Russell Wilson throwing without a glove, taking direct snaps Seahawks pregame at Green Bay
Russell Wilson didn’t come out for his early, early pregame work—two-plus hours before a game in a sweat suit—as he normally does.
But about an hour before kickoff Sunday the Seahawks’ quarterback was on the field in full uniform, back from surgery on his throwing hand and back to normal. He started Seattle’s game against the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field, weeks earlier than his doctor expected.
Wilson took direct snaps from center Ethan Pocic into the throwing hand and middle finger on which he had torn a tendon, dislocated and fractured two bones Oct. 7 in his last game played, against the Los Angeles Rams. Five weeks and two days after he had surgery in Los Angeles, Wilson threw passes pregame without wearing a glove or a protective contraption on the repaired hand, on a 35-degree day in Green Bay.
He had been considering multiple devices and possible pads and gloves to wear in his return game. He had missed the Seahawks’ previous three games, the first missed starts of his 10-year career after 165 consecutive games played. It was the sixth-longest streak in NFL history.
A game full of if not exclusively with shotgun snaps deeper behind center was possible for Wilson. The slamming of the ball into his hand in a direct snap was going to be a pain-management issue.
The Seahawks have been running more plays with the quarterback taking direct snaps under center this season in new coordinator Shane Waldron’s system.
The specialist who repaired Wilson’s hand last month, Dr. Steve Shin, said while clearing the quarterback to play this past week he was “absolutely amazed” in Wilson’s rapid recovery. Wilson said Shin had told him it could be six to eight weeks of recovery time before he played again.
He practiced for the first time Monday, four weeks and three days after surgery.
“Although this was unchartered territory (I have never in my career see such a severe injury to the throwing hand of an NFL quarterback), I have also never encountered a player so committed to his postoperative therapy and with so much conviction to return to the same, if not better, level of performance as he had pre-injury,” Shin, Wilson’s Los Angeles-based surgeon, said in his statement the Seahawks issued exactly one month after Wilson had surgery. “I am absolutely amazed at his progress, so much so that I can now confidently clear him for full return to play without reservation.”
Collier active
A recent first-round pick was back at least playing again for the Seahawks.
They made L.J. Collier active to play for only the third time in nine games this season Sunday. The first-round draft choice in 2019 got the spot in the defensive-tackle rotation against the Packers running game and returning quarterback Aaron Rodgers.
That spot had gone to Robert Nkemdiche six times in the first eight games. Nkemdiche was a healthy inactive player Sunday.
Also inactive for the game against the Packers: backup cornerback Bless Austin (personal issue), third quarterback Jacob Eason, reserve linebacker and special-teams player Cody Barton (quadriceps injury), backup center Dakoda Shepley and rookie reserve offensive tackle Stone Forsythe.
Packers two-time left tackle David Bakhtiari came off Green Bay’s injured list this past week but was inactive for Sunday’s game. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee Dec. 31. Elgton Jenkins again started at left tackle for Green Bay protecting Rodgers’ back side.
This story was originally published November 14, 2021 at 12:52 PM.
