Entering a contract season in the Emerald City, Russell Wilson is expected to become the latest "highest-paid quarterback in NFL history" this offseason or soon after. It's protocol.
Over the last two years, that honor has been bestowed numerous times upon the good-to-great-QB-with-an-expiring contract of the month. From Derek Carr to Matthew Stafford to Jimmy Garoppolo to Kirk Cousins to Matt Ryan to Aaron Rodgers, each All-Pro or Pro Bowl-adjacent signal-caller to sniff free agency has been awarded with a new deal with a total value or average annual value (AAV) that resets the market.
As of Sunday morning, the leader in the clubhouse was Rodgers, who signed a four-year, $134 million extension in August 2018, a league-best average of $33.5M per year.
Wilson, who has as many Super Bowl titles as Rodgers and one more big-game appearance than the Packers QB, is next in line. The Seattle Seahawks quarterback's four-year extension signed in 2015 ($21.9M AAV) is up after the 2019 season, and Wilson is still in his prime.
Asked by giggly talk-show host Jimmy Fallon this week whether he expects to become the league's highest paid QB with his next deal, Wilson said, "There's a great potential in that. We'll see what happens. ... It's not like it's gonna make me feel bad."
Other notable quarterbacks who are up for new mega-deals soon are Jared Goff, Carson Wentz, Dak Prescott and Patrick Mahomes.
Wilson also addressed sketchy rumors that he will join the New York Giants in the near future, a theory propogated by FS1's Colin Cowherd supported by evidence that Wilson's wife, Ciara, wants to live in New York, the entertainment mecca that Seattle is not.
The Seahawks starter shot those rumblings down.
"I'm not sure the Seahawks are going to let me get away," Wilson said. "I love Seattle. Seattle's a special place. I've won a Super Bowl there, been to two Super Bowls, multiple playoff games and everything else."
Wilson's future is surely in Seattle. How long and lucractive that future will be is up to Seahawks brass.
