Pete Carroll, John Schneider explain Russell Wilson Soap Opera: ‘He wasn’t getting traded’
From the start, from the first flames of the rumor inferno the Russell Wilson Soap Opera became, Pete Carroll kept talking to his franchise quarterback this offseason.
About hiring Shane Waldron as the Seahawks’ new, first-time offensive coordinator to help Wilson’s pass protection.
About trading for Gabe Jackson, one of the NFL’s top pass-blocking guards, from the Las Vegas Raiders.
And, above all the noise, about Wilson staying what he had been for nine years, what he is under contract to be for three more seasons: Seattle’s $140 million franchise cornerstone.
“We’ve had as many conversations as we’ve ever had. We’ve been close for years. And nothing changed that,” Carroll said during an hour-long Zoom call with local media members.
Wednesday’s talk focused mainly on the fallout from Wilson stating publicly in February: “I’m frustrated with getting hit so much.”
For the first time, the team leaders publicly addressed what Wilson said—and what his words created.
“He wasn’t any more frustrated than I was,” Carroll said of the feelings across the team after the NFC West-champion Seahawks lost at home in their first playoff game to the Los Angeles Rams. They chased, hit and harassed Wilson as they have for years.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider also talked to reporters for the first time in 12 months, his first interview since the last draft.
Schneider attributed Wilson’s stated frustration of leading the league in passing and points most of the season, throwing a team-record 40 touchdown passes, winning 12 of 16 games in the regular season, earning a home playoff game—then face-planting amid a fateful malfunction in one January afternoon against the Rams.
“Nothing’s changed,” between Wilson and him, Carroll emphasized.
“Right now, he’s as jacked up as he’s ever been.”
Not that we can hear that.
Carroll advised Wilson to stay silent this offseason, to let the national media run its wild, unsubstantiated and salacious course with the quarterback’s comments he was frustrated.
In fact, the Seahawks as a franchise made that their organizational approach, from the first days of the offseason to Wednesday, the day before the start of the NFL draft.
“I wasn’t going to say a word,” Carroll said. “Because I knew what the truth was. ...
“The truth is, he wasn’t getting traded. He’s on our roster. And he’s signed up for a long time around here.
Carroll said the rumors of Chicago offering Soldier Field, Wrigley Field, the Navy Pier and the Sears Tower, the breathless banter about which team would do what to get Wilson any moment now, anything and everything, was “so far out there.
“It wasn’t even worth considering,” Carroll said.
“Unfortunately, that’s kind of how it went.”
Did Wilson tell the Seahawks’ leadership that he wanted more say and influence over the direction and future of the team, as was also reported nationally, citing unnamed and unsubstantiated sources?
“That never happened,” Carroll said.
What did happen
In today’s world of instantaneous, unverified “news,” the team’s silence and desire to not give any credence to rumors by commenting about them turned those flames into the national football gossip wildfire.
Within weeks, Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers was telling ESPN’s Adam Schefter Wilson didn’t want to be traded, and the Seahawks weren’t making moves to deal him—but if they do, here are four teams he’d like to go to: Chicago, Las Vegas, Dallas and New Orleans.
“When that came out, it opened up other conversations. … It was so meaningless,” Carroll said. “It had nothing to do with what was going on. …
“I wish we could have avoided that.”
Carroll has one more regret from the whole drama. The coach acknowledged, though not exactly directly and forcefully, that Wilson violated his first team rule.
“In this case, rule number one was challenged,” Carroll said of: Protect the team.
Later in the hour-plus conversation Wednesday, the coach amended that. He said Wilson publicly stating he was frustrated with his pass protection more accurately broke the coach’s second rule.
“If anything happened, it wasn’t a rule number-one violation. It might have been a rule number-two violation,” Carroll said.
“Which is: no whining, no complaining, no excuses—where you say something that you kind of can be challenged. That’s coach talking, but that’s how we dealt through all of it.
“It just had a big life of its own. ...The essence was, nothing was happening. That’s how John handled it, that’s how I handled it throughout. And, really, Russ did the best of his ability to do that.”
Schneider said Carroll “did a phenomenal job in talking through everything with Russ.”
Again, the coach reiterated all is as good as it’s been between Wilson, his coach and his team that drafted him in the third round in 2012, made him its starter from week one of his rookie season and has twice re-signed him to the richest contracts in NFL history at the time of signing.
“It looked like there was a problem. But it wasn’t a problem,” Carroll said.
“It’s a media problem. It wasn’t a problem, because we knew the truth.”
So what of the Bears having been rumored to offer Schneider three first-round draft choices plus two veteran starters—but, notably, no quarterback—to Seattle for Wilson?
The Seahawks’ GM said he fielded those calls. And only fielded them.
“There were a number of teams that called...but no, I never actively negotiated,” Schneider said.
“With anybody...there was never, ever a conversation,” Schneider said, other than on what he termed “periphery calls” about Wilson.
What’s next
Carroll says, yes, Wilson has the responsibility to talk to his teammates, especially younger ones who live on and love social media and are more subject to its whims and rumors, to set the locker room straight before the season.
The coach says that process has already begun, remotely, this offseason. That Wilson has already talked to teammates, and that older veterans who have been with their quarterbacks for years already understand.
“There are always questions. There is stuff that has to be dealt with, always,” Carroll said.
“Our guys are taking care of their business and communicating well. We don’t have any issues, at all.”
“We are not going to let outside force or drama dictate how we react to things,” Schneider said. “And we haven’t for a number of years now.
“We’ve had A LOT going on here that has never become public. Some have. Some have not. We’ve had stories written trying to dismantle our team right before the season starts, on several occasions.
“Do we respond to it? No, we don’t.”
These are, of course, the leaders and team that have won through former wide receiver Golden Tate breaking into a Top Pot doughnuts store on Seattle’s eastside, Marshawn Lynch basically doing his own thing, winning and just being there so he didn’t get fined, national stories years ago during their back-to-back Super Bowl days that Wilson was dividing the team and that he wasn’t “Black enough,” and more.
“We’ve been through a lot of stuff,” Carroll said.
“From Maple Bars to Marshawn,” Schneider said, drawing a laugh from his coach who was sitting socially distanced to his right.
“Russ has been our quarterback for a long while. We’ve got a long contract with him...a long future ahead of us is shared,” Carroll said.
“We just had to sit back and let the media take its course with it. And they did.”
Now where are they, on the eve of Carroll’s and Schneider’s 12th draft running the Seahawks, with Wilson trumpeting his team’s offseason signings and planning to host DK Metcalf, Gerald Everett and other teammates at his offseason training site in southern California?
“We are,” Carroll said, “in a fantastic place right now.”
This story was originally published April 28, 2021 at 2:15 PM.
