What Russell Wilson’s trade to Denver means for the KC Chiefs. And what it doesn’t
The first man to the lectern at the NFL Scouting Combine wore a white shirt with navy and orange trim, a Denver Broncos logo plastered on the left of his chest, and yet midway through his news conference, the conversation shifted away from his team in Denver and to the one 600 miles east.
How often do the Broncos talk about trying to catch the Kansas City Chiefs?
“They’ve set the standard in our division,” Broncos general manager George Paton replied.
Just one week after that acknowledgment in Indianapolis of who leads the AFC West’s arms race, the Broncos finally secured of an arm of their own. They unloaded a surplus of draft capital to Seattle in exchange for Russell Wilson, a 33-year-old quarterback whose resume includes a Super Bowl title.
There’s not much of a silver lining to it in Kansas City. A team that has won six straight division championships tends to prefer the status quo to a major shakeup. The AFC West just got tougher. The conference is stacked with the overwhelming majority of the league’s best quarterbacks, and therefore the Chiefs’ path to a Super Bowl just got tougher, too.
But it’s not a development that necessitates some sort of chain reaction in the coming days or weeks. The Chiefs are not in the business of playing catch-up, but rather the onlookers as others play the game. As an example: They need not offer safety Tyrann Mathieu or cornerback Charvarius Ward, two free agents, a larger contract simply because the quarterback play in the division just got better. The leaders set their own path and force the competition to follow in their footsteps, not vice versa.
But there is something to be gleaned from Wilson’s trade to Denver, even if it’s not the mandate that the Chiefs overhaul the blueprint of their offseason.
The lesson here: Keep your quarterback happy.
Somewhere along the way, that plan went awry in Seattle, and a team that not long ago dreamed of building a dynasty is now in full-fledged rebuilding mode with a 70-year-old head coach. In a league in which every organization’s first objective is to find a franchise quarterback, the Seahawks just traded one with no guarantee of the endpoint in their search for his replacement. This could not have been the plan — even if the remainder of the Seahawks’ roster left much to be desired — but instead a move forced onto them by their own actions.
It’s a little jarring.
But valuable to those paying attention.
Wilson had subtly made known his displeasure with the Seahawks’ lack of commitment toward improving their horrible offensive play, noting how many times he’d been hit over the course of his career. According to reports by The Athletic last summer, Wilson too was unhappy with his lack of input in an offense that bizarrely emphasized establishing the run.
And just like that, he’s gone. A franchise quarterback on the move in a league whose premier teams search for talent at the position and hold onto it with Vise-Grips. In fact, as front offices conceal their proverbial secret sauce, they publicize their common trait — stability at quarterback.
The owners sign the paychecks in the NFL.
The quarterbacks run the show.
In Green Bay, the Packers became so nervous about mending their relationship with Aaron Rodgers that they began to trade assets to acquire his buddies last summer.
The Seahawks, though, refused to relinquish the director’s chair, and on Tuesday, they decided they would rather pick in the top-10 in the draft for the foreseeable future than try a rebuild around Wilson. Things can change in a hurry, if you’re not careful — if you think you’re immune to the mere possibility.
Proactive.
Not reactive.
The Chiefs are on the right side of this path. They made Patrick Mahomes the most expensive player in league history two summers ago, promptly after they just so happened to use their first-round pick on the player he coveted, running back Clyde Edwards-Helaire. In an offseason encore, they provided Mahomes with an entirely new offensive line, securing one linemen with the largest contract ever provided to a guard, another by trading a first-round pick and two more with their six selections in the draft.
It’s smart business to build around a franchise player, to be sure. But it’s even smarter to keep him happy.
Mahomes has been asked about this before. What preserves his positive relationship in Kansas City? Extra weapons? The money? The overhauled offensive line?
Actually, it’s communication, he replied.
“For me and the Chiefs, I feel like if we just keep this open line of communication like we have, from top down and the team to the coaches to (general manager) Brett Veach to (chairman and CEO) Clark Hunt, I think there will never be a problem,” Mahomes said at the onset of last year’s training camp. “I think it just comes with the culture that we’ve built here of communicating with each other and respecting each other as people.”
It’s not a high bar to meet, and the Chiefs and Mahomes are in a good place. Rodgers and the Packers once were, too. The Seahawks and Wilson blossomed together, as well.
Their lessons should be seen as favors in Kansas City. Wilson spent nine seasons in the league before the whispers of his discontent emerged a year ago. Rodgers will enter his 18th season this fall, all of them in a city that once seemed to provide the perfect marriage.
It all works well here in Kansas City, a head coach known to protect his players and a front office that has already made moves to build around the quarterback.
But that path can never waver. That’s the lesson from Seattle.
You might feel inclined to extend the lesson elsewhere, to the comparison of a Super Bowl champion with a young quarterback who suddenly received a big payday — and in terms of championships, that was that. The Chiefs, like the Seahawks before them, won a Super Bowl and then fell short in another. Wilson won his championship in just his second season, Mahomes in his second year as a starter. And shortly thereafter, they both got paid. Wilson was once the highest-paid player in the NFL, years before Mahomes took that moniker.
But for all of the resemblance, these are different situations.
Seattle did not regress because of its loaded quarterback contract. It regressed because a loaded quarterback contract underscores the importance of the NFL Draft, where Seattle has failed for the better part of a decade now. Since 2013, the Seahawks have turned 15 first- and second-round picks into just two Pro Bowlers, but one of those players reached the Pro Bowl only after they traded him. (That’s Frank Clark, by the way.)
Sure, there’s a lesson in that, too. But Mahomes is frankly better at this stage of his career than Wilson, and the Chiefs have a better track record with the draft. Even acknowledging there are no guarantees in the NFL, it’s safe to say the Chiefs are at least in a better position to roll out another parade post-quarterback extension than the Seahawks were.
Certainly better now.
And that’s the bigger lesson.
Keep the quarterback in the picture. But keep him happy first.