When the first three seasons of your career bring you two Super Bowl appearances, three consecutive Pro Bowl nominations, and a championship, it’s only natural that you’d want to stay in the National Football League for as long as humanly possible. So even though the accolades, as well as the starting opportunities, have begun to dry up, it should come as no surprise to hear that Russell Wilson plans on sticking around for another decade or so.
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In light of Jaxson Dart sustaining his fourth concussion as a rookie, the New York Giants have announced Jameis Winston as their starting quarterback for Week 11. According to Asante Samuel, that’s a “major setback” for Wilson, who initially opened the season as the G-Men’s QB1.
“Russell Wilson is on a quest to play 20 years, but 20 years has taken a major setback. If y’all haven’t seen or heard, Russell Wilson wants to play until he’s 45. He has this beautiful wife, Ciara, and all these things, but he has goals. We all have goals, but playing until you’re 45, 20 plus years, is a tough goal to achieve. You know things are bad if coach believes in Jameis Winston over Russell Wilson.”
Seemingly influenced by the tenacity of Tom Brady, the former Seattle Seahawk has been vocal about his desire for longevity for quite some time now. As Samuel alluded to, back in 2020, Wilson notoriously stated that he was “trying to make it to 45.”
Even in 2019, after turning 31 years old, he suggested that he felt “really young” and “more vibrant than ever.” Suffice to say, Wilson is adamant that his level of play will be enough to see him starting in games throughout the next nine years, it’s just that the Giants don’t seem to agree with his own personal assessment.
Throughout the first three weeks of the 2025 regular season, when Wilson was still the de facto starter in New York, he only managed to complete 59% of his passes. While that did result in an average of 259.3 passing yards, it also resulted in a 1:1 touchdown to interception ratio, as well as an 0-3 start for the Giants.
The excitement surrounding Dart has seen some optimism return to the Big Apple, and even though they just fired their now former head coach, Brian Daboll, both the coaching staff and the front office still seem to be interested in winning as many games as possible in 2025.
As a result, they will be taking their chances with the wildcard that is Winston in Week 11. Even though the former Tampa Bay Buccaneer has infamously struggled with interceptions throughout his own career, those turnovers have occasionally been offset by downfield plays and large passing totals.
So until Winston’s propensity for pick sixes starts to rear its ugly head again, it seems as if Wilson should begin searching for his next opportunity to be a starter, as New York no longer appears to be the place for him.
