So What to Make of the Russell Wilson Report?

[EazyEaglez]

So there have been several reports that have come out lately all but confirming the Eagles were actively pursuing Wilson last offseason, but the quarterback nixed any trade ideas to come to the Eagles. That’s all fairly documented now so I am not that interested in delving into that, but I am curious as to why this all came out now. Was this an attempt to hurt the Eagles locker room and try to wither their belief in Jalen Hurts? Is this a way to imply the Eagles really aren’t as behind their starting quarterback as it appears in order to try and cast some doubts in that locker room? Is this jealousy from other GMs over the heaping praise that Howie has been getting lately? It has been reported that GMs are getting sick of hearing how great Howie is now and this report certainly does cast some doubt on that greatness. Of course this could also just be Seattle trying to throw some salt at Wilson as well. He also looks foolish here considering how terrible things turned out for him. Ultimately the outcome has been great for the Eagles, but I am curious how other people feel about this situation. 

[time2rock]

Delve all you want but truth is we'll never know the real reason behind this "leak".  Just be happy that never came to fruition (THANK YOU RUSSELL!!) and that Hurts was given the chance to show improvement over his 2021 level of play as a certain faction of us expected and boy did he deliver!

[The Holy Vagabond]

The report was OBVIOUSLY sent out/leaked by one of those other NFL GMs that were jealous of all the praise Howie has been getting all offseason. 
 

it literally means nothing. 

[ilikepargo]

I don't care.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

Here’s the thing… Last offseason there were real question marks about Hurts and for good reason. We knew he was a good leader and a pretty good QB but we didn’t know how good. The question marks were fair and the team had a QB issue. Fast forward to now and they don’t. Simple.

[EazyEaglez]

3 hours ago, time2rock said:

Delve all you want but truth is we'll never know the real reason behind this "leak".  Just be happy that never came to fruition (THANK YOU RUSSELL!!) and that Hurts was given the chance to show improvement over his 2021 level of play as a certain faction of us expected and boy did he deliver!

Certainly Howie was in his right to hedge his bets a little. After all he probably wasn’t expecting Jalen to start as soon as he did, and he probably shouldn’t have expected the type of year Jalen had. Who could really have expected that big a jump? Very few people aren’t glad things turned out the way they did, but it’s a long summer and I was just looking for something different to discuss. 

[EazyEaglez]

1 hour ago, The Holy Vagabond said:

The report was OBVIOUSLY sent out/leaked by one of those other NFL GMs that were jealous of all the praise Howie has been getting all offseason. 
 

it literally means nothing. 

It means they are trying to in their own way discredit Roseman, but in a competitive filed such as football, all teams are looking for some type of competitive advantage in any way possible. With that being the case does that mean I think they succeeded? Nope. 

[Infam]

Better to be lucky than good.

 

(Especially if true)

[EazyEaglez]

40 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Here’s the thing… Last offseason there were real question marks about Hurts and for good reason. We knew he was a good leader and a pretty good QB but we didn’t know how good. The question marks were fair and the team had a QB issue. Fast forward to now and they don’t. Simple.

Well shouldn’t the story have died right there then? Why is it popping up now conveniently near the Eagles OTAs where we are hearing about the Eagles rookies looking very impressive? Feels like some jealousy here from Howie’s peers. 

[EazyEaglez]

3 minutes ago, Infam said:

Better to be lucky than good.

 

(Especially if true)

Howie sometimes can be both. It’s why he’s been able to assemble a great roster despite having one of the biggest dead cap numbers in football. The best part here is even though Howie didn’t get the player he wanted he was still set up because he already had Jalen and if Jalen faltered he still had two firsts in his back pocket. So more than being lucky or good, Howie was prepared.   

[SPIDER-MAN]

I think we wouldn't have gotten to the Super Bowl if we had Russell.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

15 minutes ago, EazyEaglez said:

Well shouldn’t the story have died right there then? Why is it popping up now conveniently near the Eagles OTAs where we are hearing about the Eagles rookies looking very impressive? Feels like some jealousy here from Howie’s peers. 

Oh for sure bud for sure! Things are going so well for us right now and others don’t like it. Philly can’t have success.

[brkmsn]

My take from this is:

When you have a player that has had tremendous success in a situation, it's better for all parties to keep that situation. It's a known quantity. When a team exchanges tons of assets to acquire one player that was successful in a different situation, it's a huge gamble. In the case of Russell Wilson, he had an entire fan base behind him and a team full of players that believed in him. Once he arrived in Denver, things didn't start well. There's no way the fans in Denver support him like his fans in Seattle did. There's no way players on the team that saw how much was given up for him and how much he is paid, and then witnessed the performance last season, are 100% sold on him --- especially the players that were already leaders on that team. 

So it's a reminder that the grass isn't always greener and that football will always be a team sport.

Teams can't always control what happens with players in free agency. So you might lose players that have great chemistry with your team and have to find replacements along the way. But you should be cautious about breaking up team chemistry on either side of a trade. 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

3 minutes ago, brkmsn said:

When you have a player that has had tremendous success in a situation, it's better for all parties to keep that situation. It's a known quantity. When a team exchanges tons of assets to acquire one player that was successful in a different situation, it's a huge gamble.

Great point bud great point! Situation and how a player is handled and supported is a huge factor. I think an often overlooked one actually but a huge factor all the same.

[EagleJoe8]

35 minutes ago, SPIDER-MAN said:

I think we wouldn't have gotten to the Super Bowl if we had Russell.

I think that's pretty certain. We might not be a playoff team.

