Seahawks' Russell Wilson Trade: Pete Carroll Reflects One Year Later
In today's NFL with the news cycle dominated all season long, it's difficult for major trades or signings to sneak up on the masses. But one year ago from today, the Seattle Seahawks stunned the sports world by dealing star quarterback Russell Wilson to the Denver Broncos for a boatload of draft picks and three veteran players.
At the time, though the team had to unload two first round picks and two second round picks as part of the trade, Denver looked to have orchestrated a heist landing the franchise quarterback it had been looking for since Peyton Manning retired after the 2015 season. In the wake of his departure, Seattle was left with only veteran Geno Smith and Drew Lock, who arrived as part of the Wilson trade, to compete at the most important position in professional sports.
But while pundits may have mocked the Seahawks when they opted to part ways with Wilson in the most notable transaction in franchise history, Pete Carroll and John Schneider got the last laugh. Starting with Smith beating Wilson head-to-head in the season opener at Lumen Field, the two franchises went in opposite directions, as Seattle won nine games and earned a wild card while Denver floundered to a 5-12 finish with coach Nathaniel Hackett failing to make it through the season employed.
On the heels of Smith receiving a well-deserved three-year, $105 million extension, Carroll was asked by Seattle Sports 710 host Mike Salk about what he learned in the year since the blockbuster deal came together last March. In reflection, the 71-year old coach spoke candidly about the difficult decision and how the trade ultimately has built the Seahawks for long-term success.
"I've learned that sometimes you got to make tough decisions and you got to go for it," Carroll remarked. "It just reemphasized to me, sometimes you got to just sit with it. With really a good commitment of people in connection with the people that have to bring in the inputs of those decisions, you can make good solid choices and it worked. It worked out tremendously for us and that's why we're sitting in this position for this draft and we have some funds to work free agency because of it."
"We're excited about it too. We've had a great deal of excitement about this whole thing that's taken place and so we're looking ahead and we didn't have to rebuild to do that. And I know that I didn't convince a lot of people of that. I kept telling them, but we didn't have to do that mode and we were able to go for it and didn't quite get it. But we were close."
As Carroll mentioned, the Seahawks didn't advance far in the postseason as hoped, falling to the 49ers in the wild card round. They still lost eight games and barely finished above the .500 mark, sneaking into the playoffs as the final seed with help from the Lions.
But that's a far cry from how most experts anticipated Seattle would perform entering a perceived rebuild season in 2022. With Smith or Lock under center succeeding Wilson, two rookie tackles in Charles Cross and Abraham Lucas set to start from day one, and a defense littered with question marks, odds makers pegged the franchise for only 5.5 wins in over/under projections.
Instead, Smith seized his opportunity after beating out Lock for the starting job, becoming only the third quarterback in Seahawks history to throw 30 touchdown passes and leading the NFL with a 69.8 completion percentage to earn his first Pro Bowl selection. Additionally, a dynamic 2022 draft class led by Cross, Lucas, running back Ken Walker III, and cornerback Tariq Woolen made an immediate impact as rookies, creating hope for a bright future in the NFC West.
Making the contributions from Seattle's rookie class even better, Cross and second-round pick Boye Mafe joined the team with selections that arrived as part of the Wilson trade, giving the franchise two young pillars to build around.
Meanwhile, Wilson crashed and burned in his first season in the Mile High City after signing a five-year, $242 million extension. Floundering in an unimaginative offensive scheme, he only threw 16 touchdown passes and barely completed 60 percent of his attempts as the Broncos finished dead last in the NFL averaging 16.9 points per game.
When asked at the NFL Scouting Combine last week if he was surprised by Wilson's lackluster performance in Denver, Schneider paused for a second and simply said ...
"Yes, I was."
One of the best players in franchise history, Wilson's fallout in Seattle proved to be a slow burn that started several years before his exit. Speculation of his displeasure with the direction of the organization came to light one year earlier and after publicly airing his grievances about pass protection and the lack of involvement in personnel decisions, his agent Mark Rodgers gave ESPN insider Adam Schefter a list of four teams his client would be willing to waive his no trade clause to play for.
Even with rumors of a potential trade with Chicago coming to light, however, Schneider didn't deal Wilson and the two sides attempted to mend the situation. He endured a difficult season, including missing three games with a torn ligament in his right middle finger, as the team scuffled to a 7-10 season.
Since the Wilson deal became official, more details have come out of the woodwork about the increasing tension between the Seahawks and the star quarterback that led to his eventual departure. A recent report from The Athletic indicated the nine-time Pro Bowler demanded owner Jodie Allen to fire Carroll and Schneider and hire long-time Saints coach Sean Payton as a replacement. He quickly refuted the report on social media.
While neither denied the report, Carroll and Schneider took the high road when asked about it at the combine last week.
Looking back in hindsight, Carroll believes in an alternate universe that if he and the organization did a few things differently to help get back to the Super Bowl a third time, Wilson might still happily be playing quarterback for the Seahawks. But despite the ugly divorce, he still relishes what they accomplished as a duo winning 104 regular season games and a Super Bowl together.
"There's some stuff. I don't think I need to account for it all, but there's stuff along the way that we we might have tried to follow the essence and the facts of what was going on more than kind of the hype. We get caught up in some of the hype of it all and and that we could have done a little bit better. I think everybody would have prospered. But all in all, we had a great run and we've won a lot of games and we have a lot of success."
Most importantly, sharing the same consistent messaging he always has when it comes to disgruntled star players who leave Seattle, Carroll isn't going to air dirty laundry about the said player publicly. Comparing the situation to a son or daughter making a mistake, he's not going to give up on Wilson even if he did attempt to stage an organizational coup and cost him his job.
Instead, Carroll will be ready to embrace Wilson with open arms just as he was when Marshawn Lynch and Richard Sherman eventually came back after messy divorces. Time heals all wounds and maintaining his belief in the special culture built in Seattle, he has no doubts the two icons will bury the hatchet someday and everything that may or may not have happened in the past few years will be water under the bridge.
"What I have uncovered in my time here is our guys come back and they come back to us strong and they come back to us with with gratitude and appreciation and still an attitude which I love," Carroll said. "That's okay and we don't have to agree on everything, but we went through it together and when this is what happened and we'll take what we got and hopefully learn from it and make better the next time around.
"It's pretty clear to me this is not the big challenge to hang with people. These guys gave us everything they had and they willingly went for it in every way that they could, as best as we could How can I not hang with that?"
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