Russell Wilson denies he asked Seahawks ownership to fire Pete Carroll, John Schneider
Nearly a full year after the Seahawks traded Russell Wilson, axes are still grinding over it.
The Athletic reported Friday Wilson “asked Seahawks ownership” to fire coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider before the trade.
That was, The Athletic reported citing unnamed sources, after the franchise quarterback who won Seattle’s only Super Bowl title after the 2013 season became “convinced that Carroll and Schneider were inhibiting his quest to win additional Super Bowls and individual awards.”
The Athletic’s story was co-reported and written by Kalyn Kahler, former News Tribune Seahawks beat writer Mike Sando and Jayson Jenks.
Wilson responded online less than an hour after the story came out on the internet early Friday morning.
“I love Pete and he was a father figure to me and John believed in me and drafted me as well. I never wanted them fired. All any of us wanted was to win. l’ll always have respect for them and love for Seattle,” Wilson posted on his Twitter account.
The Seahawks traded Wilson to the Denver Broncos at his request March 8, 2022. Last month he finished the worst season of his 11-year NFL career. His Denver debut season ended with the Broncos 5-12 and with the league’s worst offense in points scored.
A spokesman for the Seahawks and team chair Jody Allen told The News Tribune Friday the team had no comment on The Athletic’s story.
The TNT was told last year before the trade to Denver that Wilson had for a couple years wanted to play for coach Sean Payton.
The Athletic’ reported Friday Wilson asked “Seahawks ownership” — meaning Allen — to replace Carroll with Payton before the 2022 season. Payton spent last season out of coaching, as a television analyst for Fox.
Allen is the only authority above Carroll within the Seahawks.
Payton was still coaching New Orleans in February 2021 when Wilson’s agent Mark Rodgers told ESPN Wilson would waive his no-trade clause to get traded from Seattle to the Saints among three other teams, should the Seahawks want to trade him. The Seahawks, specifically and lastly Carroll, did not. That is, not until after Wilson let Carroll and Schneider know early in the 2022 offseason he wanted out of Seattle and had a team he wanted, Denver.
“We were under the impression,” Wilson wasn’t going to re-sign a third extension with the Seahawks after his then-current deal ended with 2023 season, Schneider said on March 16, 2022.
Eight days earlier, the day of the trade, Allen said in a team statement it happened because Wilson didn’t want to be in Seattle after his first 10 NFL seasons leading the Seahawks.
“While Russell made it clear he wanted this change, he made Seattle proud and we are grateful for his decade of leadership on and off the field,” Allen said March 8, 2022.
“I trust our leadership to take us into the future, and know we all wish Russell the very best.”
The Broncos fired first-year head coach Nathaniel Hackett during last season. Denver replaced him with Payton this month.
“The ball is now back in Russell’s hands — literally and figuratively,” an NFL source told the TNT this month, after Payton signed a five-year deal to coach Wilson in Denver.
Wilson signed a five-year, $245 million contract extension with the Broncos in September. That contract ends after the 2028 season, one year after Payton’s deal is set to end with Denver.
Allen and the Seahawks last year decided to cast their franchise’s fortunes with Carroll, the franchise’s top football authority, and Schneider — and without Wilson.
Carroll then decided seven-year league backup Geno Smith, Wilson’s benchwarmer the previous three years, would replace Wilson. While Wilson and his Broncos sank to giving Seattle the fifth-overall pick in this spring’s NFL draft, the 32-year-old Smith became a Pro Bowl selection for the first time in the 2022 season.
Smith broke three of Wilson’s season passing records and led Seattle to where Wilson did not in his final Seahawks season of 2021: the playoffs.
Smith is now negotiating with Allen, Schneider and the Seahawks on a new multiyear contract. It’s his first since the rookie deal Smith signed with the New York Jets in 2013. It’s likely to raise his salary from $3.5 million last season, the only season of his seventh consecutive one-year contract, to perhaps approaching $30 million annually.
Smith’s first start replacing Wilson was a 17-16 victory over Wilson and the Broncos at roaring Lumen Field in Seattle, in September.
The packed Seattle stadium booed Wilson relentlessly, beginning an hour before the game when he came out for pregame warm-ups through the game’s end.
It also roared a new Lumen Field chant throughout that game: “GEE-NO! GEE-NO!”
As soon as the game clock expired, Wilson and Carroll met briefly at midfield. They were surrounded by a throng of photographers.
“Nice game,” Carroll told Wilson.
And that was that.
This story was originally published February 24, 2023 at 12:25 PM.
