The news that talks between the Seahawks and quarterback Russell Wilson will end at training camp raises the stakes for the negotiations, since the inability to get a deal done before then means the Seahawks eventually will face a difficult array of choices in February. But Wilson apparently wants the Seahawks to face those choices now.
During a Friday visit to PFT Live on NBC Sports Radio, Ian Rapoport of NFL Media explained that Wilson wants to be paid as if he were a free agent.
This means that he wants market value for a position where healthy franchise quarterbacks never actually get to the market. It also means that Wilson wants to fast forward through the fourth year of his rookie year, shifting the risk of injury and ineffectiveness to the Seahawks even though he still has 16 regular-season games and possibly multiple postseason games to play.
Most importantly, if Wilson truly wants to be paid now as if he were a free agent, it means that a deal won’t be done before the start of training camp. Which means that a deal won’t be done until next year, at the earliest.
Which means that there remains a very good chance that Wilson won’t be playing for the Seahawks in 2016, with one possible outcome being use of the exclusive version of the franchise tag by the Seahawks, followed by a trade for something more or different than the two first-round picks that would be available under the non-exclusive franchise tag.