It’s noteworthy that the Seahawks and quarterback Russell Wilson reportedly have made little progress toward a long-term deal, given that Wilson’s deadline of April 15 looms. But it’s not necessarily a sign that a deal can’t get done.
The NFL continues to be a deadline-driven business, and when it comes to negotiations it never makes sense to move toward a bottom-line position with time left for the other side to dig in and try to get more. So if the Seahawks intend to make the kind of move that would potentially get Wilson to accept the team’s best offer, it doesn’t make sense to put that offer on the table before Friday afternoon, giving him the weekend to ponder it before providing a “yes” or “no” answer.
Then there’s the question of whether the deadline really is a true deadline. Wilson and agent Mark Rodgers would say that it is. But what if, as Chris Simms pointed out, the team were to come to Wilson on May 15 and offer to give him whatever he wanted as of April 15? Would Wilson reject that offer because it arrived a month late?
He would be inclined to reject it, if he only reluctantly agreed to devote a window of the offseason to negotiations on a long-term deal. As of last May, PFT reported that Wilson preferred playing on a year to year basis, given the significant franchise tenders that will be available to him ($30.34 million in 2020, $36.4 million in 2021, and $52.43 million in 2022) and the opportunity to become an unrestricted free agent if at any point Seattle decides that it can’t or won’t pay that kind of money. If the current talks are happening only because Wilson relented to the team’s effort to get him to give working out a long-term deal a try, it becomes easier for him to say “you had your chance” if/when they make a belated offer that matches what he would have taken before April 15.
Still, if the Seahawks suddenly decide at any point between April 15, 2019 and July 15, 2020 to give Wilson what he’ll make under three years of the franchise tag, fully guaranteed, along with an escalator tied to a specific percentage of the salary cap for the full duration of the deal, it will be hard for him to pass -- unless he’s secretly determined to follow the Kirk Cousins path and ultimately become the first NFL player to make more than $40 million per year on the open market, whether that offer comes from the Seahawks or someone else.