We are now starting to get why so many former Seattle Seahawks players are coming out against Russell Wilson.
Despite the team’s long run of success during Russell Wilson’s 10 seasons as the starting quarterback, many of his former teammates have willingly gone on the record about issues they had with how he was treated compared to them.
Appearing on Richard Sherman’s podcast, former Seahawks linebacker K.J. Wright explained that Wilson “wasn’t held to the same accountability” standard as everyone else on the roster.
“He was not held to the same accountability as the rest of us. You’re bashing the defense. I need you to at least mention his name in the team meeting room.”
Sherman then gave his take:
“There wasn’t enough years difference for the accountability to be like that. ‘Well, he was young.’ He was a year younger than us. You ain’t that young. When you got 52 guys being held to a certain standard and you got one guy not being held to that standard, it’s going to cause some friction.”
Sherman than added that the entire situation forced Pete Carroll to pick between Russ and the “Legion of Boom.”
“After a while, it had to get to the point where he [Carroll] had to chose Russ or the defense. After the Super Bowl loss, he made it pretty clear who he was choosing.”
The Seahawks would sign Wilson to a four-year, $87.6 million extension in 2015. Soon, many of the team’s core pieces would be gone, including Sherman and defensive linemen Michael Bennett and Cliff Abril.
Those losses led to added pressure for Wilson which ultimately chipped away at Wilson’s own feelings towards the franchise.
“And that’s what happens when you made that decision,” Sherman said. “They put that pressure on him. … And now, it’s on the quarterback to make this thing work. And when it didn’t work, it was pressure on all side. And then you saw the breakup.”
The Seahawks from 2012 to 2016 might be the last team in the current era of the NFL that can say it was genuinely led by the defense.
