Russell Wilson writes weekly, 15-page studies of opponents--then tests Seahawks on them
The Seahawks’ franchise quarterback is also their player-coach.
Player-teacher, to be exact.
Monday, while the rest of the Pacific Northwest, including his coaches, dissected and evaluated every piece of Seattle’s wild-card playoff win at Philadelphia Sunday, Russell Wilson was on to the next. He was dissecting the Green Bay Packers, the Seahawks’ opponent in at 3:40 p.m. Sunday in a divisional playoff game at Lambeau Field.
Wilson had already reviewed the film of the Eagles game on his laptop during the team’s long flight home Sunday night. To him, that game may as well have happened in 1999. By Monday morning, a couple of hours after the Seahawks landed at Sea-Tac Airport, Wilson was already reviewing the Packers’ intricacies.
“I watch a bunch of film on Sunday nights, depending on if we’re flying back home. Usually Monday and Tuesday,” Wilson said.
Tuesday, the players’ “off day” in the NFL—along with his latest weekly visit to Seattle Children’s hospital—Wilson sat at his computer and typed. Upward of 15 pages.
“It takes a few hours,” he said.
By Tuesday night, Wilson issued electronically to every player on the Seahawks’ offense his weekly dissertation. Seattle’s $140 million franchise quarterback who says “the separation is in the preparation” as much and you and I say “good morning” packs in every detail of the Seahawks’ next opponent.
Every detail.
“It could be anything on the sheet,” Wilson said Thursday. “It could be where the coach was before, and what years did he coach there. It could be all the way to this play, that many years ago. It could be about just one particular player. It could be about the protection schemes. It could be about the routes that we’re thinking and the plays that we’re thinking potentially. Could be where somebody’s from and how fast they are.
“It’s pretty detailed.”
He has done this every week, before and after every game, since his rookie season of 2012. That’s when he became Seattle’s starter over megabucks free-agent veteran Matt Flynn for game one. He’s started every game since. His report on the Packers was his 18th team study guide this season, and 143rd of his career.
What do his coaches think of this?
Of course, the Seahawks’ offensive coordinator has his own game plan. That’s the one from which he gives Wilson the plays during each game. Wilson and all other players obviously need to know that book each week, too.
It was Darrell Bevell, Wilson’s first offensive coordinator and play caller for Seattle from 2012-17, who encouraged Wilson to supplement the offense’s game plans with his own book on each foe.
“Coach Bevell loved it,” Wilson said. “I think that was a big thing, that he really liked.
“He was always prepared. We definitely talked a lot about it throughout the week and that kind of stuff.”
Bevell’s successor as Seahawks offensive coordinator is Brian Schottenheimer. He has been coaching for 23 years. He grew up in NFL locker rooms and team meeting rooms. His father, Marty, was the head coach of the Cleveland Browns, Kansas City Chiefs, Washington Redskins and San Diego Chargers from 1980-2006.
Brian Schottenheimer has coached Brett Favre, Drew Brees, Doug Flutie, Philip Rivers and Andrew Luck, among many others.
Two years into working with Wilson and the quarterback’s own weekly scouting reports to his teammates, Schottenheimer still shakes his head over it.
“I’ve never been around another quarterback that does that,” he said Thursday. “I was blown away by it.
“We love it. It’s amazing.
“Maybe one day, he’ll show you guys. Maybe he won’t. It’s an amazing product that he puts together, and there are countless hours that go into it. It’s very thorough. He has some fun with it because he puts some things in there that make the guys look and study it.”
Rewards for studying
To prevent his reports from being dry and boring, Wilson keeps his teammates such as rookie wide receiver and star pupil DK Metcalf entertained and alert with curveballs.
One of them: Schottenheimer says Wilson hides small cash rewards within the pages.
“There are things that if you look closely, you can get rewards and things like that,” the 46-year-old coach said. “I’ll actually be up there talking, and I look at DK and he’s flying through it trying to look for the hidden clues, if you will.
“I think it’s awesome. It speaks to his leadership, the fact that he’s all about preparation. It’s a really, really cool thing for a coach to see.”
Wait...rewards?
“Mostly, it’s little 10-dollar (bills) and stuff,” Schottenheimer said, “but you have to find a clue, I think. ...You have to find a clue.
“And then there’s questions that follow up.”
Yes, Wilson doesn’t just give his teammates his information and rewards for reading it.
By Thursdays each week, he’s testing them on it.
“I think that this year in particular, I’ve always done the scouting reports, but in this year in particular, just trying to quiz guys,” he said.
“I’ll give them basically three questions. And they got to get them right.”
The questions aren’t just what you’d expect: How often do the Packers play cover two? Where does top cornerback Kevin King line up against certain formations? What blocking protection is best when Green Bay’s best pass rushers Za’Darius Smith and Preston Smith are in a particular alignment on a particular down?
There are also fan-level questions.
“The questions get harder as you go,” Schottenheimer said. “If you get question one—’Hey, name the defensive coordinator of the Green Bay Packers.’ OK, Mike Pettine. Boom.
“The next one might be something different: Name the school the nickel (defensive back) went to school. You walk your way through it.
“He, of course, gets the final say whether they have accomplished the mission, as you will.”
This week, Wilson also tested his teammates on the origin of the Packers’ public shares of team ownership stock.
“Basically, every week, depending on who we’re playing, I give an interesting fact about that team,” he said. “It could be something super fun or funny. It could be something about that city or whatever.
“This week in particular, the question was who owns the Green Bay Packers, and how many people? I kind of put a question in there about that and why is that significant.”
Why is that significant to the Seahawks’ preparation for the Packers?
It’s to keep his teammates engaged, if not entertained.
“I’ve always tried to put interesting facts in there or whatever it may be. Maybe something random each week or whatever,” he said. “This year in particular, especially because we’ve had a lot of young receivers and young guys just to be really able to make sure that they’re on their stuff and everything else. DK has done a great job of that.”
Wilson’s star pupil
The quickest way for a young player to make a lasting impression on Wilson is to work fiendishly hard.
And to ask a lot of questions.
The 22-year-old Metcalf, Seattle’s rookie wide receiver and second-round draft choice, isn’t just 6 feet 4, 229 pounds with 4.3-second speed in the 40-yard dash and exquisite route running. He’s inquisitive.
He asks Wilson A LOT of questions.
Metcalf just set the NFL record for yards receiving by a rookie in a playoff game last weekend while beating the Eagles.
“Sure enough, it transferred the last game,” Wilson said.
The teacher’s pet also had the second-most receptions by a rookie in the NFL this regular season. His 58 was one behind Pittsburgh’s Dionte Johnson.
Coincidence?
“He’s done a great job of making sure he understands the whole preparation process,” Wilson said.
Wonder why Malik Turner, an undrafted rookie out of Illinois in 2018 who barely made the team that year, has gotten a remarakble amount of third-down targets and seems to have an inordinate amount of trust from the 30-year-old superstar quarterback?
Studying and preparation with Wilson likely has plenty to do with that, too.
“You’ve got to respect the process along the journey and what it takes to study, what it takes to prepare—and to be honest with you, teach guys how to learn. Teach guys how to understand as much as they can and grab all that information,” Wilson said. “So that way, when we’re talking, everybody understands what we’re thinking and what we’re looking for.
“He’s done a tremendous job of that. Sure enough, it transferred in the last game. It transferred in so many games before for a lot of guys.”
Wilson’s opponent books have grown as his knowledge of opponents and thirst for more, his desire to find another edge, has increased over his career.
“It started off at five pages. Now, it’s probably at 15,” he said.
“It’s been a cool process of it.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 6:53 AM.
