RUSH TO RUSS
Giants have little shot at Seahawks’ Wilson, but they’ve got to give it a try
Do it, Dave.
Mr. Gettleman. Sir. Pick up the phone, call Seattle Seahawks GM John Schneider, and offer your two first-round draft picks for Russell Wilson.
Make Schneider say no. Make him turn down two first-round picks for a quarterback who turns 31 in November. Make Schneider say no thanks to the Nos. 6 and 17 picks in this month’s draft.
Will the Seahawks trade Wilson? Probably not. Will Schneider meet Wilson’s April 15 deadline for a long-term contract extension in Seattle? He probably will.
Still, Wilson has given the Seahawks a public ultimatum. So if the Giants truly want a winning team in 2019, it is time to be bold.
It is time to pair Wilson and Saquon Barkley together, sit back and watch the magic.
What John Mara wants more than anything is to win, so he and fellow owner Steve Tisch should think of it this way: if the Giants trade for Wilson, they will make the playoffs this season. If they don’t trade for Wilson and Eli Manning remains their starting quarterback, they won’t. Easy decision, right? This is the perfect solution to the Giants’ desire to simultaneously win now while also building for the long term. Forget Wilson’s age as a negative for Big Blue.
The Giants considered Nick Foles, 30, this offseason as an optimal option to win in 2019. They just didn’t think committing long-term to the inconsistent Super Bowl MVP was prudent.
They should have no qualms about paying Wilson the long-term contract he seeks of at least $34 million per season, though. He has started all 16 games in all seven of his NFL seasons, and he said in 2017 that he wants to play into his mid-40s.
Wilson’s wife, Ciara, a singer/model/entertainer, also would prefer to live in New York, FOX’s Colin Cowherd reported in February. So there are personal reasons for Wilson to want the move.
He also won a Super Bowl with receiver Golden Tate, whom the Giants signed as a free agent this offseason, and the two posted photos from vacation together as recently as February 2018.
The Giants don’t have a good roster. They have some good players, but Pat Shurmur’s team is a long way from competing consistently at a high level.
Wilson, however, led a so-so Seahawks team to a 10-6 record and a playoff berth last season. This despite offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer’s stubbornness in the run game (Seattle led the league with 160 rush yards per game and tied for fifth at 4.8 yards per carry).
Wilson has been to the postseason in six of his seven years in the league. And since he took over as a rookie in 2012, Seattle has won no fewer than nine games in any season.
The Legion of Boom defense was the backbone of the Hawks’ early success and back-toback Super Bowl trips (201314), including a victory in the first at — that’s right — MetLife Stadium.
The dual-threat talent Wilson, however, is a gamechanger, a game-wrecker, a jack-of-all-trades weapon. As the Seahawks dismantled their defense, they kept winning enough games to get back to the playoffs. Wilson was the main reason why.
He is not perfect. He is undersized, so he often tucks and runs too early to escape the pocket and tends to runs into sacks that wouldn’t have happened if he’d trusted his blocks.
However, his creative license more often results in yards, points and victories, and his presence would completely change this franchise’s fortunes.
The Giants, in contrast to the Seahawks, have won nine games in a season only once in the last six years. That was the only time they made the playoffs in their last seven seasons, going 11-5 in 2016 under Ben McAdoo.
Unfortunately, it’s unlikely a Wilson trade to the Giants will happen.
The Seahawks and Wilson’s agent already have begun negotiations on his extension, per the Seattle Times, which broke Tuesday’s news of Wilson’s April 15 deadline.
If that investment is worth it for the Seahawks, though, it is doubly worth it for Gettleman, Mara, Tisch and the Giants to go all-out for Wilson.
The Giants want to win now. If they traded for Wilson, they would.