Russell Wilson reportedly wanted Pete Carroll gone, Seahawks traded him instead
According to The Athletic, in a report by their football staff, Russell Wilson gave the Seahawks a demand. The former Seahawks QB reportedly wanted them to fire head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider. He wanted them to hire Sean Payton after firing Carroll. In response to this demand, he was traded to the Broncos, obviously. As everyone knows, the Seahawks made it to the playoffs while getting a way better record than Denver ended up with (5-12).
In a report that Russell Wilson has denied happening, there is a lot more explaining when it seemed that the Broncos’ locker room turned against Wilson. During this season, Wilson had his own office on the second floor. This floor is only for coaches, rather than the first floor which is for the players. The former top QB had an “open door” policy at his office which was confusing for coaches as they did not have this.
There are things mentioned in the report talking about how Wilson had a lot of special treatment in the facility such as having his own personal QB coach, who was not on staff with the Broncos and was employed through Wilson. The former Seahawks QB wanted to hire Sean Payton for a while and Latavius Murray recruited Sean Payton to the Broncos a day before Nathaniel Hackett was fired.
In fairness to Wilson, it seems that he stopped having these personal favors in the last month of the season. As illustrated in his presser, it seems that Payton will not allow these favors when he comes in as head coach of the Broncos.
What does this mean for the Broncos and Russell Wilson next season?
According to the report, it seems like Wilson will fall in line with Payton as head coach. The report does mention that Wilson has “admired” Payton for years. The locker room in Denver didn’t seem to like the leadership and attitude that Wilson was showing after playing poorly and acting the way he does (which some people could consider fake or cheesy). It seems that with Payton as head coach, Wilson will tone it down a bit with a coach that he admires at the headset.
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Time will tell if Wilson is able to overcome age and shoulder injury recovery to be able to be a solid QB in this league. It does seem like his general attitude will be better and more acceptable in the locker room.