Colts owner Jim Irsay made no bones about his feelings for Jacob Brissett: the Colts aren't trading him, not even for a first-round pick. It sounded like a lot of hot air (if someone offered him a first-round pick, he's taking it), but perhaps there's more to it than meets the eye, as Irsay and the Colts reportedly turned down a second-round pick offered by the Seahawks for Brissett. 

That's according to Ben Volin of the Boston Globe, who reported Sunday that Seattle called up Indy and tried to give the Colts a second-round pick for their backup quarterback, only to be rebuffed.  

"Our league source said the Seahawks recently offered a second-round pick for Brissett, who was coached last year in Indianapolis by current Seahawks quarterbacks coach Brian Schottenheimer, but the Colts passed," Volin wrote in his always excellent Sunday notes column for the Globe. "This jibes with owner Jim Irsay's recent comments, that the Colts wouldn't even trade Brissett for a first-round pick."

There are a few layers of this onion to peel back. 

For starters, if the Seahawks were offering a second-round pick for Brissett, it wasn't a 2019 second-round pick, because they don't have one at the moment. When Seattle acquired tackle Duane Brown -- who they signed to an extension in late July -- from the Texans in the middle of the 2017 season, they sent the Texans Jeremy Lane and draft picks, including their 2019 second rounder. That means if the offer was for a second-round pick, it was for a 2020 second-round pick, which is not a slam-dunk offer for a team with immediate needs. 

Secondly, the Colts aren't in "win now" mode or anything, but they also do not likely want to be a trainwreck again this season. Trading Brissett for a down-the-road asset this offseason instead of having him as an insurance policy against Andrew Luck's shoulder would be a foolish move if the team wants to win games in 2018. 

Third, building off that, it's entirely possible the offer for Brissett came earlier in the offseason, before the Colts were even sure about Luck's status. Before he was cleared -- and we still don't KNOW he'll play in Week 1 -- there was no chance the Colts could deal Brissett, having no other real plan in place other than to just hope that Luck would be ready.

On the Seahawks side of things, this is VERY interesting, because it would mean they might've had multiple former grad transfer NC State quarterbacks on their roster at one time. (Russell transferred out to Wisconsin, Brissett transferred in from Florida.) Just kidding, that's not really what's important here.

What matters is that there have been rumors about a possible rift/split/separation between Wilson and the Seahawks following the 2019 season. Trading for Brissett -- a starting-caliber quarterback -- might set up Seattle to replace Wilson if they think their current franchise quarterback would be unwilling to sign a long-term deal in Seattle or might want too much money.

On the other hand, though, is trading for Brissett, who will be a free agent after 2018, necessarily setting up Seattle to have a limited amount of cap space dedicated to a quarterback? Brissett would be cheaper than Wilson, but he's not going to play for free just because Seattle traded for him. Maybe the Seahawks believe they could get him to take a below-market contract, or to do something unorthodox (he did do the whole draft without having an agent after all) after acquiring him. 

Maybe the Seahawks just wanted a competent backup for Wilson and believed Brissett at a second-round pick in 2020 would be good value and he could be flipped down the road.

Like I said, a lot of interesting angles here. And this isn't the first time the Colts have been approached about Brissett, with GM Chris Ballard reportedly getting two offers back in April as well. Coach Frank Reich has emphasized he wants to keep Brissett on the roster.

Brissett, who was originally acquired in a deal with New England that shipped Philip Dorsett to the Patriots, has turned out to be a really nice asset for Indianapolis. Now it remains to be seen how long they will hold onto him. At the very least, credit the Colts for cranking up his market value. If another starting quarterback gets hurt, they could net a serious haul for their backup.