As Russell Wilson gets Seahawks salary guaranteed, NFL sets a higher salary-cap floor
Russell Wilson just got 19 million more reasons to stick with the Seahawks.
Meanwhile, every NFL team is guaranteed at least $5 million more than it could have had to spend on players in 2021.
The league and its players association reached an agreement Thursday, raising the no-lower-than limit for the 2021 salary cap to $180 million per team. The floor originally had been $175 million.
The cap was $198.2 million per club in 2020. Then the coronavirus pandemic kept fans from attending games this past season, resulting in unprecedented decreases in league revenue.
The cap is going down this year for only the second time since the league instituted a salary-cap system in the early 1990s. The other time was the result of the lockout of players in 2011. The cap has usually increased by at least $10 million year over year as NFL revenues have soared.
Not that any of this affects Wilson.
Seattle’s franchise quarterback had all $19 million of his base salary for 2021 guaranteed on Friday, per spotrac.com. He and the team agreed to that clause in April 2019 as part of the record $140 million extension he signed with the Seahawks. With Seattle prorating his $65 million signing bonus through the end of the deal following the 2023 season for accounting purposes, Wilson’s cap charge in 2021 is scheduled to be $32 million.
That’s by far the team’s highest. All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner, also the highest-paid player at his position when he re-signed in 2019, is scheduled to have a cap number of $17.15 million this year.
So, yet again, for emphasis: the Seahawks are not trading Wilson, just as The News Tribune reported last week amid a frenzy of national rumors.
It’s been almost chic in the NFC since the season ended to trade and switch out quarterbacks. The Los Angeles Rams did it to Jared Goff, sending him and first-round draft choices to Detroit to get veteran QB Matthew Stafford three weeks ago. On Thursday the Philadelphia Eagles traded Carson Wentz, another former number-one pick and franchise man, to the Indianapolis Colts for what ESPN reported is a third-round pick plus a second-rounder that could become a first depending on how Wentz does with the Colts this year.
Drew Brees is expected to retire, leaving the New Orleans Saints starting over at the most important position in football. The Chicago Bears are not expected to bring back Mitchell Trubisky, the second-overall pick in the 2017 draft, as their starter in 2021.
And Wilson remains where he’s been for nine years, and will be for three more: under contract with the Seahawks to be their franchise cornerstone.
Albeit an urgent one.
For the first time in his career, Wilson last week publicly pointed to a Seahawks flaw he wants corrected now.
After Seattle’s sixth consecutive season of failing to advance past the divisional round of the playoffs despite Wilson throwing for a team-record 40 touchdowns in 2020, Wilson was asked by the TNT on a national Zoom media call if he was frustrated with the Seahawks.
“I’m frustrated on getting hit too much. I’m frustrated with that,” Wilson said Feb. 9.
Many—including former Seahawks defensive end Cliff Avril speaking on Seattle’s KJR-AM radio—saw that as a violation of coach Pete Carroll’s first rule: protect the team.
More than that, it’s Wilson pushing his status and influence as the Seahawks’ most important and highest-paid player, at age 32 and 10 years into his career.
He isn’t going rogue. He’s far too calculated to do that.
Wilson had already talked with Carroll and general manager John Schneider about Seattle’s offensive line and its problems in pass protection before he publicly said “I’m frustrated” last week. That protection issue has kept Wilson from returning to the Super Bowl since the 2014 season, despite Wilson’s best passing numbers while in the prime of his career.
“Obviously, I’ve had conversations with Pete and with John,” Wilson said. “Both of those guys, they believed in me to sign me way back in the day. They took a risk on me — I wouldn’t say a risk, but to the rest of the world it would probably be a risk.
“I think, though, at the same time, being involved in the conversations, continuing to be involved, I think you ask guys like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, even guys like Tom Brady (who just won his seventh Super Bowl, his first with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers) you saw this year how much he was involved in the process, I think that’s something that is important to me — and making sure that I’m trying to do everything I can. Because, I think, at the end of the day I’ve got to be out there. I’ve got to be out there. I’ve got to make the calls, make the plays, make the throws ...”
Carroll and Schneider can’t be thrilled with Wilson putting them on public notice to act now. But that doesn’t mean they are going to ditch the solution, not the problem, in Seattle.
Wilson turns 33 in November. He knows his window for winning Super Bowls isn’t staying open forever, especially if he keeps getting hit.
Based on the minimum cap number for 2021 of $180 million per team, the Seahawks have about $4 million in available space, per overthecap.com. Some around the NFL believe the 2021 cap number will ultimately settle around $185 million when the league announces it, likely in late February or early March.
The league year begins March 17, with the free-agent market officially opening for signings March 19.
Whatever the final cap number for 2021, it’s going to go down at least $10 million per club. That means the Seahawks are going to have to cut or restructure veteran contracts such as defensive end Carlos Dunlap (scheduled for a $14 million cap charge, behind only Wilson, Wagner and Tyler Lockett). It also means many veteran starting offensive linemen with “middle-class” salaries, in the range of $5-10 million per season, are going to get released by other clubs and become available next month.
The Seahawks likely need two new offensive linemen. The contracts of starting center Ethan Pocic and left guard Mike Iupati have ended. Iupati, 33, has been beset by a nerve issue in his neck for each of his two seasons with Seattle is less likely than Pocic to re-sign to a club-friendly deal.
Left tackle Duane Brown turns 36 in August. The Seahawks’ best lineman is entering the final year of his contract. The team needs a long-term answer after Brown as Wilson’s backside protector.
The league just told the Seahawks and everyone else in the NFL they are at least going to have more money this offseason to spend on plugging those holes.
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 4:22 PM.