[Mike030270]

It makes sense but I wouldn't have liked the cost. Majority didn't think Hurts was any good

There was that other report that they wanted to trade up for Zac Wilson too

Then Hurts improves dramatically and we have our QB of the future

[eglz1]

1 hour ago, EazyEaglez said:

Well shouldn’t the story have died right there then? Why is it popping up now conveniently near the Eagles OTAs where we are hearing about the Eagles rookies looking very impressive? Feels like some jealousy here from Howie’s peers. 

I wonder if the fact that there isn't much NFL news to talk about right now has something to do with the "why now?"

[EazyEaglez]

1 hour ago, SPIDER-MAN said:

I think we wouldn't have gotten to the Super Bowl if we had Russell.

I agree with that!

[EazyEaglez]

27 minutes ago, eglz1 said:

I wonder if the fact that there isn't much NFL news to talk about right now has something to do with the "why now?"

I agree that is certainly a possibility. 

[EazyEaglez]

1 hour ago, EagleJoe8 said:

I think that's pretty certain. We might not be a playoff team.

It probably would have put us in a situation to draft within the top five this past draft. One thing that gets lost in all of this is if the Eagles traded for Wilson they would have lost draft capital (no AJ Brown and nor Jordan Davis) and they also would have had to pay him big money last year as well so the Eagles likely can't sign certain players or trade for CJGJ. It would likely have been a much worse team. 

[EazyEaglez]

1 hour ago, brkmsn said:

My take from this is:

When you have a player that has had tremendous success in a situation, it's better for all parties to keep that situation. It's a known quantity. When a team exchanges tons of assets to acquire one player that was successful in a different situation, it's a huge gamble. In the case of Russell Wilson, he had an entire fan base behind him and a team full of players that believed in him. Once he arrived in Denver, things didn't start well. There's no way the fans in Denver support him like his fans in Seattle did. There's no way players on the team that saw how much was given up for him and how much he is paid, and then witnessed the performance last season, are 100% sold on him --- especially the players that were already leaders on that team. 

So it's a reminder that the grass isn't always greener and that football will always be a team sport.

Teams can't always control what happens with players in free agency. So you might lose players that have great chemistry with your team and have to find replacements along the way. But you should be cautious about breaking up team chemistry on either side of a trade. 

The chemistry in Seattle began to erode once they paid Wilson the money and basically let the Legion of Boom walk. They had success with Wilson over the years, but they never achieved the same amount of success that they had in the past before they paid him. Still the season before last, Wilson began to show signs of decline and seemed to me like a player to avoid. People were trying to downplay Wilson's apparent decline to injury, but to me it seemed like Wilson was a player to avoid and not go all in to get. Overall, I am very pleased Wilson chose to go in a different direction. 

[EazyEaglez]

1 hour ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

Great point bud great point! Situation and how a player is handled and supported is a huge factor. I think an often overlooked one actually but a huge factor all the same.

From stories that I have heard about Wilson he seems like a guy who can be aloof and somewhat a diva. There was a story about how he refused to eat any of the food prepared by the Eagles in a game that played and actually delayed the flight out for his own special delivery of food. There was talk he has his own office in Denver separate from his teammates. Legion of Boom members have been critical of their former teammate. It seems like he can be his own cause for poor chemistry with his teammates. Conversely Jalen Hurts won over his teammates with hard work, accountability, and leadership. Rumor has it Hurts was connected in some way to a Wilson trade. Could you imagine how bad that would look if Jalen had his Philly season in Seattle while Wilson had his Denver season here? 

[Broncos72]

There were lots of teams interested in trading for Wilson. Whether these reports are true or not is uncertain. Wilson could have nixed these deals or Seattle may not have wanted to trade him to an NFC team or maybe Denver just offered the most.

At this point, who cares, it's just meaningless. Eagles obviously fared much better and Wilson is trying to prove last year was a fluke. Seattle has come rather jaded at times since the trade, so it could just be a jilted, bitter ex making stuff up.

[Broncos72]

Make no mistake, Wilson brought a lot of this criticism on himself, and playing poorly made it worse, but I just find the amount of piling on, even after it's been over a year since the trade, is a little ridiculous. Like he's the only one who's ever wanted out of somewhere, or has an overinflated ego, or thinks he's better than he really is?

[EazyEaglez]

20 minutes ago, Broncos72 said:

There were lots of teams interested in trading for Wilson. Whether these reports are true or not is uncertain. Wilson could have nixed these deals or Seattle may not have wanted to trade him to an NFC team or maybe Denver just offered the most.

At this point, who cares, it's just meaningless. Eagles obviously fared much better and Wilson is trying to prove last year was a fluke. Seattle has come rather jaded at times since the trade, so it could just be a jilted, bitter ex making stuff up.

 

10 minutes ago, Broncos72 said:

Make no mistake, Wilson brought a lot of this criticism on himself, and playing poorly made it worse, but I just find the amount of piling on, even after it's been over a year since the trade, is a little ridiculous. Like he's the only one who's ever wanted out of somewhere, or has an overinflated ego, or thinks he's better than he really is?

Ultimately the Wilson side of this few people around here care even a little about. I do think there is some jaded feelings here from the Seattle side, and there’s also many GMs kind of sick of the praise Howie Roseman has been receiving as of late, also if this can take the Eagles down a peg in any way their rivals would be more than happy it happens. Wilson will be with his third coach in three seasons. He’s now dealing with a coach with a bigger ego than his own. That situation has the potential to become highly combustible. The Eagles have stability and Jalen would now be entertaining his third season with the same coach in the same offense. On paper it’s a much better situation to be in than Denver right now, but Wilson made his own bed. Now he has to sleep in it.