Russell Wilson is on a crusade, all right. Just not the one some analysts believe.
MMQB.SI.com is reporting that the Seattle Seahawks quarterback's goal is to become one of the league's highest-paid quarterbacks - not the highest-paid - according to confidant and former NFL signal-caller Warren Moon.
Russell Wilson trying to secure more guaranteed deals for future quarterbacks?
Moon has become one of Wilson's unofficial advisers, MMQB reports, and has been trying to help Wilson through his negotiations with the Seahawks. Moon compares what he believes his own issues were with the NFL - his skin color - with Wilson's plight.
Not signing a deal now could cost Russell Wilson for the next three years?
A Napoleon complex?
"He's a really strong and mature guy, very spiritual, but he's human also," Moon, who last communicated with Wilson about contract talks three days ago, told MMQB. "I had to deal with doubt because of my color; he has to deal with it because of his size. He feels like he's being disrespected because of that."
Moon said the 5-foot-11 Wilson understands that it appears as if he's asking to become the league's highest-paid quarterback, but that request is in the short-term. When Aaron Rodgers, Eli Manning, Philip Rivers and Andrew Luck renegotiate their contracts, they no doubt will eclipse Wilson's deal.
"Moon says (Wilson) is trying to preemptively keep up with the Joneses, not set a long-term benchmark for passer contracts," MMQB reported.
"Given what he's done since he got here, he deserves to be paid like one of the top five to seven quarterbacks in the league because that's about where he is, in terms of skill set, production and success," Moon says. "I don't think Russell necessarily wants to be the highest paid in the league; he understands where the QB market is going.
"If Russell was able to get $22 million right now, there are going to be four or five guys who leapfrog him. He just wants to stay in suit with the guys at the top. He doesn't want to sign a deal that becomes obsolete."
Not many players negotiate based on what they think the market will be, rather than what the market is.
Moon added that Wilson has an answer for the Seahawks' argument that he doesn't have to throw the ball as often as the NFL's other elite quarterbacks. Wilson, however, has rushed for more yardage than any other QB over the last three years (1,877 yards), which puts him at greater risk of injury.
If Wilson isn't signed today, it could very well be because of what Moon asked him three weeks ago.
"You know what you want," the Hall of Fame quarterback told Wilson over the phone, "but what will you end up taking? What's the least you'll accept?"
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