By Bob Condotta
The Seattle Times
The Seahawks got one big potential question about their future answered this week when they signed coach Pete Carroll to a new contract through the 2021 season.
It’s a move that on Thursday was widely praised by the man who represents the next big potential challenge in solidifying the team’s future —quarterback Russell Wilson.
“It’s exciting,” Wilson said of Carroll’s contract extension in what was his first media availability since the news broke. “Coach Carroll has been one of the most consistent people in the building every day. He has created a culture. He knows how to win. He’s just a great coach. He cares about his players and everything else, so it’s a great thing for the Seattle Seahawks organization, that’s for sure.”
In an answer to a follow-up question about what he’s learned from Carroll, Wilson cited the consistency of his approach through big wins and tough losses and everything between.
“That’s one of the things that makes him, in my opinion, a Hall of Fame football coach and just a coach that makes a big difference,” Wilson said.
No one would expect Wilson to say anything too off-script about Carroll or any other topic, of course.
But Seattle’s success in “retooling” this season and getting back to the playoffs, and then securing the future of Carroll —which also is being widely viewed as indicating that the team will not be sold any time soon —can’t do anything but help as the team also begins the process of securing the future of Wilson over the next year or so.
Wilson’s current contract, a four-year, $87.5 million deal signed before the 2015 season, runs through the 2019 season.
But as Seattle did last time —getting a deal done with Wilson shortly before he entered what was the final season on his initial four-year rookie contract —the Seahawks will likely at least try to get a new contract signed with Wilson before the 2019 season.
Wilson turned 30 in November and when he re-upped with Seattle in 2015 it was done with the intent that he might have a chance to hit free agency after his age 30 season —recall that a final key factor to getting that contract completed was the Seahawks agreeing to a four-year deal instead of five.
“It puts him in here at 30 years old as he is going into the last year of his contract,” Wilson’s agent, Mark Rodgers, said at the time. “So it puts you in a situation where he is still a young man and he gets an opportunity maybe to talk about another contract down the road. You don’t do a contract necessarily thinking about the next contract. But I think there is a big difference between doing a four-year extension and a five-year extension —that’s a long year. That’s a bit of a goal and we got there, so we were pleased with that.”
The Seahawks, of course, have a fair share of control in the situation thanks to the franchise tag. Seattle has not used the tag since 2010 but could use one in 2019 on Frank Clark, if needed, and then could use it to keep Wilson around in following seasons. If nothing else, the tag is at least a hammer that teams can wield during the negotiations themselves.
If Wilson were to play out the 2019 season without a new contract, Seattle could then use the tag on Wilson in 2020 (a number that would likely top the $30 million mark) and then even for two years after that if it really wanted, though at prohibitive numbers —a second tag in 2021 would mean a 20 percent raise and a third tag in 2022 would mean a 44 percent raise, a salary Pro Football Talk estimated would be $52 million for one season.
All of that seems unlikely, and as Seattle’s history shows, it prefers not to use the tag if it doesn’t have to.
Seahawks fans might wish for a “hometown discount” from Wilson. But there’s zero reason to expect he should give one, and also no reason to think he’ll take less than fair market value. So getting something done with Wilson isn’t likely to come easily —consider the new contract Green Bay’s Aaron Rodgers signed in August paying him an average of $33.5 million as a starting point for negotiations.
At the least, what the team’s success this season and the Carroll extension shows is that any questions about the direction of the franchise won’t be the complicating factors in re-signing Wilson it appeared they could be when the season began a few months ago amid more uncertainty than any time since Carroll arrived in 2010. Or even what it appeared they could be when Seattle started 0-2 and some national media began speculating that this might be it for Carroll, whose old deal expired after the 2019 season.
“I do think that coach Carroll has just been a big part of just my love of the game, my continual love of the game,” Wilson said. ” … he makes you love coming work.”
