Did any teams notice that the Seahawks got better by trading Russell Wilson?

Seahawks, Lions, Packers benefitted from trading "franchise QBs" but nobody seems to care: Seaside Joe 1761

The blip on the post-trade timeline in which Broncos fans felt they could celebrate the Russell Wilson deal in the face of Seahawks fans was short-lived and easy to spot: The Broncos won five straight games from Week 7-Week 12 and Wilson had eight touchdowns with no interceptions, which is around the time that Seattle embarked on a four-game losing streak that ended with Drew Lock pushing Geno Smith for the starting role amid an unusually chaotic moment for Pete Carroll.

It looked something like this, courtesy of former Bronco Seahawk Brock Huard:

Well, the time for horse gloating is over.

Since articles were written about how Wilson had “changed the narrative” back in his favor, Denver lost three of four, including a Christmas Eve defeat to one of the worst teams in the NFL, and head coach Sean Payton announced on Wednesday that Wilson is being benched for the rest of the season. I take no pleasure in Wilson’s benching—I admire the fact that one year after Marcus Mariota and Derek Carr took their balls and went home following their benchings that Wilson agreed to be Jarrett Stidham’s backup this week—but that doesn’t change the fact that the Broncos chapter of his autobiography is practically complete.

I know that since the middle of last season that the Seahawks have received appropriate congratulations from the public on a trade well done. I am, however, surprised that teams aren’t expected to copy Seattle’s nearly unprecedented decision to trade a franchise quarterback while he was expected to be in the prime of his career because they didn’t want to pay him $250 million or give him more control over the offense.

Trading Russell Wilson is now treated like an “obvious” decision that anyone would make because we’ve seen how the two sides have played out. But that’s not how the Seahawks’ decision was viewed in the days following the trade.

People like rooting for underdogs, so even though the Broncos have won a Super Bowl more recently than Seattle, they haven’t been to the playoffs in eight years and I could see there being momentum on social media to trash the Seahawks for trading away the face of the franchise and to praise Denver for being aggressive and adding a quarterback; the Broncos had been through 10 different starters since Peyton Manning retired.

Plus, the Broncos traded for Wilson two years after the Buccaneers signed Tom Brady and one year after the Rams acquired Matthew Stafford, so there was some expectation that the move could result in an immediate Super Bowl win.

But weren’t the Seattle Seahawks the bold ones in this trade? If not, then why would they be criticized for trading away “a franchise quarterback”? That’s what the majority opinion seemed to be: “The Seahawks are stupid for trading Russell Wilson because they probably can’t get an adequate replacement and Pete Carroll isn’t as valuable to the team as Wilson has been.”

CBS: “Broncos land high marks in blockbuster deal”; Broncos A, Seahawks C

Sheil Kapadia, The Athletic: Broncos B+, Seahawks D

PFF: Broncos’ better o-line, “league’s deepest crop of pass-catching talent” will make Wilson “legit title contender” and “top-10 offense” (The Broncos finished 32nd in offense last year.)

USA Today: Broncos A-, Seahawks C

ProFootballNetwork: Broncos A, Wilson A, Seahawks B+

With as much hate as Russell Wilson gets online, you would think that everybody laughed off Denver’s move as an overpay and a desperation reach for a quarterback who would never return to pre-2021 form. It was the complete opposite reaction, that’s just how fickle and inconsistent people on social media are with their opinions: “We’re just following the crowd, so it depends on what the crowd tells me to believe today.”

In March of 2022, it looked bad to support the Seahawks decision.

In March of 2023, it looked bad to support the Broncos decision.

In November, it swung back to Denver. Now the trade grades and re-grades will forever be focused on how the Seahawks “robbed” the Broncos for picks that landed Charles Cross, Devon Witherspoon, (either Boye Mafe or Ken Walker depending on how you look at it), and Zach Charbonnet, plus more, in addition to the immense salary cap space that it created—but don’t let the Internet forget that that’s not what they said 21 months ago.

If you merely changed out Geno Smith for Wilson on the Seahawks this season, I’m not sure that Seattle wouldn’t be in contention for the division title and the number one seed in the NFC. However, you can’t just go back, undo the trade, and say that the Seahawks would be the same team.

Seattle wouldn’t have had the draft picks or the cap space to improve the roster, so most likely if the Seahawks had kept Wilson they would be worse than they are now. Potentially with a worse head coach, as the team may have parted with Pete Carroll after extending Wilson and needing to blame somebody.

So my question to teams right now is: Have you noticed that the Seahawks GOT BETTER by trading their starting quarterback rather than paying him?

