Russell Wilson, after spending his entire career on a good team.... would come here for a few extra bucks... during a rebuild???
Why?
The speed of our rebuild can vary from one season to multiple seasons. A lot of it depends on getting certain factors right. For instance, the quarterback position. Everybody loves to say that football is a team game, and I have in the past expressed a belief that you can win with a good quarterback with the right supporting cast (eg Flacco, Eli etc). However, if you land an elite quarterback, or a borderline elite, that can make a huge difference. A quarterback like that can carry a team to a better record. Imagine where the Packers would be drafting this year had Rodgers been out after week one. I dare say they’d be picking top three. But with Rodgers they won enough games to pick twelfth. The Seahawk’s had a transitional season, take Wilson out of their line up and they would likely have been picking in the top ten, maybe even top five depending on quarterback play. So although football is a team game, having a top quarterback can be the difference between being competitive and picking top three.
To bring this back to us. Adding a quarterback like Wilson would boost our chances of winning games. Yes we’d lose picks, but if we hit on our remaining picks, and we manage to replicate the Patriot way of getting production out of some unheralded players, we can put a competitive team out there in 2019. Factor in our cap space and another draft in 2020, and we can further strengthen our chances of competing. It’s all about making the right moves. If we draft well and use free agency, we can compete with a quarterback like Wilson fairly quickly. His acquisition would speed up our process. Now you might argue we’d be falling back into old habits, but maybe the new look front office and coaching staff can be successful where the old regime failed?
Who knows...
You are right that we are rebuilding, but even if we don’t get Wilson, I very much doubt we are aiming to replicate the Browns and Jaguars multiple years of top picks. I suspect we’ll try and be competitive in 2019 but likely end up with a top ten (perhaps five) pick in the 2020 draft. At that point we’ll try and get our quarterback and then hope to not be picking that high again in 2021. I don’t see multiple tanks or bad seasons. I think the aim will be to rebuild while being competitive and trying to replicate the Patriot way. They find talent throughout the draft, undrafted free agency, trades, and finding players off the scrap heap. I doubt we’ll be as successful as they are in that regard since no team has really managed to replicate them, but if we can draft well, while finding good UFDAs and FAs, and making sensible trades, we can rebuild without multiple years of misery and tanking.
Anyway, I very much doubt the Seahawk’s will send Wilson packing. He’s one of the main reasons they can still be considered a contender (albeit an outside one). Take him away and they are in big trouble, unless of course they happen upon a quarterback in the draft that can do what Wilson has done for cheaper, but as far as I can tell there’s no Wilson in this year’s class.