His original list was the Bears, Cowboys, Saints, Raiders and Jets, wasn't it? Bears, Cowboys and Jets have significant resources in their QB. I can't imagine the Raiders moving on from Carr now. Do the Saints have thr ability to maneuver to get him?
If he asks out, the Browns better get on the phone.
Bears - Drafted Fields
Cowboys - No chance
Jets - Drafted Wilson
Raiders - Doubtful
Saints - Cap Hell
The Jets seems like a non starter, relative to their window to compete. I would be shocked if Wilson wanted to go there now but who knows.
Bears are kind of in a gray area. Roster is OK but it is
mostly defensive talent. They also spent a good amount of capital trading up for Fields, so then turning around and trading even more for Wilson would be tough.
Raiders are probably not trading their QB relative to his consistent performance over the past 3 years and his desire to be there. They are also (5-2) and in first place.
The Saints would need to figure out how they shed $5-6 million from their cap, from what I see. Which will be really difficult unless Seattle wants some of their salaried assets back or a 3rd team is willing to save them some money by absorbing players. They have effectively already restructured every roster salary they have, so they don't have that lever in place to free up cash. That would likely mean the cost to acquire Russ is probably going to be too penal because they can't offer Seattle a good young bridge QB nor can they take back an additional player for salary relief. Which probably makes the draft capital cost even higher.
If Russ were hypothetically available, the Browns would be in a really good spot. They have a quality young bridge QB who has value. Cleveland also has a ton of avenues to create cap space.......restructure Landry, Hooper, OBJ or any other larger single larger salary. Cut 2 replaceable guys, etc, etc. Our front office has done an amazing job retaining cap flexibility here and we are in such a good position to capitalize on someone like Russ suddenly becoming available.
All of this is according to Spotrac though, so the realities may be a tad different.
