The Guardian
The Bears are in a perfect position to end Russell Wilson’s Seahawks career
The quarterback believes that the team he has been a part of throughout his career is holding him back. If he wants to leave, now is the time to attack Russell Wilson went to two Super Bowls with the Seahawks. Photo: Elaine Thompson / AP Russell Wilson is the latest star in the franchise to perform for the game of quarterback musical chairs during this off-season. Wilson, his agent has been struggling to aim, hasn’t officially demanded a Seattle switch, but he – in a delightfully passive-aggressive, Wilson-style way – has made it clear to team decision makers that he is unhappy with the direction of the franchise. and that he prefers to leave. According to a detailed report in The Athletic, Wilson is dissatisfied with the construction of the team’s cast, the style of coach / chief decision maker Pete Carroll and the Seahawks’ offensive system. In the center of the gap are two practical elements. First, Wilson’s desire to play in a modern system of pace and space similar to what the Kansas City Chiefs built around Patrick Mahomes, with everything flowing through the defender. Second, the terrible offensive line from Seattle, which has placed last in pressure rating in three of the past five seasons. Carroll is an old school coach, who plays with all his strength, plays a solid defense, does not turn the ball. This served Wilson and the Seahawks well during the couple’s early years of partnership. Behind an all-time defense, a crushing run-game led by Marshawn Lynch and Wilson’s crushing brilliance, the team went to the Super Bowls in a row, winning one and losing the other. But as Wilson matured and became one of the most complete quarterbacks in the game and the squad around him disintegrated, Carroll did not evolve. He released the scheme and provided the system for Wilson in part, but the foundations remained first and risk-averse. While Wilson looked in the mirror and saw Aaron Rodgers, Tom Brady and Peyton Manning – quarterbacks with freedom to change the game on the scrimmage line and who had almost complete autonomy over the system – Carroll looked at his quarterback and saw fantastic gear in his machine. The scheme still won. All the while, Wilson was taking a beating – no quarterback was hit more since he joined the league, and no quarterback was hit at the same rate in a three-year period as Wilson between 2018-2021. However, there was a change in philosophy last season. After a three-year drum beat by #LetRussCook, an online movement that began to infiltrate the locker room – short for Let Russell Wilson Pass More – Carroll handed Wilson the reins for the attack. Still: the quarterback was seen as a player, not a collaborator. He was not offered the kind of technical-defender partnership that Rodgers, Manning and Brady had at the height of their powers, the kind that Wilson believes he has achieved over nine years. “I know I am a great football player,” said Wilson last season. “I know that I have been great, I know that I will be great and I know that I will continue to be great.” And Wilson was great at the start of the 2020 season. Behind Wilson’s excellence, Seattle averaged four and a half touchdowns during the first half of the season, the kind of total only matched by the 2007 Brady-led Patriots, Manning’s 2013 Broncos and the 2000 Rams – widely regarded as the best offensive teams of this century. It was an impressive rebuke to Carroll’s doctrine. Wilson was finally allowed to cook and he proved to be the best chef in the game. Over the course of eight weeks, he topped the MVP charts; even Mahomes couldn’t keep up. Wilson managed to maintain all the efficiency that defined his game with even more explosiveness. And then he collapsed. After his best start to the season, Wilson drew for the past eight weeks. For the first time in his career, he finished out of the top 10 in Football Outsiders’ DVOA metric, a measure of a quarterback’s efficiency (Wilson was a DVOA demigod throughout his career). In the blink of an eye, Carroll returned to the old Seahawks’ style. When Wilson tried to offer some contribution to the game plan in the midst of last season’s decline, he was rejected by the coaching staff. Wilson left the meeting furious. As with any major drama, Wilson’s real fight is not about how the team does things. It is a matter of respect. He wants to be a partner, a part of a decision-making board, not an employee. “The most important people in the building,” Seahawks general manager John Schneider told reporters in 2018, “are the head coach and quarterback.” Wilson wants to charge that to him. And then there is your need for external respect. For all his excellence, for all the applause, Wilson has never received a single MVP vote yet. Playing more, posting the kind of numbers he made in the first half of last season in 16 games, he thinks he can finally get his hands on MVP – these things really, really do matter to Wilson. In the most important position in the sport, Wilson has been the most consistent player in the game for almost a decade, despite the feeling that the Seahawks system prevented him. Seattle’s reply is obvious: Wilson has been good because of the system and his risk-averse nature, notwithstanding this. When the handbrake was applied, it proved unsustainable. The vision test – which often involves Wilson running here, there and everywhere to avoid pressure – is not in line with the team’s assessment. Tired of being hit. Tired of playing in an arduous system. Tired of not being the sole focus of the franchise, Wilson seems to want to leave. Like another unstable defender, Deshaun Watson, Wilson has a no-deal clause in his contract, arming him with a ton of advantage over the Seahawks – he will have more voice than the team over where he will play in 2021 and beyond, if it move. His agent told ESPN that, although Wilson does not require an official exchange, he communicated to the Seahawks hierarchy the teams that he would be willing to waive the no-trade clause to move to the Cowboys, Saints, Raiders or Bears. Dak Prescott’s new deal excludes Dallas, although it seems increasingly likely that Drew Brees will return for a final race with the Saints. That leaves us with Raiders and Bears. Chicago makes more sense. The only way for the Bears to improve this off-season is to switch to a revolutionary quarterback, Wilson or Watson. The Bears have two paths towards 2021: they get a quarterback that changed the franchise and are a playoff team with holes in the squad; or they improve marginally as a defender – either with the development of Mitchell Trubisky or with another free agency option – and fall short again. It is impractical for Chicago to think that its defense can remain at a high level for another season. Wilson knows how elite defenses age quickly. They are great, so they stink. A good defense is never as reliable as a good attack: a defense requires 20 talented players, an excellent layout and an experienced player; an attack can thrive with a great defender and some talented pieces. There are very few deals that the Bears should refuse. Hand over the escalation sheet, ask the Seahawks what they want and include all the choices needed to make the deal. Press Seattle to refuse and Wilson to say yes or no. Was that off-season noise hot air? Are Wilson’s comments and leaks about complaints made, about politics, about public relations? Or is he really looking for a change of scenery and a better chance of winning an MVP and a championship? The bears are the only ones who can force the issue. It is a small window, but it is one that the Bears and Wilson should try to take advantage of. Wilson spent much of his career as a sophisticated professional. In a team that was infamous and frank – a noise encouraged by the coach – he was the quietest, to the point that his teammates questioned his motives. Now, in the era of quarterback training, when Watson is talking about early retirement to force Houston and Matthew Stafford managed to force Detroit out, Wilson has a chance to make his move. For a man who cares so much about his legacy, how he leaves a place seems to be essential. That’s why he’s playing with other teams while Watson chooses to hit the burn all button. To force Seattle out, Wilson may have to follow Watson’s example. He goes?