Why Russell Wilson missed his first camp practice and how bad Seahawks looked without him
The Seahawks just had Russell Wilson Appreciation Day.
And he was 3,000 miles away.
The team didn’t say but a league source confirmed that Wilson was in Norfolk, Va., Friday attending the funeral of his grandfather. Dr. Harrison B. Wilson Jr. Seattle’s quarterback has described his grandfather as “an educator, a mentor, a college basketball coach, and the second President at Norfolk State University a HBCU from 1975-1997.”
Dr. Wilson passed away this week.
Friday’s seventh practice of this training camp was the first time Wilson wasn’t the Seahawks’ quarterback for a preseason or regular-season practice since the team drafted him in 2012. They made him their starter from game one of his rookie year.
The league source said Wilson was flying back to the Seattle area Friday night. He is expected back to participate as usual in Saturday’s mock game in Bothell.
“It was a little different, for sure. I ain’t going to lie to you,” wide receiver David Moore said after the most unusual Seahawks practice in seven years.
“Shoot, that’s Russell Wilson! Anytime he’s gone, you are going to notice.”
Moore wasn’t the only one who noticed Wilson was gone. Anyone with eyes and ears did, too.
Kids clamored from behind a metal barrier separating autograph seekers from the field, “Where’s Russell?”
And practice hadn’t even started yet.
When it did, what Wilson left behind on a cooler day along Lake Washington was a chilling reminder of how absolutely essential the quarterback is to Seattle’s offense, their season and the entire franchise.
Geno Smith and Paxton Lynch, both one-time starters in the NFL, were his replacements Friday. Each threw passes behind and late to receivers such as Moore, who seemed to wonder where all the perfect throws went.
They were in Virginia.
Smith is the former starter with the New York Jets and Giants the Seahawks signed in May. Seattle is the 28-year-old’s fourth team in four years. He was Seattle’s starter-for-a day in Wilson’s absence.
During one of the first position drills he threw a ball behind Nick Vannett. The tight end was running across the back line of the end zone, against air, with no defenders. Smith immediately asked for another football. He threw it to Vannett, who was standing in the end zone. That second ball was more accurate.
“Honestly, I didn’t know what to expect, today, going into practice,” said Vannett, who’s had Wilson as his quarterback for every one of the tight end’s 39 NFL regular-season games and one playoff game. “I didn’t know who was going to step up.
“You know, (number) 3’s got that voice. When he talks, everybody listens. He’s someone who leads our team. He’s the leader of this franchise.
“Without him, it’s tough.”
This tough:
On one of the first plays of 11-on-11 scrimmaging, with the starting offense going out off its own goal line, Smith fired a short, check-down pass over the middle far too high and hard for rookie running back Travis Homer. The ball zipped off the top of Homer’s hands into those of linebacker K.J. Wright for an interception at the offense’s own 5-yard line.
Then on the first series of the initial red-zone scrimmage, the No. 1 offense had five plays from inside the 5-yard line. Two were against the starting defense and three against the second unit. Wilson usually throws for touchdowns on the first or, at the latest, second plays in such series. This summer it’s usually been to rookie DK Metcalf.
Here’s how it went Friday for Smith:
First play: Smith holds, holds and holds the ball some more while looking to throw. He probably would have been sacked in a game. Eventually he throws a pass well over leaping, 6-foot-4 Metcalf. Incomplete.
Second play: Smith sends a fluttering pass into the short right flat. Moore has to run back toward it and snatch the ball just before it hits the ground. That move sends Moore to the turf. He is tapped down there by a defender for a loss of 2 yards.
Third play: Smith throws a back-shoulder ball for undrafted rookie Jazz Ferguson, who at 6-5 and 228 pounds has three inches and 45 pounds on cornerback Jeremy Boykins. But Smith’s throw is too low and short, into Boykins’ back at the goal line. Ferguson can’t grab the errant throw. Another incompletion.
Fourth play: Smith takes one step and throws a bubble-screen pass outside left to Metcalf. Backup linebacker Austin Calitro is right there as the throw arrives for no gain.
