Russell Wilson, Seahawks contract negotiations entertain me to no end

The close of this past season opened the door for Russell Wilson and other members of the 2012 NFL Draft class to begin negotiating new contracts. One of the more notable members of that class is Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson. He has a pair of Super Bowl appearances and one ring under his belt, and while he has benefited greatly from having Marshawn Lynch, he is dynamic in his own right.

Earlier this offseason, there was some chatter that he could end up getting a fully guaranteed deal in exchange for taking less overall money. That talk quieted down, and we have officially settled into the back and forth of contract negotiations. And it is safe to say it is getting kind of fun.

Earlier this week, Seahawks general manager John Schneider was talking about the negotiation, and suggested there was no guarantee a deal would get done. Schneider talked about how they would love to keep him, but they wanted to be able to keep as many players as possible. A Wilson deal would preclude some pretty good players from returning.

"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," Schneider said. "We're going into our sixth draft now - I can't believe that; we've been here for a while now - but just that track record of being able to make those tough decisions. Every negotiation is unique in and of itself and this is no different. Ultimate team sport, 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."

This came in the same week Russell Wilson suggested he might not have entirely ruled out trying to play baseball.

"You never want to kill the dream of playing two sports," Wilson said in a clip of the interview that was provided to media today by HBO for the show that will debut on April 21. "I would honestly play two sports."

Asked by Gumbel what is stopping him, Wilson said "I don't know. I may push the envelope a little bit one of these days."

I suppose it is possible Wilson could still play baseball, but he was a pretty crappy minor league baseball player. In reality it seems like all of this is just the usual posturing teams and players use to try and build some kind of leverage in contract negotiations. I think a deal ends up getting done, but we will probably continue to get this bizarro game of chicken for a little while. And the more Wilson gets in a deal, the better!