If Russell Wilson stands firm, will the Seattle Seahawks give in?

It's almost impossible to quantify what Russell Wilson's monetary worth is, vis a vis the Seattle Seahawks' salary cap. And that has stopped absolutely nobody from debating it.

With every figure that is tossed out there's a debate. People enjoy discussing it nearly as much as they like arguing about deflated footballs. The latest number is about $21 million per year, which Pro Football Talk said Wilson was offered and didn't accept. That leads to more parsing of the figures with arbitrary numbers: I think he's just worth $18 million, $19 million is a little high and I'd never go to $21 million! It turns into a game show.

There's a soft deadline of July 30, NFL Network said, after which negotiations will stop and Wilson will go on his way and play for about $1.5 million this year. That's a meaningless deadline, because if the Seahawks offered Wilson $25 million a year on July 31 I'm sure he wouldn't point to the deadline and turn it down. But it gives some made-up urgency to the matter.

So let's play along. How much is Wilson worth? It's complicated because you can make the argument he's not the foundation of the Seahawks' success (that's the defense) and he's not the MVP of the offense (Marshawn Lynch). He's a very good player but the Seahawks don't live and die with him. He was terrible for most of the NFC championship game, and the Seahawks won that game. His first completion in the Super Bowl against the Patriots came with about 5:30 left in the second quarter, and the Seahawks were 1 yard from winning that game. If Aaron Rodgers plays that poorly, the Green Bay Packers don't stand a chance (insert a few other quarterback/team combinations in that sentence, if you wish).

But Wilson shouldn't be downgraded simply because he attempts just 26 passes per game in his career or that he was drafted to a great team. Wilson's career passer rating of 98.6 would be second in NFL history to Rodgers if he had the 1,500 career attempts to qualify. That doesn't include 1,877 rushing yards. He has been a very good player.

So where do you slot him in? Here are the top 10 quarterbacks, via Spotrac, in terms of average annual salary:

1. Aaron Rodgers, $22 million
2. Ben Roethlisberger, $21.85 million
3. Cam Newton, $20.76 million
4. Matt Ryan, $20.75 million
5. Joe Flacco, $20.1 million
6. Drew Brees, $20 million
7. Ryan Tannehill, $19.25 million
8. Colin Kaepernick, $19 million
9. Jay Cutler, $18.1 million
10. Tony Romo, $18 million

Of course it's not perfect to judge off those numbers, because all NFL contracts are different, especially with how much unrealistic non-guaranteed money is tacked on the end. But based on the list, you can argue Wilson deserves more than Newton, but I'm not sure I'm willing to give him more than Brees. I'd definitely put him above Tannehill and Kaepernick, however. So let's say $20 million.

And you know what? That exercise doesn't matter in the slightest.

If Wilson is willing to wait it out, it doesn't matter if the Seahawks think he's worth $20 million but he's asking for $22 million. The debate about how much Wilson is worth is rather pointless because he's worth what some team is willing to pay, and I'd bet that if the Rams, Texans, Bills or whoever can clear the decks, Wilson would get that $22 million or more on the open market. So that's his worth. It's almost unprecedented for a quarterback like Wilson to hit the market and there would be a tremendous battle for him.

So the Seahawks can be proud and say they stood firm and didn't give Wilson a dime more than he's worth ... and if they stuck to that they'd lose their quarterback. Right.

Of course, the Seahawks could play the franchise tag game with Wilson, though that is still a massive salary-cap hit. The Seahawks would almost be forced to give him the exclusive tender, or risk a team willing to give up two first-round picks if Seattle doesn't match the offer sheet (and some team would, and should, do that). The franchise tag escalators will make it practically impossible for the Seahawks to tag Wilson more than twice, so they'd still be losing him in his prime. Then we'd just go back to having this same debate of Wilson's value in two or three years. And no matter how long the Seahawks drag it out there's always going to be some team that would fall over itself to get a top-10 quarterback and Super Bowl champion who is still in his peak years.

So will it matter if Wilson is worth $19 million or $21 million or $23 million? Only if the Seahawks have the conviction to tell Wilson to walk rather than pay him what he wants. That has never happened with a good quarterback in his prime unless that team has a backup plan in place, which Seattle does not. The debate is also rendered meaningless if Wilson gives in. And he might rather have the long-term security of a big deal right now, once he considers his $1.5 million salary vs. the $50 million or $60 million guaranteed he could get for signing today.

If Wilson doesn't blink, I wonder if the Seahawks will. Most organizations just give in and hand over an immediately regrettable quarterback contract even if it's to a proven mediocre option at the position, like the Chicago Bears did with Jay Cutler. The Seahawks seem to be a little more forward thinking than that, though it's a different situation because Wilson is far from mediocre. But Seattle's brass has more than enough clout and security if it wanted to make a bold move like not paying Wilson more than they believe he's worth.

But again, that might mean losing their quarterback. Wilson's specific worth might not matter so much then.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @YahooSchwab