Last week, Bears Twitter got itself in a tizzy in anticipation of a Russell Wilson trade. There was the “Welp” tweet, Internet detectives noticing futures on Wilson’s next team had been taken off of sports book boards, and people tracking private flight traffic from Seattle to Chicago. But now, Ian Rapoport is telling fans to calm down, because he doesn’t see a trade coming together any time soon.
“As far as where we are, several teams have called Seattle about him, including the Chicago Bears,” Rapoport said in a video he tweeted on Sunday. “If Russell Wilson is going to be traded, you’d imagine Chicago would be in the mix. They currently do not have a starting quarterback for 2021. They’re exploring all options, so that makes sense.
“No one I’ve spoken with has said that Seattle has actually engaged in any of these talks. It doesn’t seem like they’ve negotiated actively as far as a trade of Russell Wilson. They have listened, but they haven’t reciprocated.”
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This echoes Dianna Russini’s reporting, as she said the Seahawks were at least picking up the phone, but not actively shopping their franchise quarterback. While this doesn’t provide any clues as to whether or not Seattle will ultimately deal Wilson this year, it does indicate that we shouldn’t hold our breath. If Seattle does decide to deal Wilson (and that’s a big if), they could delay negotiations, which in turn would put pressure on the Bears. The longer Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy go without a starting QB, the more desperate they would become to make a deal— especially as potential free agent options like Cam Newton start to sign with teams.
So, no matter how eager the Bears may be to trade for Wilson, Rapoport says don’t expect any breaking news alerts any time soon.
“Where we are, it doesn’t seem like anything is imminent.”
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