Russell Wilson trade: What are the Denver Broncos giving up?
The Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks have agreed to an absolutely massive blockbuster trade for Russell Wilson. Who is going to Seattle?
Russell Wilson is going to be the new quarterback of the Denver Broncos.
Believe it or not, folks, this is the new world we all live in, and it’s absolutely fantastic.
The Denver Broncos have now vaulted into legitimate Super Bowl contention for the 2022 season as general manager George Paton finalized a deal for Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson merely hours after it was announced that Aaron Rodgers was going back to the Green Bay Packers.
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So what did the Denver Broncos have to give up to get Wilson? It was a costly trade, as you could imagine…
Russell Wilson cost the Denver Broncos quite a bit
Denver Broncos get:
- QB Russell Wilson
- 4th-round pick
Seattle Seahawks get:
- QB Drew Lock
- TE Noah Fant
- DL Shelby Harris
- 1st-round pick
- 1st-round pick
- 2nd-round pick
- 2nd-round pick
- 5th-round pick
All of these details were revealed by multiple major NFL reporters.
Three players — two that will for sure be starters in 2022 — as well as a whopping five draft choices for Russell Wilson?
A historic trade haul for a trade that could go down as arguably the most massive deal in NFL history.
That’s the price you pay for a great quarterback in today’s NFL — unprecedented.
The Denver Broncos now have a legitimate superstar at the quarterback position. Russell Wilson is an MVP-caliber player who brings legitimacy to the Denver Broncos’ championship aspirations.
It’s going to be interesting to see what Wilson wants to do contractually, especially after Aaron Rodgers just apparently agreed to a new deal reportedly worth $50 million per season.
Wilson currently has two years left on his contract, but the Broncos have been preparing for this moment as best they possibly could, and they could give him a new deal at any point in time that would come close to or maybe even top what Rodgers just got in Green Bay.
It’s going to be tough to see the players the Broncos are sending to Seattle go.
Drew Lock has been with Denver since 2019 when he was drafted in the second round out of Missouri. His career obviously didn’t turn out the way many hoped it would, which is why the Broncos were in this position in the first place.
To see Shelby Harris go might be the toughest of all. Harris has done nothing but give his best to Denver the last handful of seasons, and was rewarded last offseason by George Paton with a three-year contract.
Noah Fant was the team’s first-round pick in 2019, and obviously has been one of the more consistent sources of offense on the team since he was drafted.
Lock and Fant were entering the final years of their rookie contracts but Fant has a fifth-year option that the Seahawks will likely pick up.
Harris has two more years left on the deal he signed last offseason.
The draft picks will be hard to part with only from a mock draft perspective. By comparison to acquiring Russell Wilson, they are borderline negligible.
Now, the Denver Broncos can move forward into free agency with a level of aggressiveness that I think will be exciting for the fan base.