TAMPA, FL – OCTOBER 21: Head Coach Hue Jackson of the Cleveland Browns addresses the media during the press conference after the game against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers at Raymond James Stadium on October 21, 2018 in Tampa, Florida. The Buccaneers defeated the Browns 26-23 in overtime. (Photo by Don Juan Moore/Getty Images)
If the Browns had any interest in Russell Wilson a couple years ago, it’s news to former head coach Hue Jackson.
On Thursday, Pro Football Talk reported the Cleveland Browns had some level of talks regarding sending the No. 1 pick in the 2018 draft to the Seattle Seahawks for Russell Wilson. There’s a difference between starting talks and a trade offer being made to get Wilson, but it’s apparently all news to former Browns’ head coach Hue Jackson.
During an appearance with Zach Gelb of CBS Sports Radio Jackson, who coached the Browns from 2016-2018, roundly denied the seriousness of any interest in Wilson.
“I’ve never heard anything so crazy in my life,” Jackson said on The Zach Gelb Show. “I’m sure John [Dorsey] and John Schneider are really tight. I’m sure if they’re having conversations on their own, just jiving around and doing those kind of things – I would think if something was serious about that, we, the executive team and the organization, would have known. I never heard that.”
“I don’t think so,” he said. “At that particular time, we had identified that Baker was our guy. So I don’t hear that. I don’t believe that. That wouldn’t have been my thought because it never came up.”
It’s possible Browns general manager John Dorsey and Seahawks general manager John Schneider, former colleagues in Green Bay, had purely hypothetical trade talks regarding Wilson as he approached getting the big contract he eventually got. That may be all it was, and the idea of giving up the No. 1 pick to get Wilson never got out of Dorsey’s office to owner Jimmy Haslam or Jackson. That pick, as Jackson alluded to, became Baker Mayfield.
On the surface, the idea the Seahawks would consider trading Wilson is crazy. But the fact Jackson never heard anything about the Browns involvement in talks two years ago doesn’t mean the talks didn’t happen, or that Wilson won’t ultimately finish his career elsewhere.