Pete Carroll: Both Russell Wilson, contract-weary Seahawks pushed for his trade to Broncos

Russell Wilson made it clear to the Seahawks this winter he wanted out of Seattle.

When, exactly?

The coach and their general manager won’t say, exactly. Only that it was sometime between the end of last season Jan. 9 and nine days ago, when Wilson’s trade to the Denver Broncos really got done.

Seahawks chair Jody Allen said in a team statement Wednesday “Russell made it clear he wanted this change.” She also said “I trust our leadership to take us into the future” while she made Seattle’s trade of Wilson to the Broncos official.

But coach Pete Carroll struck a less-accusatory tone during a press conference at team headquarters later Wednesday afternoon.

While that was a shock across the Pacific Northwest and NFL, Seahawks GM John Schneider said of Allen, Carroll, team vice chair Bert Kolde and himself: “We were able to prepare ourselves much earlier.”

How much earlier?

Schneider didn’t want to say.

“That’s a tough one to answer,” the GM who began seriously settling the trade of Wilson with Denver GM George Paton at the league’s scouting combine in Indianapolis. That was March 1-7.

So it was before that, into February.

Carroll said only: “We talked about it through the offseason.”

That began for the Seahawks following their win at Arizona in the 2021 season finale on Jan. 9.

After, or before, that game, Schneider now says it became apparent to him, Carroll and the Seahawks Wilson would not sign a third extension with the team to remain with Seattle through his current contract ending with the 2023 season.

Importantly, Wilson also had a no-trade clause.

That was a stipulation his agent Mark Rodgers included as the final negotiation of the then-NFL record $140 million contract Wilson signed to remain with the Seahawks in April 2019. It gave Wilson the power of a free agent, to control and determine which team he could next play for, with the security of having two seasons remaining on his deal.

Wilson told the Seahawks he would approve a trade to only the Broncos or two other undisclosed teams, three of the 32 clubs in the league, league sources have told The News Tribune. So while many other teams around the league kept calling Schneider asking about Wilson’s availability in a trade — with one, Washington, offering a better deal of more high draft picks — the Seahawks really could only get serious with three teams. The three Wilson would approve a trade to, ultimately.

The crux of the matter, for Schneider and the Seahawks, was Wilson made them believe he would be walking away into free agency in the spring of 2024 with Seattle getting nothing more than a single, compensatory draft pick.

“We were under the impression that there wouldn’t be a long-term extension with us,” Schneider said.

The bottom line: The Seahawks were staring at either paying Wilson $50 million per year, or more, to keep him for 2024 and beyond when he was 35 years old. That’s because Rodgers, Wilson’s agent, will use the contract of Green Bay Packers All-Pro quarterback Aaron Rodgers as a benchmark in Wilson’s next contract negotiations, which will now come with Denver.

Wilson’s agent did that with the Seahawks for Wilson’s previous two extensions with Seattle, reasoning Wilson has won as many Super Bowls as Rodgers, Wilson is the winningest quarterback in NFL history through 10 years and Wilson is five years younger than the Packers passer.

Or Schneider and the Seahawks were looking at possibly losing Wilson in free agency with next-to-no return following two more, basically lame-duck seasons with Seattle.

About 90 minutes before Schneider and Carroll spoke in Renton, Wilson held an introductory press conference in Denver as the Broncos’ new franchise QB. He was asked if he initiated this trade.

“It was mutual,” Wilson told reporters in Colorado.

Wilson said he and the Seahawks both pushed for his trade to the Broncos.

Back in Renton, Carroll said: “To me, it’s not about blaming anybody, or about forcing the issue in any way in particular. We had to, everybody had to agree to this thing, eventually. And so, we did.

“Really, it opened up some doorways that we didn’t think existed at the time.”

That’s a reference to the two first-round picks, including number-nine overall in next month’s draft, plus two second-round choices and three players the Broncos gave the Seahawks for Wilson.

Carroll said his mind was made up he would have Wilson, whom he drafted and made Seattle’s starter as a rookie in 2012, as his Seahawks quarterback for at least two more seasons. Then the Broncos made their trade offer.

Carroll called it a unique “business opportunity” for the Seahawks to have more draft capital and top picks than they’ve had in the 12 years Carroll and Schneider have run the team.

The coach said instead of assuming Wilson and the Seahawks had a fractured relationship that led to the trade, all should see this deal as a result of the bond the coach and his quarterback for the last 10 years in Seattle built and enjoyed.

“Russ and I worked really hard in our relationship,” Carroll said.

That included the Carroll, Wilson and the Seahawks winning the Super Bowl for the only time in franchise history, at the end of the 2013 season.

It included Carroll calling for Wilson to pass from the 1-yard line in the final seconds of the next Super Bowl. Seattle’s players, coaches and community lost their prime chance at a Super Bowl title when Wilson threw the infamous interception to New England’s Malcolm Butler on the goal line.

The relationship between Carroll and Wilson also endured Wilson’s agent giving ESPN four teams Wilson would would his no-trade clause in the offseason of early 2021, if the Seahawks wanted to trade him then.

They didn’t.

They did only after weighing Wilson’s next contract wants, Wilson’s desire for what Carroll on Wednesday called Wilson’s “second chance” in the NFL in Denver and the four high draft picks with three players the Broncos were offering.

“Through all the challenges and trials and tribulations of it all, we made it through. Russ and I made it through,” Carroll said.

“I love Russ. Russ and I, he’s like one of my own. We went through so much stuff together. So, it also brought us to the point where we could talk about this, eventually: ‘OK, now, we are talking about it.’ And so we were able to move from there, after our conversations and the depth of the conversations, we were able to move (on trading him), and ‘OK, let’s take a look at the opportunities,’ and this is what we resulted out of it.

“I don’t think it could have happened had we not had — in the fashion that it happened — had we not had the depth of our relationship.”