Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson waves to fans as he leaves the field after a game against the Los Angeles Rams, on Oct. 7, 2021, in Seattle.Elaine Thompson/The Associated Press
The Denver Broncos have finally landed a worthy successor to Peyton Manning.
Six years and a day after Manning retired, Broncos general manager George Paton agreed to send a massive haul of players and draft picks to the Seattle Seahawks for nine-time Pro Bowl quarterback Russell Wilson, two people familiar with the negotiations confirmed to The Associated Press on Tuesday.
The people spoke on condition of anonymity because the blockbuster trade, which is pending Wilson passing a physical, can’t become official until the start of the new league year on March 16.
The teams cannot comment on the deal until then, but the Broncos cleverly tweeted a clip of Tom Hanks’s character in Cast Away drawing a face on the volleyball he named “Wilson.”
About an hour later, the Seahawks tweeted another clip from that movie in which Hanks’s scraggly, skinny character loses the volleyball at sea and hollers, “Wilson, where are you? Wilson! Wilson!”
Denver was seen as the front-runner for Aaron Rodgers before the two-time reigning MVP agreed Tuesday to stay in Green Bay, presumably as the highest-paid player in NFL history. Not long afterward, Paton landed a Super Bowl-winning quarterback anyway, and one who’s five years younger than the 38-year-old Packers star.
The NFL Network reported the Seahawks agreed to send Wilson and a fourth-round pick to Denver in exchange for two first-round picks, two second-round picks, and a fifth-rounder, along with quarterback Drew Lock, defensive end Shelby Harris and tight end Noah Fant, the Broncos’ first-round draft pick in 2019.
Since Manning retired a month after winning Super Bowl 50, the Broncos have churned through 10 starting quarterbacks, including a different starter in each of the past five season openers: Trevor Siemian, Case Keenum, Joe Flacco, Lock and Teddy Bridgewater, who beat out Lock last summer.
The Broncos haven’t been back to the playoffs since Manning retired, but they appear to have a playoff-worthy roster. New coach Nathaniel Hackett, Rodgers’s former offensive co-ordinator, is building an offence around dynamic wide receivers Jerry Jeudy, Courtland Sutton, Tim Patrick and K.J. Hamler, tight end Albert Okwuegbunam and running back Javonte Williams.
And now he has the quarterback to make it all work, one who can stack up with the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Justin Herbert and Derek Carr in the tough AFC West.
Jeudy tweeted a frowning emoji upon word of Rodgers staying put, then he tweeted a smiling emoji when word broke that Wilson was headed to Denver.
The Seahawks had made it clear they weren’t interested in moving Wilson unless a transformational offer came along.
Seattle’s off-season had mostly been focused on adjustments on defence with coaching and scheme changes, and the belief that with Wilson still at quarterback the Seahawks would remain contenders in the stacked NFC West.
The trade, though, was the culmination of more than a year’s worth of buildup. Wilson first expressed his discontent with the franchise last off-season after Seattle won the division but lost in the first round of the playoffs.