Russell Wilson adjusts contract to accommodate for Duane Brown acquisition

It’s not like he’ll be losing any money on the deal, but logically speaking, Russell Wilson would have been smart to just pay Duane Brown’s salary to join the Seahawks if he had to. I mean, the acquisition of Brown is not just going to help Seattle’s offense score points and raise Wilson’s chances of winning prom king at the next NFL gala, but it is health insurance unlike any he could’ve purchased at State Farm.

Instead of having to pay Brown out of pocket though, Wilson just moved money around and converted some salary into a bonus.

Wilson is on a four-year deal that had a $31 million signing bonus, coming out to a spread of $6.2 million per year (beginning in 2015 when he signed it, so five years) with a 2017 base salary of $12.6 million. There are definitely a lot of details that I’m not privy to regarding what this means for his future cap hits, but if it only makes him harder to cut, that’s obviously not an issue.

If anything, the Seahawks know they need to start negotiating a new deal with Wilson soon, as he’s likely going to sign an extension in 2018 with his current contract set to expire after 2019. Now with Brown in the mix, it’s more and more likely that Wilson will still be around healthwise to sign it, even though with Brown in the mix, it’s more and more likely that his stats will demand he’s the highest-paid QB in the league.

Or we can hope that this is a sign that he’ll pull a Tom Brady and get paid in the $14 million/season range so that Seattle can keep adding players like Brown over and over again.