Amid contract uncertainty, Russell Wilson is harder than ever to read

RENTON – For years Russell Wilson has delivered answers that sound as if they were scripted.

He just hasn’t provided advance warning like he did Tuesday when asked about ongoing negotiations for a contract extension with the Seahawks.

“I’m focused on football,” he said. “I’m going to (give) the boring, cliché answer, but it’s the truth.”

It’s the same sort of thing he has recited since arriving in Seattle in 2012, yet I found myself searching for some deeper meaning to his words Tuesday, some clue as to how he really feels regarding his contract situation.

That’s when I realized that I have never understood Wilson less than I do right now. This isn’t a criticism of Wilson, but an observation. An admission about myself, really.

Maybe that’s a reflection of how the money that gets paid to franchise quarterbacks complicates the picture. Maybe it’s a sign that Wilson has changed and evolved from the rookie who seemed so uncommonly mature upon his arrival in 2012. Or maybe it’s a sign that I have lost sight of the bigger picture because I’ve spent way too much time trying to read between the lines of the most puzzling contract negotiation the Seahawks have had in more than a decade.

Sports columnists are not supposed to fess up when they’re flummoxed. They’re supposed to tell you what’s going on beneath the surface or boldly state what’s going to happen. The truth is I don’t know exactly where things stand in this contract negotiation let alone whether the sides will agree to a deal, and my editor, Brady Henderson, is going to be even more surprised than you to read this hemming and hawing.

See, I told him after Tuesday’s practice that I was going to write about how the business of the NFL has accomplished something that its defenses have not: It has knocked Russell Wilson off-balance. He’s talking about pro baseball with Bryant Gumbel on HBO, his Tweets are being plumbed for any cryptic references to the team’s negotiating position and there was a tendency back in April to hear him using “me” and “mine” instead of “we” and “our.”

That column didn’t feel honest, though, because the more I thought about it, the more I realized that it’s not Wilson’s words or actions that have changed as much as my reaction to those words and the scrutiny of them.

I have covered Wilson on a daily basis since he first arrived in Seattle back in May 2012 as a third-round pick from Wisconsin who made every throw during a three-day rookie minicamp and did enough to insert himself into a training-camp quarterback competition that he eventually won. I have visited Wilson’s hometown, toured the K through 12 school that he attended there in Richmond, Va. and watched his younger sister – now a Stanford recruit – play basketball.

Wilson entered the NFL with an uncommon maturity. He had played baseball professionally and transferred schools. He had lost a parent. He was married.

Since then, he has won more regular-season games than any quarterback in his first three years, become a part of national advertising campaigns and after his divorce last year now appears to be dating the pop star Ciara.

That’s not to say anything is better or it has gotten worse. It’s just … different.

Same goes for his contract situation. He entered as a third-round pick whose rookie deal was a paint-by-numbers formality more than a negotiation. Now, for the first time since he entered the NFL, he is eligible for a new deal, and he was asked Tuesday if he stays abreast of the discussions.

“I’m definitely the type to know what’s going on,” he said.

What’s happening is that three years after entering the league, that fourth-year salary from his rookie contract is hanging around as more than a footnote. The Seahawks are willing to affix an extension to the $1.5 million he’s scheduled to earn in 2015, but not erase it.

That has left a gap because on one hand, Seattle’s offer of a four-year extension is competitive and perhaps even better than what quarterbacks like Cam Newton and even Ben Roethlisberger have received. Not only that, it’s significantly better than the deal Ryan Tannehill signed.

On the other hand, every one of those three quarterbacks had at least one season at more than $12 million left on his existing deal. Wilson has a year at $1.5 million, which leaves a gap in overall compensation.

I don’t know how this will resolve itself. I don’t think Seattle will budge on the format, something it has used to sign extensions with other top-flight players from safety Earl Thomas – a first-round pick – to cornerback Richard Sherman – a fifth-rounder. I don’t know if Wilson will dig in his heels and play the final year of his contract as he said Tuesday he was prepared to do or if he’ll wait until the last minute before the season starts to make sure he gets everything he can before taking the deal Seattle has on the table.

What I do know is that I spent Tuesday afternoon listening to and replaying an interview searching through some of Wilson’s same old clichés to try and find new answers about his future.

“Ultimately, I believe it will work out,” Wilson said. “(I) hope that it does. I just take it one day at a time.”

I don’t know what that means for the contract, and while that might not make a great sports column, at least it’s honest.