Agent’s take on how Russell Wilson, Seahawks can get creative with deal

Former NFL agent Joel Corry thinks a fully-guaranteed deal is a possibility for Russell Wilson. (AP)

Last month, general manager John Schneider told 710 ESPN Seattle that the Seahawks will think “outside of the box” with Russell Wilson’s upcoming contract, an intimation that it might not necessarily look like a typical deal for one of the league’s top quarterbacks. It was an ambiguous statement that Schneider understandably didn’t expand upon, which left everyone wondering what exactly it might have meant.

To help fill in some of the blanks, 710 ESPN Seattle’s “Bob and Groz” talked last week with former NFL agent Joel Corry, who now writes for the National Football Post and CBSSports.com. Here are the highlights.

• Options are limited. Corry said a fully-guaranteed contract is a possibility in the absence of any other obvious route that would also constitute the unconventional approach that Schneider suggested. What’s not a possibility, Corry explained, is signing Wilson to a cut-rate deal and then making up the difference by increasing his endorsement deal with, say, Microsoft. “That’s classic salary-cap circumvention,” Corry said. “You can’t sign him to any endorsement deals with Seahawks corporate partners like Starbucks or CenturyLink – which has the naming rights to the stadium – because any of those endorsement deals must be at the market value of his other endorsement deals; anything above that would have some sort of cap charge. So if you want to be creative in an NFL contract, you’re limited, and that leads us down the road of Russell Wilson being one of the few players who could get a fully-guaranteed contract.”

• What Wilson could make. NFL contracts aren’t fully guaranteed like they are in baseball, so the only way Seattle would give Wilson one is with a tradeoff like a lower maximum value and annual average that counts less against the salary cap. So, in theory, Wilson could sacrifice the prestige of a contract that on paper is worth well over $100 million – perhaps only about half of it being guaranteed – in exchange for the assurance of making every last cent of a deal worth a few millions less per year. What if he goes the conventional route? “If that’s something that he’s not willing to do and he wants to be the highest-paid player, then he would be able presumably to top Aaron Rodgers’ $22 million-per-year salary,” Corry said, “but the deal would probably have no more than $65 million in guarantees and only $40 million to $45 million would be fully guaranteed at signing.”

• Agent’s thinking. One potential issue with a fully-guaranteed deal shouldn’t really be an issue, Corry said. Wilson is represented by Mark Rodgers, who is primarily a baseball agent and therefore accustomed to negotiating fully-guaranteed deals. Corry explained that because Wilson is his only football client, Rodgers wouldn’t have the reservations about a deal that is unconventional – and perhaps less prestigious by some measures – that others in the industry might have. “Sometimes agents start thinking about how a deal is going to look to their peers,” Corry said “… They are kind of bound by peer pressure and don’t want to look bad to that community, but since Russell’s agent is really a baseball agent, he’s not going to be that concerned about what other agents are going to think about it, whether it’s going to be used against him in recruiting. Plus, since the deal would be such an anomaly, it wouldn’t have any type of real impact on the marketplace for other players.”

Corry also explained how the Seahawks have the means to give Wilson a fully-guaranteed deal and why that wouldn’t necessarily start a trend throughout the league, contrary to what some believe. You can listen to the conversation here.