New Seahawks rookie starter Marquise Blair has two, wonderful reasons for being so intense
Marquise Blair is a different kind of intense.
Seahawks general manager John Schneider calls his new starting safety a “silent assassin.” That’s for Blair’s devastating hits on ball carriers and receivers at the University of Utah.
Blair stares holes into opponents and inquisitors alike. Ask the Seahawks’ rookie second-round draft choice what he does to relax, and Blair glares.
“It’s my job. I do my job,” he says, incredulously.
“Relax? I can’t relax.”
There’s a wonderful reason for that. Two wonderful reasons, in fact. The 22-year-old Blair has two young children at home.
His son, Ezekiel, is 15 months old. His daughter, Ivelle, is three months old.
“I’ve got something else to live for,” Blair said Wednesday. “I’ve got something else to provide for.”
Coach Pete Carroll made it clear from his out-of-nowhere news that Tedric Thompson is now on injured reserve that Blair is joining Bradley McDougald as Seattle’s starting safeties beginning Sunday against Tampa Bay (2-5). The game begins at 1:05 p.m. at CenturyLink Field.
“Marquise is going to play some more. He deserves to play,” is how Carroll put it Monday.
“He’s got a lot of the details to clean up, just continue to get better. He’s certainly a ballplayer; you can see that.”
His defensive coordinator went further than that.
“Marquise Blair, he is a special guy,” Ken Norton Jr. said. “I think we saw that early on in the whole draft process.”
Special, yes. There aren’t many top picks straight out of college who are already fathers.
Blair is fortunate. And not just because halfway into his first NFL season he about to start his third game for a 6-2 team preparing its push toward its seventh postseason in eight years.
Blair’s lucky also because he’s actually getting sleep with a toddler and baby at home.
Wait...what?
“I do. I do. My girl, she makes sure I get my sleep,” Blair said.
His girl, meaning Laney Kiper, the mother of his children.
“Yeah,” Blair said with an appreciative smile, “she does A LOT.”
Away from home and their kids, Blair has done a lot in limited opportunities for the Seahawks.
He started with a splash, wowing coaches in his NFL game debut, the team’s first preseason game against Denver in early August. He impressed with hard hits, sure tackles and being sound in his assignments within the defense. He also impressed coaches with how quickly he was applying Carroll’s teachings on how and when to turn his shoulder and take his helmet out of his hits.
Blair got called for unnecessary roughness for allegedly using his head on a Broncos receiver down the field, though replays showed his used his shoulder in a way that made it look to officials as if he’d used his head.
That night and early in training camp, it seemed Blair starting as a rookie was only a matter of time.
Then Blair lost that.
He had an injured back later in August, then a hip pointer. He missed the final preseason games. By the time he could run and hit freely again in September, he was third string behind 2017 third-round pick Lano Hill as McDougald’s backup at strong safety.
With Thompson giving up big plays at the last man back in the middle of the defense early this season, Carroll and Norton moved Blair to free safety in practices. Blair played some of that in Utah’s interchangeable defense, and Seattle’s often switches roles between the strong and free safeties, sometimes by the snap.
Earlier this month, Carroll said Blair would be playing free safety.
Then two weeks ago, McDougald got back spasms. Hill got an elbow injury that is still keeping him out. Blair moved back to strong safety and made his first NFL start Oct. 20 against Baltimore.
He’s been there since. The only exception was the one series Blair missed in last weekend’s win at Atlanta. McDougald, active for an emergency fill-in role only, had to play that one defensive possession. Carroll said Blair had leg cramps.
Wednesday, Blair fully participated in practice but was on the injury report with the designation “shoulder.”
Blair returned from the brief time on the sidelines cramping to make the play of the Falcons game for Seattle’s defense. Atlanta was 1 yard away from turning the Seahawks’ 24-0, first-half lead into a 24-18 battle early in the fourth quarter. Falcons running back Davonta Freeman caught a short pass and was running for a touchdown, reaching for the goal line. Blair hit Freeman and swiped the ball from between the Falcon’s claws.
Teammate Bobby Wagner recovered the fumble Blair created, and the Seahawks’ offense responded with a field goal. Instead of a tense, six-point game Seattle led 27-11 and went on to win.
That tends to keep a guy in the starting lineup.
Where does Blair get his seemingly constant intensity, physicality and aggressiveness?
“I guess it comes from playing backyard football, growing up (in Wooster, Ohio, an hour south of Cleveland),” Blair said.
“I’ve got four brothers. And a sister (he’s the third-oldest of the five, spanning ages now of 18-24).
“We had everybody in the neighborhood out. We were always playing.
“Yeah, it was tackle.”
Who among his four brothers hit the hardest?
You had to ask?
“Me,” Blair said.
No. he wasn’t smiling.
This story was originally published October 31, 2019 at 7:24 AM.
