‘This is not real’: Heaps on latest report on Seahawks’ Russell Wilson
Dec 9, 2021, 11:05 AM | Updated: 12:13 pm
Seahawks QB Russell Wilson high fives fans after beating the San Francisco 49ers 30-23 at Lumen Field. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
(Steph Chambers/Getty Images)
Last offseason was quite an eventful one for the Seahawks.
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Star quarterback Russell Wilson was in the spotlight due to comments regarding his thoughts on the team’s ability to protect him on offense, and later because his camp told ESPN’s Adam Schefter that he would consider waiving his no-trade clause to four teams should the Seahawks choose to trade him.
That, as you may remember, caused quite the media firestorm with plenty of speculation that Wilson had played his last down in Seattle.
But Wilson wasn’t traded, and he and the Seahawks’ main two leaders, head coach Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider, told anyone who would listen that the entire situation was overblown.
Well, it appears that we’re on our way to Round 2 of Wilson trade talks.
With the Seahawks at 4-8 entering Week 14, it’s easy to speculate about what the upcoming offseason will hold in terms of the Seattle futures of not just Wilson but Carroll and Schneider, as well.
While nothing with Wilson can be done until this offseason, that hasn’t stopped the first round of reports of his rumored desire to be traded from circulating.
On Wednesday, sports reporter Jordan Schultz posted a video on his Twitter account where he said it’s unlikely that Wilson will be on the Seahawks in 2022, noting that sources have told him the star quarterback would consider waiving his no-trade clause for a deal to the New York Giants, Denver Broncos and New Orleans Saints. Of those three teams, only the Saints were on the list of four teams that Schefter reported Wilson would accept a trade to last offseason.
So, what should we make of that report?
“What should we make of it is that this is not real,” 710 ESPN Seattle’s Jake Heaps said Thursday morning. “I’m telling you right now that this is not real.”
Heaps, a former NFL quarterback and current host of Jake and Stacy, is very close to Wilson. The two were Seahawks teammates during the 2017 season, and Heaps helps coach Wilson during the offseason and is also the head coach of the Russell Wilson QB Academy.
Heaps said this report, naturally, leads to questions of why Wilson’s camp would leak this information with five games left on the schedule, as well as whether Wilson has one foot out the door.
“No, he doesn’t,” Heaps said. “Emphatically, no.”
Heaps had as good of a source as any to debunk Schultz’s report.
“I’m telling you from the mouth of Russell Wilson himself that no, this is not something that he and his team are putting out there or that he and his team wants to do in terms of where they’re at with five weeks (in the season) left to go,” Heaps said. “Russell Wilson wants to remain a Seattle Seahawk. That is as clear cut as I can tell you.”
Heaps added that Schultz also wouldn’t be the reporter that Wilson and his camp would use to put out critical information or to express frustrations.
Heaps pointed out Schultz’s connection to the city of Seattle – his father is Howard Schultz, the former Sonics owner and Starbucks CEO – which he said was “not to make him a villain” but to show that it’s not out of the realm of possibility that Schultz is talking to people in the city.
“This is something that, OK, maybe he’s had communications with people around town and maybe this is the overall sentiment that he’s feeling and getting,” Heaps said. “But I don’t know the sources that are telling him this that you could sit here and definitively say that that is where Russell Wilson is at at this current time.”
What this report does show, Heaps said, is that there’s going to be a lot of noise surrounding the team and the future of Wilson, Carroll and Schneider over the next five weeks.
“You’re going to hear more and more reports from the national perspective weighing in on where this franchise is at and what the decisions are going to be,” Heaps said. “… This is just the beginning and it’s going to be chaotic over the next five weeks.”
Jake and Stacy airs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Friday on 710 ESPN Seattle. Podcasts of the show are made available at this link or wherever you find podcasts at 3 p.m. each day.
