asking players to take less for the good of the team. Would you take less at your job so your company could hire another mail room clerk or role player equivalent? There is no loyalty in the NFL as it's a business first and foremost. Teams show no loyalty towards players, why would they show loyalty to ownership/teams?

It's not realistic and history shows us it will not happen.

I wish people would stop with this comparison - my job is not to win the Superbowl every year.

A more apt comparison would be if your boss asked you to take a smaller wage so he could hire you a secretary that does tasks like draft emails for you, send letters, sort out your worklist for the day. Instead of working 11 hour days you could cut yourself down to 8 or 9 with this. Do you take a paycut?

Less money to make your job easier. Do you do it?

I'm not saying Wilson should or will... but he might.

Comparing multi-million dollar salaries to what the rest of us unwashed masses make isn't accurate to the situation.

Russell making 15M per year instead of 20M per year isn't going to change the quality of life for him. It's not like he'll say "phew, I got 20M so now I can afford HBO and take my wife out to Applebee's twice a month now instead of just once."

Not saying pro players don't like to make as much as they possibly can because their window of opportunity to maximize their value isn't real. Of course it is. But to say it's the same as one of us making a smaller percentage of our wages isn't a good analogy. If someone makes 75k per year, then making 10k less DRAMATICALLY affects that person's quality of life.

 

[DavidSeven]

It's not strictly about the quality of his life. He has aspirations that extend further than football. He wants to own a pro sports team. He wants to grow his passing academy. He's involved in a number of charitable organizations. He probably has a number of other business interests as well. You think taking a $5M pay cut every year isn't going to affect those pursuits?

All a moot point anyway. NFLPA would never allow him to take that kind of cut, and the team wouldn't like it either as I said above. A franchise QB is worth approximately 12.5-15% of your cap. That's what he'll be paid, and Paul Allen will be glad to do it.

 

[drdiags]

The Percy Harvin contract shows that the Seahawks will pay the going rate. The team isn't going to try low-balling Wilson. Both sides will have a starting number in mind before they start negotiations. The team will have a 3 year starter who has performed quite well the first 2. We are going to assume he continues in year 3. Playoffs the first two years, with wins in them and at least 1 SB title.

I would assume the team will be looking at CK's deal plus Matt Ryan and Flacco. What ever number they come up with, it will likely be more than 15x what they are paying now. Time to go back to the cap management link to do some what if scenarios:

http://overthecap.com/calculator/?Team=seahawks

 

[Hawks46]

Kaepernick's new contract will tell us a lot. If they start paying their QBs over $15 million per year, it's going to make it tough for either franchise to get the playmakers around them to win at their current level. Lynch may only have a couple years left. That's going to put more weight on Wilson's shoulders going forward with the necessity of fielding less talent around him due to having less money to allocate.

15 million? Good luck. Baltimore offered FLACCO 17 million and he said no and now they're screwed with a Bradford contract x100.

That was stupid of Baltimore. It's going to be a very long time before they get back to their previous level of talent.

Agreed. I think teams saw what that did to a perrennial winner and will be hesitant to follow suit.

The other fun fact is that P. Manning made more than our entire starting defense. And who was more valuable ? Teams will see this.

No WAY does Kaepernick get 22 mil/year. He's not worth it, and doesn't have the passing numbers to be able to validate that. Also, Kaepernick has come out on record saying he won't go for a max contract so they could sign more players.

He's not that great in front of the media, but he's not supid, like many here think. Kap and Wilson are both going to get paid, and a lot. It's up to the character of the guy to decide how much is enough and how much the rest of the team can get. I know I said above that teams won't follow suit with Flacco's deal, but the flip side is trying to mine the draft for another good QB.....and that's hard to to unless you mortgage most of a draft in picks to move up to get one, or just suck bad enough to get the top pick like Indy did.

 

[jblaze]

It's strange to me how everyone gets so caught up on asking players to take less for the good of the team. Would you take less at your job so your company could hire another mail room clerk or role player equivalent? There is no loyalty in the NFL as it's a business first and foremost. Teams show no loyalty towards players, why would they show loyalty to ownership/teams?