Fifth play: Rookie fourth-round draft choice Gary Jennings breaks wide open in the back left of the end zone. Smith sees Jennings, but his throws sails 5 yards wide left of the rookie wide receiver. The ball skids off the grass out of bounds beyond the left sideline of the end zone.
“I think I could have been a little more cleaner with some of the things, made a few more throws,” Smith acknowledged after practice.
Of course, the Seahawks hope—make that, are absolutely counting on—Wilson’s absence being an exception. History says it will be.
Wilson has never missed an NFL game, not even in the 2016 season when in the first weeks he had a sprained ankle then a sprained knee that doctors told him should have kept him out four weeks. Wilson flew up from California a personal trainer and physical therapist to wake him up at his home almost hourly, to keep circulation in his legs and a rehabilitation going around the clock.
The only other practice Wilson has missed in his eight-year career before Friday was during voluntary organized team activities in May 2015. The Seahawks permitted him to go to Florida to attend the funeral of a woman former teammate Jimmy Graham considered a mother.
If the Seahawks have their way in 2019—plus in 2020, ‘21 and beyond—the produce guy at your neighborhood Safeway could be their backup for Wilson. This spring Wilson got his NFL-record $140 million contract extension. It keeps him obligated to Seattle through the 2023 season, when he will be 35 years old.
Smith was the Jets’ second-round draft choice in 2013. He started 29 games for New York his first two seasons in the NFL, passing for 5,571 yards and 25 touchdowns with 34 interceptions.
Then teammate IK Enemkpali broke Smith’s jaw with a punch in fight during Jets training camp in 2015. That pretty much KO’d Smith’s time as a starter in the league.
Ryan Fitzpatrick replaced Smith in New York. When the Jets briefly benched Fitzpatrick in 2016, Smith replaced him — but lasted just into the second quarter of his only start that season. Smith tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee in that game. He was out for that season.
He signed with the Giants for 2017 and started one game for benched Eli Manning. Last season Smith was Philip Rivers’ backup with the Chargers. He appeared five times mopping up games for a playoff team.
What did Smith learned in his time in New York?
“Oh, man. A lot. I learned a ton of things in New York,” he said. “On-the-field things. Off-the-field things. Specifically, just the maturation process. I came in, I was the starter as a young guy. I hit a rough patch early on. But I kind of found myself in those moments, and so I became a stronger man and a smarter person, and obviously I became a smarter quarterback.
“I was about to learn under Eli Manning. I was with Ryan Fitzpatrick, and a bunch of great guys. A bunch of great coordinators. So I’ve seen a lot of football, know a lot of football. It’s just stuff I’ve stored in my memory bank that I try to apply on a daily basis.”
Lynch has been the third quarterback in most offseason and training-camp practices, behind Wilson and Smith. He was the clear No. 2 Friday.
The Seahawks signed Lynch in January; he said he watched the 2018 NFL season from his couch. Denver’s former first-round pick was Seattle’s only other quarterback on the roster behind Wilson when he signed in January.
That was about a month after Washington has offered to sign Lynch. He had tried out with the Seahawks during last season. He told the Redskins no, because he wanted to wait and see if Seattle would ever call. In January, the Seahawks did.
He said he loves how close Carroll’s environment is with the Seahawks, how every player is treated so well and is considered family here more than in Denver.
“I just want to show them that they can trust me,” he said.
He and Smith will spend the four preseason games, beginning Thursday night at home against Lynch’s former Broncos, to determine who will be Wilson’s backup.
So far Smith has performed better. He has had a more mature, noticeably commanding presence in the huddle. He has even bested Wilson in some play diagnosis with offensive coordinator Brian Schottenheimer during quarterback meetings.
“We’re pushing them hard. It’s been fun,” Schottenheimer said last weekend. “We do a little competition in the quarterback room, where we have them kind of draw up the plays. It was fun today to watch them compete. Geno won a couple of them which made Russ a little bit pissed off, which was good.
“It’s always good when you make him angry.”
But, the Seahawks learned for the first (and they hope only) time on Friday, it’s never good when Wilson is not here.
This story was originally published August 2, 2019 at 2:12 PM.