They noticed that the Bucs won a Super Bowl with Brady and that the Rams won a Super Bowl with Stafford. Then the Broncos traded for Wilson, the Browns traded for Deshaun Watson, and the Jets traded for Aaron Rodgers.

Did they notice that Watson is a disaster that Cleveland has somehow managed to survive? Or what it has cost the Broncos—even with the richest owners in the league—to wake up from the Wilson nightmare? Or that the Jets had to find out the hard way that you can’t fix your offensive line by trading for a quarterback?

Will “super contract meltdowns” like Wilson, Watson, Kyler Murray, and Daniel Jones deter the Dolphins and Jaguars from extending Tua Tagovailoa and Trevor Lawrence? Even good quarterbacks, like Joe Burrow and Justin Herbert, aren’t making the playoffs. Even playoff quarterbacks, like Patrick Mahomes, Jalen Hurts, and Josh Allen, have had their skeptics this season as it relates to being paid as much as they’re being paid.

My guess is that the Dolphins will extend Tua—the Internet would eviscerate Miami for anything else—and make him the highest-paid player in NFL history. I can’t say that I would do anything differently if I ran the Dolphins, but in the back of my head I’d still be hearing the voice that says, “It’s all Tyreek.”

And despite Lawrence being more criticized this season than any of his previous at any level, I would expect the Jaguars to pay him over $50 million per year because they have experienced far worse in the last 20 years. If Lawrence decides to play hardball in the offseason, like Murray and Hurts did in the previous two, I expect Jacksonville to cave into his demands.

I just wonder…have any teams noticed that abyss that follows losing, cutting, or releasing a franchise quarterback isn’t as black and hopeless as the gamble is portrayed to be?

The Lions could have told Matthew Stafford that he was under contract and that they wanted him to be around for the next rebuild. In my opinion, Stafford is so afraid to stand out that he might have relented and rescinded his trade request to avoid any distractions. Instead, Detroit traded him to the Rams for Jared Goff, two firsts, and a third. Near the end of their third season since the trade, the Lions have clinched their first division title in 30 years.

Did anyone notice?

Aaron Rodgers is better than Jordan Love. And yet the Packers offense is almost exactly as efficient this season as it was last season, Green Bay will finish in almost the same position as Rodgers’ final campaign with the team, and the team will have more cap flexibility (and New York’s second round pick) next year.

Did anyone notice?

The Browns are better with Joe Flacco.

Did anyone notice?

Not in any of the previous 22 seasons, but specifically 2022 to 2023, the Buccaneers are better off with Baker Mayfield than Tom Brady.

Has the league noticed?

It’s not enough.

The 49ers are considered by many to be the best team in the NFC, if not the league, and they were never better off for having paid Jimmy Garoppolo a top-of-the-market contract in 2018. In fact, Brock Purdy has taught us that they were probably being held back by that deal, if anything. Maybe Nick Mullens and C.J. Beathard were not the answers, but the 49ers were too fixated on making a big move and traded up for Trey Lance instead of continuing to shop for bargains.

Is there a chance that the 49ers will have learned anything from Kaepernick and Garoppolo prior to going to the negotiating table with Purdy’s agent in 2025?

No, not really.

Maybe Purdy is the next Joe Montana, but then I question if anyone could ever be the next Montana in an era like this one. Joe Montana didn’t have as many obstacles in between himself and four Super Bowl championships, specifically as it pertains to the rising cost of a franchise quarterback, the salary cap era, and the distractions that come with being a 100-millionaire and the face of the NFL.

That’s right, Patrick Mahomes. You may not win as many Super Bowls as Montana or Brady. You might win more…or you could hit the same franchise-building wall as Wilson, Rodgers, Ben Roethlisberger, and Drew Brees.

“Brady did it.”

Brady accepted a middle-of-the-market quarterback salary throughout his career. However he made up the difference is not the point, only that there was a huge difference between how much Tom Brady got paid against the salary cap and his peers making more and winning less.

But will Tua be paid like Burrow? Yes. Will Lawrence be paid like Murray? Yes. Will Kirk Cousins get paid again? Yes. Will Mayfield get a career, life-changing pay day? Yes. Will Goff get another huge extension? Yes. Will Justin Fields be paid like a franchise quarterback? Shocking as it is to say, maybe.

Even if Wilson is released in a couple of months, as Carr was after his benching by the Raiders, he will be paid like a top-10 starting quarterback. And maybe that will work out just fine for the franchise that does it. I’m not saying that I can predict what will work in the future…

I’ve just seen how that plan has unfolded in the past, not just for the teams that gained a quarterback but also for the ones that parted with the same player.

Who will be the next team to show us that they’ve noticed?