Seahawks’ Russell Wilson: “I am frustrated on getting hit too much.” So now what?
Is Russell Wilson frustrated with the Seahawks?
“I’m frustrated on getting hit too much. I’m frustrated with that.”
That’s what Seattle’s $140 million franchise quarterback said Tuesday after a national report Wilson “has grown increasingly frustrated by the Seahawks inability to protect the 8 time Pro Bowler.”
Speaking during an online Zoom call put on by the NFL for winning its Walter Payton Man of the Year Award Saturday, Wilson had the chance to refute the report Monday night by CBS Sports’ Jason La Canfora. It said “Wilson’s camp” was frustrated with his lack of consistent pass protection in Seattle.
Instead, Wilson confirmed it.
“At the end of the day, man, I’m frustrated. You want to win, you know,” Wilson said. “I think that’s part of the process, you know.”
He laughed.
“Hopefully that answers it for you,” he said.
It does. He is frustrated, particularly after watching from the stadium in Tampa, Florida, Sunday night as Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl title.
That’s six more than Wilson. The 32-year-old Seahawks cornerstone, the winningest quarterback in league history over the first nine years of a career in terms of regular-season victories, repeated he wants to be among the quarterbacks who have won the most everything in NFL history.
Foremost, Super Bowls.
“I love playing for Seattle. Loved it for years,” said, Wilson, whose 48 sacks this past season were tied for third-most in the league. “The reality is, I think it’s frustrating being there (at the Super Bowl), watching the game...
“Like any player, you never want to get hit. That’s the reality of playing this position. Ask any quarterback who wants to play this game.
“I’ve been sacked almost 400 times. So we’ve got to get better up front. I’ve got to find ways to get better, too.”
The line’s issues
Wilson is justified in being frustrated at constantly running for his life while dropping back to pass the last several years. He was sacked the sixth-most times in the NFL in 2019, the same number of sacks (48) as in 2020. In 2018, he got sacked 51 times, fifth-most in the league. In 2017 it was 43 times, seventh-most in the NFL. In 2016, 42 times, sixth-most.
Wilson is part of the reason Wilson has been getting sacked a lot.
He often holds onto the ball far longer than plays are designed for him to, far longer than any offensive lineman should have to repel a charging pass rusher on any play. That’s been an issue for years. It became more obvious the latter half of this past season.
Wilson and play caller Brian Schottenheimer continued trying to throw long-developing long passes against defenses that dropped a second safety deep in pass coverage to prevent the longer throws Wilson had made spectacularly over the first half of the 2020 season.
That’s why Schottenheimer is no longer the offensive coordinator.
That’s why coach Pete Carroll has hired Shane Waldron from the Los Angeles Rams to be his new play caller, to call the Rams’ quicker passes and more running plays so the offensive line will have a better chance to pass protect against defenses that, in theory, will play Seattle more honestly with a safety closer to the line of scrimmage in 2021.
Wilson said last month he did not support or want his friend Schottenheimer fired after three seasons scheming Seattle’s offense.
Yes, Wilson was a part of that hiring of Waldron. The quarterback has already formed an opinion of the 41-year-old Portland native as a first-time NFL play caller.
“He has that ‘it’ factor and wants to be great,” Wilson said.
“I think he’s going to be a great offensive coordinator.”
Wilson remains where he’s been for nine years, since the Seahawks drafted him in the spring of 2012: under contract with Seattle. For three more seasons.
Everything else is what’s become standard, offseason noise.
He’s not getting traded. He knows that. He is tied to Seattle contractually through the 2023 season. He knows that, too.
So Wilson is sounding a call for improvement in his offensive line that has two starters with contracts that expired with the end of the 2020 season: center Ethan Pocic and left guard Mike Iupati.
“It always starts up front. Offensively, defensively, it always does,” Wilson said.
He wants to be involved in getting better blockers to better the offense, and his career.
“Obviously, I’ve had conversations with Pete and with John (Schneider, Seattle’s general manager),” Wilson said. “Both of those guys, they believed in me to sign me way back in the day. They took a risk on me — I wouldn’t say a risk, but to the rest of the world it would probably be a risk.
