The Sports Xchange

With two Super Bowl appearances in three seasons Russell Wilson is the right quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks.

General manager John Schneider knows the day is coming when the Seahawks and Wilson, a third-round pick in 2012, will have a new contract to announce. Wilson is scheduled to make $1.5 million in 2015, but the going rate for franchise quarterbacks is $20 million per season.

“Every negotiation is unique in and of itself and this is no different,” Schneider told radio station KIRO (97.3 FM) in Seattle on Wednesday. “He’s our quarterback. We’d love him to be our quarterback. But the thing is we need to keep as many players together as we possibly can. What I can tell you is that this is the ultimate team sport. We have a track record of rewarding our players that we recognize as core players.”

Wilson’s contract is not the sole concern for the Seahawks, of course, with 52 other players on the regular-season roster including upcoming free agents such as middle linebacker Bobby Wagner. The relative Dollar Store rate the Seahawks have paid Wilson since he was drafted out of Wisconsin was a major factor in Schneider and head coach Pete Carroll building a championship roster. By comparison, the two quarterbacks Wilson opposed in the Super Bowl — Tom Brady ($15 million in 2014) and Peyton Manning ($18.9 million in 2013) — absorbed a huge chunk of their team’s salary cap.

“We want to be a consistent championship-caliber football team, one that the community and the Northwest is extremely proud of every year and has high expectations and hopes for,” Schneider said. “We have to be able to protect ourselves as we go and make smart decisions in trying to keep this whole thing together as long as we possibly can. I think you’ve seen over the last several years now a philosophy of competition at every position and trying to acquire as many players as you possibly can and to make it fit. We’ve done this since Day 1.”