It’s all but a forgone conclusion that Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson will sign a lucrative contract extension this offseason, and when that happens, he’ll go from being the best bargain in the NFL—a franchise quarterback with a base salary of $662,434—to a player making more than $20 million and taking up a big chuck of salary cap space.

Carroll doesn’t believe paying Wilson will keep Seattle from continuing to thrive, but he does admit it will create new challenges. As Carroll points out in the quote below, the Baltimore Ravens went from a Super Bowl victory to 8-8 and out of the playoffs in one year in large part because they had so many salary cap issues after winning the titles. By taking, as Carroll put it, a “long view” he and GM John Schneider hope to maintain their success.

Also of note in Carroll’s answer, when he talks about being able to “maintain that nucleus of the club,” the first name he mentions is Marshawn Lynch, which is noteworthy considering the amount of speculation there has been about the running back’s future beyond this season. Carroll mentioning Lynch first doesn’t mean he is the team’s top priority or even guarantee he will be back, but if, hypothetically speaking, the Seahawks were ready to move on, as some had speculated earlier this season, Carroll wouldn’t have mentioned Lynch by name in that scenario.

Carroll also said “I know Russell wants to play on a really good team too and he understands that there is no better competitor with awareness about that makeup, so I’m sure that that’s part of his conscious as we go through this.” Perhaps that’s Carroll’s way of reminding Wilson and his representation that the Seahawks could be in better shape going forward if he were to take something a little less than top dollar.

(on if he feels that this team is young enough and that the core will be there for a long time that no matter what happens with Russell Wilson’s contract so he will have a successful team for a long time to come) “We’re hoping so. (General Manager) John (Schneider) has spent a tremendous amount of effort in long view, in looking down the road to see how we can continue to maintain the core of our club at the high level and with the guys that we have built it around. We’re in the process of doing that and I think it should be pretty obvious that we reward our own guys and those are the guys not only that we’ve sighted early that we thought were going to be good but we’ve been able to develop and really kind of guarantee where we’re going with them. That’s a big part of this. There is a fine balance in there and we saw the (Baltimore) Ravens a couple years ago, they had to have a big change in their football team because of the financial aspect of that. We don’t anticipate that. We think we’re structured in a way that we can hold on – that’s being optimistic and looking for the good stuff here, that’s how we’re seeing it. It brings us to very difficult decisions come the offseason. We’ll always have those and every team does. We’re hoping that being able to see and trust in what we’ve seen from our players now and we’ll be able to maintain that nucleus of the club that will allow us to keep the identity and keep the focus. There are a lot of guys that are a big part of that. (Running back) Marshawn (Lynch) is a big part of that. (Wide receiver) Doug Baldwin and (wide receiver) Jermaine (Kearse), those guys are a big part of that. Our linebackers are a big part of that. There are safeties right down the middle. There are so many of these guys that have become such big aspects of our team that we are working to keep them together and we’re going to try to do that in the best way possible. I know Russell wants to play on a really good team too and he understands that there is no better competitor with awareness about that makeup, so I’m sure that that’s part of his conscious as we go through this. We’ll figure it out in time. It’s going to be a big challenge. However, we do have a plan and John is, I think, he’s doing a wonderful job of carrying it out right now.”