Getty The Russell Wilson trade rumors could heat up again this offseason.
Much has been made about Russell Wilson’s future, but Seattle Seahawks star linebacker Bobby Wagner recently described the speculation as “overblown.” Wagner went on to describe the offseason drama surrounding the Seahawks franchise quarterback as “water under the bridge.”
“I think, honestly, it’s part of how the league works,” Wagner explained in a July 9th interview with USA Today. “If you lose and don’t go to the big game, they always try to figure out what went wrong, what happened. And so I think after Russell made a couple of those comments, I think it was an opportunity for a lot of people to run with it. I definitely feel like it was a little overblown, but it’s all water under the bridge now.”
Wagner on Wright’s Future: ‘Hopefully the Team Makes the Right Decision’
Unless the Seahawks change course by bringing back K.J. Wright, Wagner is the lone defensive player remaining from the team’s Super Bowl run, per USA Today. Wagner is still holding out hope that the Seahawks will make the “right decision” and re-sign Wright.
“I think as you get older – for me – I’ve always had the idea I’ve wanted to play for the Seahawks my whole career,” Wagner explained. “So I kinda knew at some point, as we started getting up there in years and started getting up there in age, we [former Seahawks defensive stars] weren’t going to be able to play with each other for a long time. Things get figured out … hopefully the team makes the right decision.”
Carroll Described the Wilson Storyline as ‘Old News’
The Seahawks, at least publicly, continue to emphasize that the team is on good terms with Wilson. During a May 21st interview on The Rich Eisen Show, Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll described the rumors surrounding Wilson as “old news.” Carroll admitted that Wilson’s public criticism of the team during multiple media interviews following the Super Bowl became “bigger than life.”
“It seems like really old news to talk about this because it’s been such a long time,” Carroll explained. “Rich, the little bit that he said carried so much air time that it became bigger than life. Throughout the whole process, Russell [and I], we’ve always been connected. We’ve always been talking. We’ve never not been in communication, and we weren’t at all this time either. A couple things that came out got magnified and the questions came out and there was a couple things, you know he was frustrated when he was talking. Just like any of us can sometimes emphasize something that’s on the top of our mind, and it can be played differently than it really played itself out.
“We’ve had a really good offseason of working and there was an ongoing media discussion that I did not take part in. John [Schneider] and I, we refused to be party to that, and Russ did what he could once he saw it happening to stay as quiet as he could, because it was going to play and have a life of its own anyway. So, what it amounted to was, I think a refocusing, making sure that we were on the same page. Making sure that we were clear so that we could withstand any of the scrutiny that would come towards us.”