The Sports Xchange

The Seattle Seahawks and quarterback Russell Wilson still are not close to reaching a deal on his next contract.

Wilson can become a free agent at the end of the 2015 season and could bet on himself this season, playing without a long-term deal to take negotiations into February and March 2016.

A week ago, it was reported the two sides were “10s of millions” apart in contract negotiations, according to ESPN 710’s Danny O’Neil.

The contract stalemate, according Jason Cole of the Bleacher Report, is because Wilson wants more than $20 million per year, while the Seahawks aren’t willing to go that high.

Cole’s report Friday said Seattle is more than willing to let Wilson play the 2015 season on his current contract — the final of his four-year rookie deal which would pay him $1.542 million. The Seahawks then could put franchise tags on him for 2016 and 2017.

According to the Seattle Times, even if the tags would pay Wilson about $47 million for those two seasons, the total over the next three years would be about $50 million, far less than $20 million a season.

Wilson took to Twitter on Thursday and shot off two obscure tweets.

“Always control what you can control. Never let others nonsense & lack of gratefulness & respect bring you down,” Wilson wrote.

“Doubted me then. Doubt me now. All I know is the #BestIsAhead either way. Sleep if you want to…”

Wilson included in his second tweet a link to a photo on his Instagram page. The photo is from his workouts at the NFL Combine.

The Seahawks might not want Wilson’s numbers to move into the neighborhood of Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers or Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers.

All Wilson has done is to go from third-round draft pick competing for the quarterback job to the engineer of the Seahawks’ offense and back-to-back trips to the Super Bowl, winning it once.

Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said the team wanted to get through the NFL Draft first before contract talks with Wilson pick up.

“We won’t talk much about it because there’s a lot of stuff — it is such a crucial thing,” Carroll said after the draft. “We are so excited about getting Russell (an extension) and keeping him forever. We want to do all of that.

“He has been an extraordinary player for us and we all recognize that. It’s a big deal. There’s a lot of work to be done. It’s been draft-focused for us on our end, and there’s going to be continuing talks. It’s totally in motion.”

Wilson is coming off another strong season in which he completed 63.1 percent of his passes for 3,475 yards with 20 touchdowns and seven interceptions. He also rushed for 849 yards and six touchdowns.