Russell Wilson Could Play Out His Contract To Gain More Leverage In Talks With Seahawks

According to Jason La Canfora of CBS Sports, the lack of progress between the Seahawks and QB Russell Wilson regarding a long-term deal is just another indication that he’ll end up playing out the final year of his rookie contract.

La Canfora mentions that Wilson has no intention of signing a below value contract while Seattle is reportedly sticking to their asking price as of now.

Talks between the two parties are in their infancy, so La Canfora admits that there’s still time to a get an agreement in place before the start of the 2015 season. However, there appears to be a wide enough gap between the parties that Wilson could end up playing out the 2015 season in hope of maximizing his position like Joe Flacco did a few years ago.

Seahawks GM John Schneider mentioned recently that they plan to approach negotiations with Wilson with caution, as to not impact their overall situation negatively.

“Every negotiation is unique in and of itself and this is no different,” Schneider told KIRO radio on Wednesday, via Terry Blount of ESPN.com.  “He’s our quarterback.  We’d love him to be our quarterback.  But the thing is we need to keep as many of these guys together as we possibly can.  What I can tell you is that this is the ultimate team sport.  We have a track record of rewarding our players that we recognize as core players.”

“We want to be a consistent championship-caliber football team, one that the community and the Northwest is extremely proud of every year and has high expectations and hopes for,” Schneider said.  “We have to be able to protect ourselves as we go and make smart decisions in trying to keep this whole thing together as long as we possibly can.

Wilson, 26, still has one year remaining on his four-year, $2.198 million rookie contract, which includes a base salary of $798,651 for the 2015 season.

In 2014, Wilson threw for 3,475 yards while completing 63.1 percent of his passes for 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also ran for 849 yards and scored six rushing touchdowns over the course of 16 games.

We’ll have more regarding the Seahawks and Wilson as the news is available.