Huard: Russell Wilson should be ‘a bit more content’ after recent Seahawks acquisitions
Mar 18, 2021, 9:52 AM | Updated: 10:32 am
Veteran guard Gabe Jackson fills a hole on the Seahawks' offensive line. (Getty)
(Getty)
After all the offseason talk surrounding Russell Wilson, two moves the Seahawks reportedly made on Wednesday have fans buzzing about the quarterback and Seattle’s offense.
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As is typical for the Seahawks in free agency, they were quiet for much of the first wave before making their first two moves of the offseason, both of which were on the defensive side of the football. But on Wednesday, Seattle reportedly went out and got two players who could make Wilson’s job much easier in 2021.
The first reported move was signing tight end Gerald Everett to a one-year deal. Everett spent the first four years of his career with the Los Angeles Rams, where he played for new Seahawks offensive coordinator Shane Waldron. The Seahawks had one tight end retire and two more hit free agency after the 2020 season, so adding Everett to the mix helps fill out depth at that position.
But the Seahawks weren’t done there. Shortly after reports surfaced that Everett was joining them, it was reported that they were trading a fifth-round draft pick for veteran Raiders guard Gabe Jackson, who has been one of the better pass-blocking guards in the NFL since entering the league in 2014.
Whether or not the Seahawks could make Wilson happy enough this offseason to want to stay in Seattle has been the top NFL storyline since the Super Bowl ended. Now with those two recent additions, is Wilson feeling better about the team’s direction? Former NFL quarterback Brock Huard shared his thoughts Thursday morning on 710 ESPN Seattle’s Danny and Gallant.
“I don’t think he’s sitting there going, ‘Yeah, now it’s good, the road is clear,'” Huard said.
But that has more to do with how the rest of the NFC West looks rather than what the Seahawks did Wednesday.
“‘I got J.J. (Watt) and Chandler (Jones in Arizona), I got Leonard (Floyd) and Aaron (Donald in Los Angeles), but at least I’ve got a good guard … We’ve got a guard that can pass protect and use his big ole body to at least get in the way and at times bounce Aaron Donald off of me and backwards,'” Huard said of \Wilson’s potential thought process at the moment.
Overall, how does Huard view the Seahawks’ reported Wednesday haul?
“I think it’s a positive step,” he said. “I think Gerald Everett is a nice player, he was the No. 2 tight end with the Rams. You’re not getting a big-time player, but at $6 million you also didn’t pay the contract that top tight ends get.”
How is Wilson likely feeling?
“I wouldn’t say happy,” Huard said. “How about just a little bit more content and now a little bit more excited to see the rest of the story unfold?”
Danny O’Neil said some fans of the team were upset that the Seahawks traded for Jackson instead of his Raiders teammate Rodney Hudson, a Pro Bowl center who was shipped to the Arizona Cardinals on Wednesday for a third-round pick.
Huard thinks acquiring Jackson is a big deal, but the bigger issue lies not with missing out on Hudson but that the Seahawks didn’t sign guard Kevin Zeitler, Wilson’s college teammate at Wisconsin who signed a three-year deal with the Baltimore Ravens for just over $7 million a year. Jackson, meanwhile, will make more than $9 million over the next two seasons.
“You could have signed (Zeitler) for less money without giving up a draft pick and gotten a guy in the first wave who has a relationship with Russell, so why the heck didn’t that deal get done?” Huard said. “I tie it a little more to him than the center Hudson going for a third.”
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