Will the Seattle Seahawks trade Russell Wilson? Probably not. But should they?

The NFL regular season has only been over for 10 days, but social media is already abuzz with rumors about the future of Seattle Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson.

An NFL.com story posted over the weekend said sources close to Wilson claim the veteran signal-caller wants to spend the offseason investigating “other destinations to see if those would put him in a better position to win another championship and create the legacy he sees for himself.”

But Wilson has not requested a trade. There’s also no evidence that the team wants to trade him. In a post-game interview after the team’s final game of the season on Jan. 9, Wilson was asked about his future.   

“You guys keep asking me the same question, I think maybe you guys know something I don’t know,” he said in response. “But I think the biggest thing is that I love playing here. I love the city, I love being here and I love everything else.”

That’s a sentiment he’s repeated over and over again during the last few weeks.

The Seahawks finished the season with their worst record since Wilson was drafted by the team in 2012. He did spend three games on the sideline with an injury to his throwing hand — marking the first time he’s missed a game in his professional career — but the team still suffered eight losses with Wilson under center.

There’s little doubt that Wilson still has juice. His trademark elusiveness and deep-ball ability were on display when the team walloped the Detroit Lions 51-29 in the penultimate game of the season, and again when the team finished the year with a satisfying 38-30 victory over the playoff-bound Arizona Cardinals.  

However, the question for many is whether the team would be better off trading Wilson.

Proponents for that route point to his salary, which accounts for nearly 17% of the team’s cap space. Given that Seattle traded away two first-round draft picks to the New York Jets for safety Jamal Adams, those in favor of jettisoning Wilson say a trade — hopefully for a few first-round picks — frees up cap space and allows for a true rebuild.

They also argue that Wilson’s best days may be behind him. The ugly, wayward passes fans sometimes saw from him over the back-half of the season could be attributed to his injury. But how can we be sure?

Also, what happened to his running prowess? Wilson finished this season with 187 rushing yards, his lowest ever. That’s a far cry from the more than 500 rushing yards per season he averaged during the first half of his career.

But that’s just one side of the argument. There is a case for keeping him.

Wilson was at the helm when Seattle won its first Super Bowl. He led the team to nine consecutive winning seasons, all while posting the fourth-best passer rating in NFL history. This is also only the second time in his 10-year career that he’s missed the postseason while playing in what’s arguably become the toughest division in the league.

And he wasn’t that bad when he was on the field this year. His passer rating was better than his career average, and his completion percentage was just a hair below that mark. He threw the second-fewest interceptions he’s ever thrown in a season, and was sacked far less this year than he has been in the past.

There are two years left on Wilson’s contract, which includes a no-trade clause. That means the Seahawks can’t trade Wilson to another team without his consent.

Again, there’s nothing to indicate that he wants to be traded, and nothing to indicate that the team wants to trade him. As for whether he should be traded, maybe we should table that conversation until there’s something a little more credible than rumors coming from the front office.