Trades in the NFL are often critiqued and graded immediately, but the true value of a trade can't really be known right away. Over time, trades either prove to be a bad move or one that helped turn a franchise around.
During the 2022 offseason, the Denver Broncos made a trade for Russell Wilson that had Broncos Country in a frenzy. The team, which had been searching for a franchise quarterback for seven seasons at that time, had gotten one that had played in multiple Super Bowls and the return... at least according to Broncos fans, seemed cheap.
Now that several years have passed and the draft picks involved in this trade have all been made, we can take a more accurate look at how this trade worked out for both the Broncos and Seattle Seahawks.
Broncos receive: QB Russell Wilson, DL Eyioma Uwazurike
Seahawks receive: QB Drew Lock, TE Noah Fant, DL Shelby Harris, OT Charles Cross, Edge Boye Mafe, WR Dareke Young, LB Tyreke Smith, CB Devon Witherspoon, Edge Derick Hall
The Seahawks ended up with nine players out of this trade to the Broncos' two. On top of that, Broncos fans know how poorly Wilson played in Denver and that led Bill Barnwell of ESPN to declare it a "massive win for the Seahawks". Here was his full analysis:
"I certainly liked this trade for the Broncos , who were adding a quarterback who was still playing at a high level. Wilson's play had slipped a bit earlier in 2021 because of a finger injury , but over his final six starts in Seattle, he had posted a 103.7 passer rating and ranked eighth in QBR. The Seahawks were entering QB purgatory after choosing coach Pete Carroll over Wilson, and I didn't like where that was likely to end up.
The Seahawks moved on at the perfect time. Wilson was markedly worse from the moment he stepped onto the field in Denver, and while he didn't get any help when the Broncos hired Nathaniel Hackett as their coach, the Wilson trade turned out to be one of the worst decisions of the past decade, with the Broncos giving up significant draft capital and paying Wilson nearly $123 million for two years of below-average play.
On top of that, the Seahawks landed several building blocks for their post- Wilson retooling. Cross has settled in as an above-average left tackle for a team that badly needed a solution to replace Duane Brown. The real impact of the deal has come on defense, where Witherspoon has been an All-Pro-caliber player at his best, and Mafe and Hall combined for 14 sacks and 32 knockdowns last season.
All three are on rookie deals, which has allowed the Seahawks to commit money elsewhere on their roster. Has it been perfect? No. The three players involved in the deal didn't add much for Seattle, and the decision to prioritize Lock as part of the return didn't deliver. The Seahawks eventually re-signed Geno Smith, who won the job in camp and was surprisingly solid in his three years as the starter before giving way to free agent addition Sam Darnold. But Seattle has gone 30-24 over three-plus seasons since the Wilson deal without winning a playoff game. There's still some reality to the idea that making a deal like this without having a QB replacement in place can leave a team in the quarterback middle class, which is a very difficult place from which to operate.
But yeah, obviously, the Seahawks comprehensively won this trade."
It's hard to argue that, as the Wilson trade is among the worst trades in NFL history, but many Broncos fans will tell you that the contract extension they gave him before he ever played a down for the team was what made it as bad as it was.
The Broncos are still working their way out of that hole and have turned things in a positive direction quicker than most would have thought. One trade they made later that year — sending Bradley Chubb to the Miami Dolphins —was called an "easy win for the Broncos" by Barnwell.
The Broncos sent Chubb and a fifth-round pick in 2025 to Miami for running back Chase Edmonds, a 2023 first-round pick and a 2024 fourth-round choice. The team used that capital to acquire head coach Sean Payton from New Orleans and to select wide receiver Troy Franklin.
Broncos fans often wonder how general manager George Paton was able to keep his job following the Wilson ordeal. The Bradley Chubb trade is the biggest reason he kept his job.
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