“I think, though, at the same time, being involved in the conversations, continuing to be involved, I think you ask guys like Drew Brees, Peyton Manning, even guys like Tom (with the Bucs) you saw this year how much he was involved in the process, I think that’s something that is important to me — and making sure that I’m trying to do everything I can. Because, I think, at the end of the day I’ve got to be out there. I’ve got to be out there. I’ve got to make the calls, make the plays, make the throws ...”
Moves they’ve made
The Seahawks have actually made their offensive line better since Wilson got the richest contract in NFL history in the spring of 2019.
Seattle this past year drafted Damien Lewis. He started at right guard since the first game of a rookie season through all of 2020. The team signed Brandon Shell to a two-year, $11 million contract to replace liability Germain Ifedi at right tackle. Shell, the former New York Jets right tackle, has been a marked upgrade as Wilson’s front-side pass protector.
They still have pass-protection issues. The Los Angeles Rams, the league’s No. 1 defense, particularly exposed those. They sacked Wilson 16 times and hit him 30 times in three games from November through Seattle’s season-ending playoff loss to L.A. Jan. 9. Wilson got sacked 48 times in 16 regular-season games in 2020, the third-most times in the league. But the offensive line has improved, above what for years in Seattle has been a very low bar.
Carroll and Schneider have set their franchise approach in the salary-cap era to pay Wilson and All-Pro linebacker Bobby Wagner the richest contracts at their positions. They decided to re-sign the since-departed “Legion of Boom” secondary to keep Richard Sherman, Earl Thomas and Kam Chancellor and the team’s championship-winning window open after consecutive appearances in the Super Bowl at the end of the 2013 and ‘14 seasons. They gave deals to 100-catch wide receiver Tyler Lockett and before that Pro Bowl pass catcher Doug Baldwin.
You can’t pay everyone, not with the cap limiting each team’s payroll each year. The area the Seahawks have chosen to skimp over the last decade has generally been the offensive line.
They’ve signed an undrafted former college basketball player to be a starting tackle (George Fant). They’ve converted a former college defensive tackle to Super Bowl guard (J.R. Sweezy). Their last two starting centers, Justin Britt and Ethan Pocic, failed first at guard and tackle before holding down a starting job as Wilson’s snapper.
The Seahawks drafted more offensive linemen than any other team over the last decade. Those picks have more often failed. Justin Senior, anyone? Rees Odhiambo?
Duane Brown has been a notable exception. Seattle traded with Houston to get the Pro Bowl left tackle as the vital backside protector for Wilson, then gave him a rich, new extension. It took Wilson renegotiating his contract and restructuring salary into bonus money to fit Brown’s deal under Seattle’s cap.
Brown turns 36 in August. This coming year will be the final one of his contract. The Seahawks have a decision to make at left tackle beyond 2021.
Same for center and left guard. Pocic’s rookie contract ended with the end of this past season. He can become a free agent when the 2021 league year begins next month. Mike Iupati is headed out from left guard. The 33-year-old has been limited in his two Seahawks seasons by a chronic nerve issue in his neck.
Kyle Fuller at center and Jordan Simmons at left guard are cheaper, in-house options. But with the exception of drafting Lewis, cheaper hasn’t been better for the last half-dozen years along Seattle’s offensive line.
It’s understandable for Wilson to not want the Seahawks to skimp on the needed upgrades to the O-line.
Cap concerns
This is a tough offseason to stop skimping. The salary cap is going down for each team, for only the second time in the NFL’s cap era that began in the early 1990s (the other time was during the lockout of 2011). Reduced in-stadium revenues from the 2020 season played through the coronavirus pandemic is going to result in the cap dropping from $198.2 million per team in 2020.
The league and its players’ union have agreed the floor for the cap in 2021 will be $175 million. There are indications it will settle at around $185 million for this year before free agency begins in mid-March. A reduction of $10 million per team in cap space means many veteran players with middle-class salaries are going to get cut for money reasons this offseason.
There will be options in free agency for Seattle to add and seek to improve the offensive line, but Duane Brown-like expensive options are going to be tougher than ever to fit under the cap this spring and summer.
“I’ve always put my trust in the Seahawks, and trying to do whatever it takes to win. And, hopefully, that will continue,” Wilson said. “That is a key part.
“A key part is how we go about the protection part of it.”
This story was originally published February 9, 2021 at 11:34 AM.
