Russell Wilson didn’t get his way with anyone but the Seahawks

Oh, how the turntables have turned.

It feels like barely three weeks ago, when Russell Wilson’s excuse for an agent indicated that he had a trade option shortlist.

It’s the NFL equivalent of saying “I like dating you, and want to keep dating you, but if any of these other four people are interested, then I would leave.” Which frankly feels like Mark Rodgers being half bored and half drunk than anything else, but it did put the capstone on the most incoherent offseason with the franchise QB this fanbase has seen to date.

There is potentially some very good news out of this fiasco.

First, a reminder: How did Wilson’s light-hearted attempts at an open relationship fare?

• Dallas Cowboys: re-signed Dak Prescott 10 days later
• New Orleans Saints: re-signed Taysom Hill, and gave Jameis Winston one of them trendy one-year “if you start and play well you actually make a bunch of money” contracts
• Las Oakland Raiders of Vegas: don’t want a good quarterback, AND only want a defensive line, as they signed two good DL and moved on from two good OL.
• Chicago Bears: The current report is they offered three first-rounders, one third-round, and two starters. This is about 40% better than what Seattle gave up to get Jamal Adams, so in other words, no.

I do not know what happened to Russell Wilson this year. I have said before that at times, when he takes another step forward in using his voice in different arenas (leadership, public sphere, offseason firestorm initiator) it tends to be very awkward. I think he wanted to make some wishes more public, state some well-deserved emotional concerns, and it went badly. On both ends.

However, it could not be much more clear that the rest of the NFL had no interest in giving up the farm for Wilson. The silver lining here is that I hope this helps if indeed Wilson’s ego has been to blame for the cluster of an offseason. He made soft demands last year (superstars) and the Seahawks got one....on defense. He made his demands bigger and louder this year, and Seattle got...quiet.

However, only one meaningful trade report has been released over the last month, and it’s not great. The other teams settled for inferior situations, some badly so. Meanwhile, the Seahawks actually gave one of their four draft picks for a reputable lineman, at the bigger need of the two options.

It’s easy on the inside to let slight accumulate on slight, until resentment towards coworkers or superiors is hard to see through. But it’d be hard to miss this one. For what it’s worth, it appears that he has noticed.

Seattle continues to treat Wilson well - at least try. Who knows; we’ve been here before, said this before, and John Schneider has poorly evaluated a lineman before. But hey, in their own way it seems like they are on the road to repair the relationship in their business dealings. At this point I would put the onus on Wilson to be his usual workout posting self and show up to work like always this year.

Crisis averted, for now at least?