If there’s no deal, which teams should call the Seahawks about Russell Wilson?

[T-Rac]

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So if the deadline imposed by quarterback Russell Wilson on the Seahawks comes and goes without a new contract, what happens next?

Here’s one thing that should happen: Other teams without short-list franchise quarterbacks should call the Seahawks to inquire regarding what it would take to get Wilson via trade.

That doesn’t mean he will be or should be traded. It means that, in the never-ending process of due diligence done to determine whether a team can be upgraded via the presence of a new player, it makes sense to make the call and see what it would take to get Wilson now.

It also would make sense to find out what Wilson would want from a team other than the Seahawks. There’s a sense that he’s driving a hard bargain with the Seahawks so that he can get to another team, and that with another team he’d want less than what he wants from the Seahawks. Because, however, agent Mark Rodgers represents only one NFL player, getting information about Wilson’s expectations without committing an easily detectable violation of the tampering rules will be difficult to do.

If Wilson were represented by an agent with clients on every team, any team could contact officially Wilson’s agent about a player on that team, and then unofficially ask about Wilson. With Rodgers having no other clients, there’s no reason for any team to talk to him, other than to talk about Wilson.

Thus, if a trade has any chance of happening, the Seahawks at some point would have to grant permission to Wilson and Rodgers to speak to other teams. Without a chance to negotiate a long-term deal with Wilson, the chances of a trade would be minimal, since the new team would be getting him for one year at $17 million, plus the prospect of a year-to-year franchise tag that starts at $30.34 million for 2020, continues at $36.4 million for 2021, and ends at $52.43 million for 2022.

Still, plenty of teams should at least inquire about Wilson. From the Dolphins to the Bengals to the Titans to the Chargers to the Raiders to the Broncos to the Giants to Washington to the Lions to the Cardinals to maybe a few others, adding Wilson could dramatically change their prospects, in 2019 and beyond.