Seahawks news for Saturday: Sadly back to Russ versus Pete

In a sign that it must be the offseason and we must find things to discuss, there has been recent news that Russell Wilson wanted some changes for the Seahawks. I hoped, maybe like other 12s, that the whole Wilson drama was so last offseason and Week 1. The only thing we really cared about when it came to Russell Wilson winning or losing in 2022 was that his team losing meant a better draft pick for Seattle.

But an article this week by The Athletic (subscription required) might have pulled the band-aid off of the almost-healed wound of Wilson being traded by the Seahawks last March. The report says that prior to being traded Wilson went to Seattle ownership and asked for head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider to be fired. Wilson reportedly hoped Sean Payton would become the new head coach.

There are several things to unpack here. One is that the Seattle owner Jody Allen must have listened to Wilson and then said something to the effect of, “No, I won’t do that but I do have something else in mind.” In the following month, the Seahawks shipped Wilson to the Broncos.

Russell Wilson seemed to overthink his importance to the Seahawks

In 2022, Wilson had a terrible year on and off the field while Seattle was far exceeding most expectations and ended up in the postseason. Wilson’s replacement, Geno Smith, was the much better quarterback of the two this past season and Smith seemed to be the more genuine human being. Worse for Wilson, Carroll and Schneider appear to know a lot more about football than he thought he did and the Seahawks seem to have done a quick rebuild and should be really good in a couple of seasons. The Broncos are stuck with Wilson’s massive contract.

Wilson did tweet on Friday that he denies wanting Carroll and Schneider fired. He doesn’t necessarily deny having a one-on-one conversation with ownership about the future of the franchise, though, so one plus one might equal two. Wilson was likely simply wrong about how he thought he was more important to the franchise than the long-term general manager and head coach were.

In the end, however, Wilson did get his way a bit. After Denver’s horrible season in 2022, the head coach was fired. The Broncos’ new head coach is Sean Payton.