Russell Wilson hasn’t played all preseason? One pass to Tyler Lockett shows he’s ready
Russell Wilson has been the best quarterback in Seahawks history.
He’s their only Super Bowl winner. He holds more records than Motown. He’s thrown a zillion passes in a million practices over his 10 years as Seattle’s starter.
Yet the throw he made Tuesday in a closed practice is among the best I’ve seen from in his decade with the team.
Return Day for the Seahawks included the return of uber-popular tight end Luke Willson, who looked like Fabio. It also included the return eight players who have been out a while because of injuries returning to practice.
And it was a return of Wilson to peak performance, behind the scenes as he’s yet to play this preseason.
The timing, the unspoken bond with his receiver, the precision lead one convinced that despite the fact he has yet to play through two preseason games, Wilson and his ace pass catcher Tyler Lockett (despite a groin injury last week) are more than ready for Seattle’s opener Sept. 12 at Indianapolis.
“That was spectacular,” coach Pete Carroll said.
In a red-zone drill against the first-team defense, Lockett ran a double move out then up on Damarious Randall to the right sideline. The former Green Bay Packers starting cornerback impressively was all over Lockett’s route, shoulder to shoulder with him. The trusting Wilson’s fired a line-drive throw.
It was perfect.
Randall was so tightly guarding Lockett into the end zone along the right sideline the cornerback had to figure the ball was going somewhere else. It didn’t. The quarterback knew exactly where his seventh-year, 100-catch receiver from 2020 would run. Wilson zipped the ball to that spot, over the unsuspecting Randall’s arm and helmet. It stuck to Lockett’s hands as if Wilson had slammed it in them like a dollar bill.
Randall, coordinator Ken Norton Jr. and the defense couldn’t believe it when Lockett finished the catch and the dragging of his toes inside the boundary for the touchdown.
“Yeah, that was spectacular. But it was like ‘OK, we’ve seen that before,’” Carroll said.
“It was like, ’He did it again,’ sort of a thing.
“It was beautiful.”
Carroll said following the team’s loss playing reserves against Denver last Saturday those who haven’t played in the two preseason games will play this Saturday night when the Seahawks host the Los Angeles Chargers in the preseason finale at Lumen Field (7 p.m., Channel 13). That’s about two-dozen guys.
He didn’t mention Wilson by name. Yet the return of fourth-year veteran Jamarco Jones to practice to start at left tackle filling in for still holding-in Duane Brown suggests Wilson will start and play perhaps into the second quarter or longer against the Chargers Saturday.
He and Lockett have showed what no one has seen in Seattle’s mostly dysfunctional preseason games. Their innate sense of knowing what each other is going to do with the ball and the route is translating well into new play caller Shane Waldron’s quick-throw system the coordinator has been installing all spring and summer.
Lockett’s new four-year contract with $37 million guaranteed he signed this spring may pay off handsomely for Seattle in Waldron’s new schemes. These Seahawks will seek to get the ball out of Wilson’s hands more quickly to help the team’s annually-iffy pass protection. That means into the hands of play makers Lockett, DK Metcalf, versatile tight end Gerald Everett, lead running back Chris Carson and others more quickly this season.
Carroll said Tuesday’s exquisite pass, route and catch through Randall was a reminder Lockett is “a naturally gifted athlete.”
“Everything is just so smooth and easy to him,” Carroll said. “He’s one of the real special, all-around athletes. He can do anything: throw, catch, shoot. He can do anything.
“That’s why I’ve always said that when you put that kind of athlete at one spot and then you’ve got Russell who’s similar, and all of the versatility that he has and his background, those two guys working together, there’s a chemistry that goes beyond what most people can function. And he’s a magnificent player.”
Lockett now has his third offensive coordinator since Seattle picked him in the third round of the 2015 NFL draft. Darrell Bevell, Brian Schottenheimer and now Waldron have sought to maximize all of Lockett’s quickness, precise and savvy route running, plus his unique bond with Wilson.
This season, Lockett is likely to be doing that more quickly in Waldron’s high-tempo system.
“It looks a lot like what we do in the 2-minute (drill) from the past six years that I’ve been here,” Lockett said. “But now it’s more efficient in which there’s a bunch of plays that Russell can choose from.
“It’s not just 15 plays like we used to have. Now, you might have 40 to 50 plays that he can choose from.”
None will be better than the one on which Wilson and Lockett connected through the disbelieving Randall Tuesday.
This story was originally published August 25, 2021 at 11:25 AM.
