Russell Wilson’s Agent Wrote A Letter, And It Means Nothing
The NFL is a 24/7/365 media circus, and it’s that way by design. Everything about the league is meant to capture and keep our attention, no matter how far teams are from playing in actual games. The regular season is still a ways off, and so the focus is on practices. But that’s not particularly entertaining, even to diehards. Which is why we have contract disputes and extension rumors.
Russell Wilson has been the front and center subject for most of the recent extension rumor-whispering, as the offseason just keeps moving along without the announcement of a big-time extension for the Seattle Seahawks’ star quarterback. New deals for Wilson and linebacker Bobby Wagner appeared to be inevitable in February, but not so much these days. As such, people are talking.
One of those talking heads is Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers. Rodgers has been fairly central to the whole situation, of course, given that it’s his job to find his client the best deal he can. He knows he can get Wilson a lot of money – any agent could. But now it’s all about decimals. Which is to say, now it’s all about timing.
Maybe it always was. Probably always was. We wanted to think it would get done early because we wanted it to get done early, if only for the sake of our collective peace of mind. Extending Wilson means Wilson isn’t leaving. No extension means he’s at least got a chance of leaving town, even if that’s two full years down the line. It’s that chance that instills fear, and so it’s fear that Rodgers is using against us.
Rodgers just made new some waves by sending a 16-page letter to the Seahawks to let them know exactly where he and his client stand on this current situation. It’s a totally unnecessary move, which catapults it into the headlines. Except it’s also a largely irrelevant move. Some people are going to think that this changes everything. It doesn’t. It changes nothing.
What exactly is in this letter? Common truths, basically, and precious little more than that. Apparently, Wilson is comfortable playing out the rest of his deal as is. If a favorable new contract doesn’t happen in the next two years, he might test the free agent waters. That should be true of any player, and absolutely doesn’t indicate any desire on the player’s part to leave. Or the agent’s part, for that matter.
The real function of this letter is to say that Wilson won’t just roll over and accept an offer that’s lower than what he’s looking for. And why would he? He’s in no position to do something like that. He’s Russell Wilson! He won the Super Bowl and then went back the next year just for kicks. He’s a young star at the most important position in all of sports. This is exactly the kind of dude who isn’t settling for a team’s second-best offer. There’s no reason to. Wilson’s worth the best offer, and he knows it, and everyone knows it.
This is pressure, is all. Rodgers is simply reminding the team that they have yet to make their best offer. From the team’s perspective this makes sense as well, since they have other things to deal with. Like Wagner, for instance. They’re still not 100% sure what their best offer will be, and you can bet it’s a lot more complicated than simply taking Cam Newton‘s deal and adding a few million.
So what should we do as casual observers? Look the other way. Or look straight ahead, but with noise-cancelling headphones on. This isn’t anything more than noise. Logic dictates that Wilson is going to sign a new deal with the Seahawks, and if he doesn’t – well, that’s still two full seasons away. The timetable for this really doesn’t dictate any need for urgency. We think things change so much day to day. They don’t. There are still many, many months for things to happen. It doesn’t have to be this week, this month, or this year. And it might not be.
Russell Wilson is an incredibly important player for the Seattle Seahawks. Maybe even an essential player, one who the team can’t really do without. He’s in town for two more years, and, – barring something huge and unlikely – many, many more years after that. No 16-page letter is going to change that. All it’s going to do is cause a freakout. Let’s do our part and not freak out. It’s not that freaky.
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