Carroll: NFL talking to Seahawks on officiating Russell Wilson differently than other QBs
The Seahawks are scattered across the country, if not beyond.
This bye week is the team’s only such break in the 17-week season from meetings, practices, games and everything team-related. As he always has in his decade as Seattle’s coach, Pete Carroll has given his players off from the day after their last game until the first day after the bye. In this case, that means Tuesday until Monday.
But that doesn’t mean the Seahawks haven’t done anything this past week.
Carroll spoke with NFL Senior Vice President for Officiating Al Riveron. The main topic: the need to officiate Russell Wilson getting hit and scrambling differently than other, less-elusive quarterbacks.
Carroll and the Seahawks believe the league should not officiate Wilson the same way as they do, say, Tom Brady, Drew Brees or any other less mobile quarterbacks.
“I’m not complaining about those calls. I just want to know more what the criteria is and how it’s going to go from QB to QB and week to week and all that,” Carroll said. “It is a split-second decision that they make to help protect the quarterback. We understand that’s a good thing. It’s a good thing that they’re doing it that way.”
But with Wilson’s ability to escape and extend just about any play, Carroll adds: “There’s some magic in there that you can take away from the game by making an early call on a guy who’s got that ability. Some guys are going down.
“That’s a conversation that we’re having right now.”
Interestingly, Carroll says the NFL is listening and considering Wilson’s unique ability to get away from defenders as it applies to how long game officials let hits and plays go with him.
That’s an unusual shade of gray for a league becoming increasingly notorious for black-and-white rules interpretations that have been hurting the on-field product.
“There’s a conversation. There’s a conversation that they have about the style of quarterbacks, so they’re making the right decisions because they’re trying to protect the guys,” Carroll said. “Some guys need to be protected differently than other guys, I think, because of their vulnerability where it’s more likely that they’re going to get hit again and again if they don’t get the whistle blown.
“They’re doing everything for the right reasons and they’re trying to do the right things. I think there are going to be times that we could always maybe question, was this the right time to protect them?”
Carroll’s latest impetus was an extremely iffy ruling by officials in overtime Monday night during the Seahawks’ win at the 49ers that Wilson’s forward progress was stopped in the backfield by a San Francisco pass rusher before he escaped and ran for positive yardage.
The indefatigable Wilson never thinks his progress is stopped. In anything. Especially scrambles away from defenders. It’s a huge, defining characteristic of his game.
His progress wasn’t so much stopped as paused on the fifth play of overtime Monday night. Wilson ran around under pressure then ducked while San Francisco’s Arik Armstead bear-hugged his back. Armstead never got Wilson under control or stopped the quarterback, let alone got him onto the ground, before referee Alex Kemp standing a few yards away blew the play dead for a 6-yard sack. Wilson continued running and gained about 3 yards to midfield, but the call stood as a sack. It was third and 16 for Seattle instead of third and 7.
Carroll said after the game he was going to send some plays, as usual, to the league to get Riveron’s explanation on a few calls in the 49ers game.
He specified the one he wanted to know about most.
“Maybe the quarterback forward progress thing. I’m anxious to see that one,” Carroll said.
“I talked to Al about it already (this week) just to get the conversation going on how they look at the various styles of quarterbacks. Some guys can get out and some guys aren’t getting out and how they handle that. Just to understand even more fully what to expect.”
Carroll sends plays to the league just about every week following games. It’s (usually) not meant to complain—though sometimes there has to be, as with any coach, intent to plant seeds of injustice in league headquarters.
Carroll’s main point of sending plays seeking answers is a learning one: to get an exact read on what the NFL is telling its officials about how to judge and interpret certain plays and make certain rulings. He can then coach appropriately.
Section 13, article 1 of the NFL rulebook for 2019 states: “The Forward Progress of a runner or airborne receiver is the point at which his advance toward his opponent’s goal ends and is the spot at which the ball is declared dead by rule, irrespective of the runner or receiver being pushed or carried backward by an opponent.”
The NFL rulebook also states this for “in the grasp,” a defender grabbing at a quarterback while he’s trying to throw: “The Referee must blow the play dead as soon as the passer is clearly in the grasp and control of any tackler behind the line, and the passer’s safety is in jeopardy.”
That overtime play wasn’t the only one in Monday’s game about which Carroll and the Seahawks questioned the NFL.
Early in the fourth quarter, Seattle was in control with a 21-10 lead. Wilson got sacked by Armstead and San Francisco’s K’Waun Williams. The 49ers defenders pushed Wilson backward for about 5 yards without bringing him to the ground. During that pushing back Armstead popped the ball from the inside of the quarterback’s arm. Seahawks tackle Germain Ifedi grabbed the ball out of the air, then he also fumbled. Niners linebacker Fred Warner returned Ifedi’s fumble for a touchdown, and San Francisco was back in the game.
Carroll and the Seahawks believe Wilson was in Armstead’s and Williams’ grasp and was no longer going forward, the definition of the “forward progress” rule. Thus, the fumbles should not have happened; referee Kemp should have first blown the play dead as a sack. Especially, in the Seahawks’ view, considering Kemp blew the overtime play dead when Wilson ducked Armstead’s attempt at a sack.
It’s that inconsistency in officiating his quarterback Carroll is seeking to eliminate. Because the way Wilson plays isn’t changing.
“The second one, when they take the ball away for the touchdown, Russ is really in the grasp with two guys and he’s moving backwards. There’s not a long time period there, but there’s time,” Carroll said.
“I’m looking for the consistency, so we know what we’re up against and all that. Russ is still going to dial it in and do his thing, and other quarterbacks are going to battle and do their thing. I don’t think it’s all the same.
“They’re in the conversation. They’ve working to do it as well as they can. That’s all we can really ask of the guys.”
This isn’t the first time the Seahawks have questioned a hit against Wilson being called differently than it would have against another quarterback.
In week two at Pittsburgh, Steelers edge rusher Bud Dupree slammed into Wilson’s helmet with his helmet after the Seahawks quarterback threw a pass. Amazingly, it was not penalized.
Carroll and the Seahawks submitted that play to the NFL for an explanation. Riveron told Carroll that Dupree’s was indeed an illegal hit that should have been penalized on the field.
The league fined Dupree $21,056 for it.
Through it all, Wilson hasn’t missed an in-season practice, let alone a game, in his eight-year career. He’s been Seattle’s starting quarterback since week one of his rookie season.
The 49ers sacked him five times, hit him eight times. Yet he came out of the huge win feeling fine, his coach said..
The rest he’s getting him during this week’s bye sure isn’t hurting him as much as those hits—and those inconsistent officials calls—did.
“Yes. He’s all right,” Carroll said. “We hung out together quite a bit on the plane (home).
“He was OK.”
This story was originally published November 15, 2019 at 6:50 AM.
