Philadelphia Eagles reportedly made trade offer for Russell Wilson

The thought of it now seems crazy. But the Eagles pushed for a trade with Seattle to land disgruntled quarterback Russell Wilson.

And let it be known that Russell Wilson nixed the swap with the Eagles. He had that kind of clout within the Seahawks. This is all according to Sports Illustrated’s Greg Bishop, who revealed some of the details during an interview this week with Seattle’s ESPN radio affiliate.

“The Eagles really wanted him, they liked his style of play,” Bishop said. But he added that Russell Wilson killed the Eagles deal because he didn’t want to leave Seattle.

Eventually, Wilson did leave. Early in the process, his agent revealed the four teams that Wilson would approve. They were the Cowboys, Dolphins, Raiders and Bears. Note that the Broncos weren’t on the list. How’d Wilson get there? According to Jake Heaps, a quarterback coach who has worked with Wilson, for the Broncos had been checking on him for awhile.

Now, we’re going to add Aaron Rodgers to the crazy mix. The Broncos also had kicked the tires on a potential trade for the Packers great. Acquiring Rodgers was one of the reasons the Broncos hired Nathaniel Hackett, Green Bay’s offensive coordinator.

Russell Wilson initially had 4 teams on trade approval list

Hours after Rodgers said he was sticking with the Packers (remember, this was last year), the Broncos finalized a trade for Wilson.

The reason Wilson could dictate to the Seahawks is because he had a no-trade clause in his contract. At the time, he still had three years remaining on his deal with Seattle. But Wilson also was getting older. And he hadn’t led the Seahawks to an NFC title game since 2014.

But as they say, hindsight is 20/20. No one thought that with Wilson at quarterback, the Broncos would sink to 5-12. Denver fired Hackett before the season was over. He’s now reunited with Rodgers with both joining the New York Jets this off season.

And Russell Wilson might be wondering what it would’ve been like to play for the Eagles. After all, Philadelphia made the Super Bowl, losing to Patrick Mahomes and the Chiefs on a last-minute field goal.

Obviously, Philadelphia found their future quarterback. And Jalen Hurts already was on the team. There was no need to trade away such elite draft picks to find a younger, more athletic version of Wilson. In April, the Eagles extended Hurts’ contract, agreeing to pay him $51 million a year. He was the highest paid player in the league for a matter of days. Then Baltimore reupped with Lamar Jackson. The deals moved Rodgers ($50.2 million) and Wilson ($49 million) to third and fourth on the NFL’s overall salary list.

The Eagles got their happy ending. The Broncos hired Sean Payton, who now is working with Wilson to get him back into winning form. We’re waiting to see how this story ends.