Getty Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson could be on the move in the offseason.
Russell Wilson can’t be traded right now, but the Seattle Seahawks quarterback could see himself on the way out in the offseason.
In this “hypothetical” proposed trade by Bleacher Report’s Chris Roling, the New Orleans Saints would emerge as a trade partner for Wilson if trades were still allowed this deep into the NFL season.
The trade deadline passed earlier this month. However, this trade is a plausible one following the end of the season.
“Looking at this season, moving Wilson to the New Orleans Saints—one of his four preferred trade destinations—would intensify the playoff picture.
Those Saints are 5-6 and just behind Tampa Bay in the NFC South. They started 5-2 before dropping four straight and lost starter Jameis Winston for the season with a knee injury. Acquiring Wilson would add a top-10 passer to a passing attack that was overachieving (with Deonte Harris and Marquez Callaway as top targets), backed by a strong defense that gives up 22.6 points per game.
With Wilson barreling toward an offseason with an out in his contract, a hypothetical trade to a win-now contender is almost too much fun for fans. Wilson could fight with Tom Brady for an NFC South crown and contend for the next five-plus years while Seattle punches the reset button after things have soured.”
Saints May Be Wilson’s Best Option
As Rolling notes, the Saints were one of four teams Wilson listed that he’d be interested in a possible trade with last offseason. The other three teams were the Las Vegas Raiders, Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears.
The Cowboys are set at quarterback with Dak Prescott, while the same could be said for the Las Vegas Raiders and Derek Carr, who has emerged as a dark-horse MVP candidate during the 2021 season. Meanwhile, the Bears are more concerned with finding a new head coach now that they’ve found their future franchise quarterback in rookie Justin Fields.
That leaves the Saints as the lone team from Wilson’s list that could realistically be interested in making a play for the 33-year-old veteran quarterback this offseason.
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Wilson Could Be Saints’ Missing Piece
Prior to Jameis Winston’s injury, the Saints had emerged as a playoff contender in the post-Drew Brees era behind a stingy defense and an offense that minimized turnovers with a game manager at quarterback.
However, since Winston’s injury, the Saints haven’t been able to recover. With Trevor Siemian leading the way, New Orleans has now lost four consecutive games and are on the verge of missing the postseason for the first time since the 2016 season.
While the Saints could very well bring back Winston on another one-year deal — they’ve done this over the previous two offseasons — the allure of bringing in a true franchise quarterback that could catapult the team back to the success of the Brees era is too intriguing to pass up.
The Saints also re-signed Taysom Hill to a unique four-year deal that could pay him up to an additional $55 million — on top of his $40 million base salary over the next four years — if he emerges as the starting quarterback.
However, as much as the Saints clearly value Hill’s do-it-all abilities, he failed to beat Winston for the starting quarterback job during the preseason. Furthermore, he’ll be 32 years old next year and has just 1,103 passing yards and 134 passing attempts to his name.
That’s not even mentioning how Hill has been active over the past three games and has failed to wrestle the starting job away from a career backup like Siemian.
The Seahawks are clearly trending towards a rebuild. With the oldest head coach in the league in Pete Carroll (70 years old) and a quarterback who is wasting the remaining prime years of his career on a pretender, Seattle could very well trade Wilson.
Considering Wilson holds a no-trade clause in his deal, the question is where? And what exactly can the Seahawks garner in return?
As tough of a pill as it may be to swallow, the Seahawks may have to trade their beloved quarterback to an NFC rival.
It may be the best way to start their rebuild in the post-Wilson era.