The Seattle Seahawks got their man. Well, it was more like it was like they kept their man after handing quarterback Russell Wilson a contract extension to make him the highest-paid player in the National Football League. So what does that all mean for the Seahawks? Not a twiddle.
Well, it does mean that head coach Pete Carroll and Seattle will have the services for one of the top quarterbacks in the league through at least the 2023 season. Whether that will be enough to bump Seattle’s chances of advancing to another Super Bowl while Wilson is in the prime stage of his NFL career, remains to be seen. In fact, the Seahawks will be hard-pressed to duplicate their early postseason success under Carroll.
That’s because there are a lot of other teams with Super Bowl ambitions as well.
The Los Angeles Rams, for the past two seasons, have taken over that mantle of top dawg in the NFC West. And Wilson has taken a backseat to Jared Goff, who took his team to the Super Bowl last season. Wilson’s reportedly four-year, $140 million extension, which includes a $65 signing bonus, guarantees the Seahawks are going to live and die by the scrambling feet and right arm of the mobile quarterback for years to come.
This isn’t too much of a shocker considering Wilson came off a 2018 season completing 35 touchdowns while throwing just seven interceptions on the way to passing for 3,448 yards. But the trepidation comes because Wilson was just the No. 18-rated passer in the NFL last season, a dropoff from the No. 9 spot he held in 2017. But Wilson has been consistent in his play.
In 2017, Wilson completed 61 percent of his passes for 3,983 yards, good enough for a 34-11 touchdown to interception ratio. The year before in 2016, Wilson completed an even higher percentage of his passes and broke the 4,000 passing-yard mark. During that season, Wilson completed 64 percent of his passes on his way to throwing for 4,217 yards. But he only threw for 21 touchdowns that year.
Wilson was at the helm of the Seattle teams that went to back-to-back Super Bowls in 2013 and 2014. But those Seahawks teams were clearly operating under the Legion of Boom’s undeniable shadow. Since then, Seattle has had okay success in the postseason, losing to NFC Super Bowl rep Carolina Panthers in the divisional round in 2015, dropping their second 2016 playoff game to the Atlanta Falcons, missing the postseason altogether in 2017, and falling to the Dallas Cowboys in a Wildcard game last year.
The road to the Super Bowl won’t get any easier for Mr. Wilson and his revamped Seattle team. The Seahawks don’t scare people on the defensive end the way they used. Wilson and Carroll can no longer rely on Richard Sherman, Kam Chancellor, and the rest of the Legion of Boom to save their fannies anymore. ON the offensive side of things, things haven’t been right for Seattle in the run game department since Marshawn Lynch departed.
The competition in the NFC has gotten a lot stiffer with the Rams at the top of the food chain.
And if you have to go by pecking order, the Cowboys are stronger and better. The Saints, as long as they have Drew Brees, are going to be a tough out for anyone who plays them. Then there is the Philadelphia Eagles, Chicago Bears, and the San Francisco 49ers, all lurking their collective heads to best everyone for the NFC throne. That’s not including the Panthers or New York Giants.
For Carroll, Wilson and the Seahawks, passing for a bunch of yards won’t amount to a hill of beans if they fail to elevate themselves back to Super Bowl contention. All that would mean is that the Seahawks want to dress nice for the party but forgot to get behind the wheels of the right vehicle to get them there.
Dennis has covered and written about politics, crime, race, sports, and entertainment. Dennis currently covers the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, and Olympic sports. Dennis is the editor of News4usonline.com and serves as the publisher of the Compton Bulletin newspaper. He earned a journalism degree from Howard University. Email Dennis at dfreeman@news4usonline.com