It's not realistic and history shows us it will not happen.

I wish people would stop with this comparison - my job is not to win the Superbowl every year.

A more apt comparison would be if your boss asked you to take a smaller wage so he could hire you a secretary that does tasks like draft emails for you, send letters, sort out your worklist for the day. Instead of working 11 hour days you could cut yourself down to 8 or 9 with this. Do you take a paycut?

Less money to make your job easier. Do you do it?

I'm not saying Wilson should or will... but he might.

It's the closest analogy that puts the person in a comparable position in their own mind and given circumstances. Obviously the details and dynamics vary drastically but it's the only comparison people can personally identify with. It's perfectly valid.

You guys making the quality of life argument are missing the point. Obviously the numbers are obscenely different and there are degrees to these factors but it's an analogy that puts the person in the middle of the situation the way these players would be because it's always easy to make decisions on the outside looking in. If you're honest with yourself and put yourself in his shoes, it changes the perspective and gives insight into the thought process.

I would not take less and neither will anyone else, period. It's not going to happen.

You guys are playing semantics. It's a simple analogy, of course it's not going to be perfect, but it serves the purpose of relative perspective.

 

[McGruff]

Kaepernick's new contract will tell us a lot. If they start paying their QBs over $15 million per year, it's going to make it tough for either franchise to get the playmakers around them to win at their current level. Lynch may only have a couple years left. That's going to put more weight on Wilson's shoulders going forward with the necessity of fielding less talent around him due to having less money to allocate.

15 million? Good luck. Baltimore offered FLACCO 17 million and he said no and now they're screwed with a Bradford contract x100.

That was stupid of Baltimore. It's going to be a very long time before they get back to their previous level of talent.

Agreed. I think teams saw what that did to a perrennial winner and will be hesitant to follow suit.

The other fun fact is that P. Manning made more than our entire starting defense. And who was more valuable ? Teams will see this.

No WAY does Kaepernick get 22 mil/year. He's not worth it, and doesn't have the passing numbers to be able to validate that. Also, Kaepernick has come out on record saying he won't go for a max contract so they could sign more players.

He's not that great in front of the media, but he's not supid, like many here think. Kap and Wilson are both going to get paid, and a lot. It's up to the character of the guy to decide how much is enough and how much the rest of the team can get. I know I said above that teams won't follow suit with Flacco's deal, but the flip side is trying to mine the draft for another good QB.....and that's hard to to unless you mortgage most of a draft in picks to move up to get one, or just suck bad enough to get the top pick like Indy did.

Baltimore's fall off had little to nothing to do with Flacco's contract. It had everything to do with them getting really old. It was time to rebuild that roster, and they are choosing to rebuild it around their QB.

 

[Sgt. Largent]

Baltimore's fall off had little to nothing to do with Flacco's contract. It had everything to do with them getting really old. It was time to rebuild that roster, and they are choosing to rebuild it around their QB.

It absolutely had to do with Flacco's contract. Not ALL of their dropoff, but because they had to pay Flacco they couldn't afford to keep key players like Boldin, Reed, Ellerbee and Kruger.

 

[Sac]

Baltimore's fall off had little to nothing to do with Flacco's contract. It had everything to do with them getting really old. It was time to rebuild that roster, and they are choosing to rebuild it around their QB.

It absolutely had to do with Flacco's contract. Not ALL of their dropoff, but because they had to pay Flacco they couldn't afford to keep key players like Boldin, Reed, Ellerbee and Kruger.

Ray Lewis and Reed were already past their primes, and were likely gone regardless of the contact Flacco got.

 

[jblaze]

The Ravens dropoff had nothing to do with Flacco's contract. The Ravens were old and lost a ton of people due to how their roster was constructed. They made one more run with the aging players they had and luckily hit a homerun.

Boldin's issue wasn't money, Reed was done and no one would sign him anyways and Kruger was drastically overpaid, they knew he didn't deserve what he was asking and now he's the Browns overpaid problem.

