Russell Wilson restructuring would slam door to 2021 trade talk

Russell Wilson’s long-term status with the Seahawks has become extremely fragile. His short-term status therefore became cloudy. There is one thing that can happen that would slam the door when talking about a Wilson trade in 2021.

As Gregg Bell noted of Tacoma News Tribune, the Seahawks have the contractual right to restructure Wilson’s contract to create ceiling space. The fairly common term (the Cowboys, for example, got this right in Dak Prescott’s new deal) allows the team to convert salary and other pay into a signing bonus that would be spread over several years, reducing thus the ceiling for the current year.

Wilson has a 2021 cap charge of $ 32 million. He has a salary of $ 19 million this year, with an additional $ 13 million coming from his 2019 signing bonus of $ 65 million. The Seahawks could lower Wilson’s maximum number by reducing his salary to $ 1.075 million (the minimum for players with seven or more years of experience) and shifting the remaining $ 17.925 million into a signing bonus.

Spreading the bonus over the remaining three years of his contract, Wilson’s maximum number for 2021 would drop from $ 32 million to $ 20.05 million. (Adding a voidable year or two would take it even further than that; it is not clear whether the restructuring right includes a right to add voidable years.)

For the Seahawks to choose to remove the salary cap by restructuring the Wilson deal (they’re currently over $ 21 million below the 2021 cap), that would mean he’s not traded. Why would the Seahawks pay up to $ 17.925 million in salary before sending him to a new team?

Unless the new team add even more trade compensation in order to inherit Wilson with a minimum wage and cap of $ 1.075 million, the Seahawks have no reason to pay Wilson another dime until that it is certain that it will not be exchanged. So, if / when a restructuring occurs, Wilson’s potential trading window jumps to 2022, at the earliest.