 

[chihawk]

I saw a hopeful tweet from one of the NFL cap folks that said originally the NFL clubs were told to expect a flat cap until 2015. With the $6-$8M bump this year, they were projecting that 2015 cap could be as high as $150M. We will see. Still, paying even average starting QB money looks like it will be $15-$18M/yr.

With the cap going up, so will the salary demands for the players.

 

[DavidSeven]

Flacco's cap hit in 2013 was $6.8M. It's a perfectly manageable $14M over the next two years. The effect that he had and will have on their cap is greatly exaggerated. Look at the numbers. When the cap number goes up in three years, they can restructure his contract.

BAL didn't fall to 8-8 because they were paying Flacco money. They fell to 8-8 because they weren't a great team to begin with. They were a Wild Card team that got a lucky break vs. Denver and went on a run to the SB. A few of their FAs got priced out of their team due to Super Bowl glow and Lewis/Reed got too old. Letting Boldin go was just a bad personnel decision. It had nothing to do with Flacco's contract.

 

[jblaze]

I saw a hopeful tweet from one of the NFL cap folks that said originally the NFL clubs were told to expect a flat cap until 2015. With the $6-$8M bump this year, they were projecting that 2015 cap could be as high as $150M. We will see. Still, paying even average starting QB money looks like it will be $15-$18M/yr.

With the cap going up, so will the salary demands for the players.

That's not really true. When it's gone up in years past, it has been reflected in bumps in average salaries that year. Prices are set by the market, not the cap.

There's been several tweets stating the same thing today from Chris Mortenson, Adam Schefter and John Clayton.

 

[Anthony!]

What do you look for this to look like in terms of years and dollars?

I would like to see Wilson locked up to near a lifetime contract here, or one that takes him through his prime years. I understand we can start to negotiate at the end of this season (I believe).

I am hoping for a 7 or 8 year deal around $100 million. I think Russell will be like our Joe Montana or Brady. As other pieces continue to shift, get injured, leave, as long as Wilson is in tact we will always have the opportunity to compete.

Yeah that is 12.5 mil a year and way under current market value.

 

[Anthony!]

People think it's a QB driven league, when in reality it's a defense driven league. One mega contract for a QB equates to two or three contracts for good defensive players.

I think Kaepernick ends up giving SF a substantial hometown discount in the neighborhood of $17 million. By playing more games in Washington state, Wilson would save around a million dollars in state income tax with that contract. I don't think $15 million is out of the question if Wilson truly wants to be the greatest QB ever. He will only achieve that if the Seahawks are capable of building a great team around him.

ahh you realize it is hard to be considered the best QB when you are only getting to throw the ball 25 times a game. I think we are talking 16-18 minimum and a slight change to the offense to allow for 30-35 passes a game.

 

[Anthony!]

You guys are crazy to think Wilson is going to even want 15m +.

Whether or not he deserves it. He wants to be great maybe the best QB ever to play.

He probably knows you don't do that strapping the team down with a big chunk of cap every year.

He's also going to have endorsements his whole life and once Manning, Brees, and Brady retire, Wilson is going to see the major endorsements.

I see him signing a 6 for 60 extension, with incentives to put up to 90 million, with 30 million guaranteed.

"Dream ON" you seem to forget being the greatest means being paid as the greatest.

 

[AsylumGuido]

I would not be surprised to see Russ sign a below market contract he wants to bee the best ever hard to do that when you are taking up 20% of your teams salary cap ala flacco.

Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. When you hire an agent you agree to follow that agent's "suggestions" and NO agent ever leaves money on the table.

 

[Anthony!]

I would not be surprised to see Russ sign a below market contract he wants to bee the best ever hard to do that when you are taking up 20% of your teams salary cap ala flacco.

Sorry, but it doesn't work that way. When you hire an agent you agree to follow that agent's "suggestions" and NO agent ever leaves money on the table.

Well you agree to consider the agents suggestions ultimately he has the final say, but give his agent will pressure for a high number, the NFLPA will pressure for it, other QBS will pressure for it, and the fact he has earned it he will get a high deal, 16-18 mil is my guess.