What’s up with Russell Wilson? He says he’s fine. Pete Carroll says it’s multiple issues
The NFL’s most clutch quarterback the last decade was the opposite of clutch with the Seahawks’ season on the line.
He underthrew in-the-clear DK Metcalf by 10 yards on what should and would have been a tying touchdown pass in the fourth quarter Tuesday at Los Angeles. He was way wide of Metcalf on a relatively easy slant route before that. He threw a pass to Metcalf near the goal line at the end of the first half that sailed 5 yards out of bounds.
Those missed changes doomed the offense and the team in Seattle’s 20-10 loss to the Rams. The defeat essentially killed the Seahawks’ flickering playoff hopes.
Tuesday was his third start in six games since returning from finger surgery on his right hand Wilson did not throw a touchdown pass. He went only two entire seasons with three no-TD games over his first decade leading this offense. That was before he had the surgery on the middle finger of his throwing hand Oct. 8.
This leaves the question: Is the best, most-accomplished quarterback in franchise history suddenly bad? Or is he not fully healthy?
To that latter end: The team added Wilson to their injury report Wednesday. He has a new issue: a sore ankle. That happened when a Rams pass rusher fell on him to finish one of his 34 drop backs to pass Tuesday.
The Seahawks (5-9) did not practice Wednesday for their quick-turnaround game Sunday at home against Chicago (4-10). If they had practiced, the team said Wilson would have been a full participant.
“One of the times he got knocked down, guy fell on his ankle, is what happened, in the middle of the (Rams) game. He’s sore (Wednesday),” Carroll said. “We’ll see how...it’s a short week, you know. It could be a factor.
“But it’s not going to keep Russ from playing. I don’t think that’s the case at all. He should be all right.”
.JPG "SeahawksRamsFootball (2).JPG")
About the finger...
Seattle was 2-2 the night Wilson got hurt Oct. 7 in the first Rams game this season. The Seahawks are 2-4 in the six starts Wilson’s made since finger surgery that was supposed to keep him out for eight weeks; Wilson came back in four.
Since his return, he’s been shut out over an entire game for the first time in his career. He’s thrown interceptions into the end zone in four straight games. The career 65% passer was been under 55% in completion rate three times. All three of his no-touchdown games this season have come in his last six starts.
The Seahawks are ensured of their first losing season since 2011. That was months before Seattle drafted Wilson to be their man.
Not at all where they, and particularly Wilson, want to be at Christmas.
“Where I wanna be is whatever our record could be: 10 and whatever it could be. That’s where I want to be,” Wilson said Tuesday before he left southern California.
“Unfortunately, I’ve been getting better every week.”
In what way?
Tuesday, despite having some of the most consistent pass protection he’s had in years against Aaron Donald and the usually rampaging Rams, one of this era’s most accurate and renowned deep-ball throwers was just 1 for 10 on passes in the air more than 10 yards downfield.
That one deep completion was an accident.
Wilson said he intended to hit the wide-open Metcalf past Jalen Ramsey down the right sideline late in the second quarter. But Rams pass rusher Von Miller hit Wilson’s arm as he threw. The pass shot-putted instead to tight end Gerald Everett in the middle of the field for a 34-yard gain. That set up Seattle’s only score of its malfunctioning first half, a field goal.
Wilson is not as accurate as he’d been for 10 years. The NFL leader with 35 fourth-quarter and overtime comeback wins has failed hugely this year in prime-time moments. At Green Bay in his first game back. On the final, two-point conversion pass Washington intercepted in Seattle’s 17-15 loss. At the Rams, to end the meaningful part of this wayward season.
How healthy is Wilson?
“Everything we see and what Russ is reporting, too, that he feels fine, he really does feel fine,” Carroll said. “And he’s working it hard in practice. He doesn’t miss a rep. He’s doing everything that he normally does. His warm-ups are now totally complete, all of that.
“You know, this is a finely tuned athlete that’s still got a finger in his throwing hand that is on the rebound. I’m not trying to give him an excuse, and he would never want that. He feels like he’s fine. But the fact remains he’s still got to deal with that.”
Carroll reiterated Wilson is “not showing any signs of it. We are seeing anything in practice or any of his turns that he takes.
“So I go with what Russ says: Russ feels fine.”
.JPG "SeahawksRamsFootball (1).JPG")
So different
So if it’s not his finger affecting his throwing, if the ankle isn’t going to be a big deal, what is affecting Wilson? What was behind his five straight drives of three and out gaining just 24 yards through the bulk of a game he lost to a backup quarterback and a sub-.500 team at Washington? Why is he throwing incomplete passes many yards off target, leaving Metcalf kicking and punching air as the ball doesn’t reach him?
“I think that there are some plays out there we could have had, we could made and this and that,” Wilson said Tuesday. “I felt like I was a little short on DK on that one (that could have tied the game at 17 with 8 minutes left).”
Wilson said stop-and-go routes, “double moves” as Metcalf ran on that third down blowing past Ramsey, are often tough for the quarterback. It’s difficult, Wilson said, to gauge the speed the receiver is going to come into that second, go route and thus how much air to leave under the ball or whether to throw it out more on a line for Metcalf to go get.
Had he done the latter, the Seahawks and Rams would have been tied entering the end of that dooming game for Seattle. Instead, Wilson’s undethrown ball allowed Ramsey to run back into the play, knock the pass away, and keep L.A. ahead 17-10.
“I wish I could have had that one back,” Wilson said.
Why is this happening, a lot? Why isn’t Wilson, one month after his 33rd birthday, playing like he did when he turned 32, 31, 30, 29, 28...?
“I think it’s all of it. It’s everything that goes along with it. We’ve got to be better in all phases, is the first thing,” Carroll said. “It’s not just one guy.
“But, I know that it took time, it took time for Russ to get back from the time off, you know? He wasn’t quite the same. He could still play and do well and do all kinds of things. But he just had to work his way through it. I think it’s a little bit of everything. We’ve got to be better in all ways.
“But I think it’s been a challenge in that regard, physically.”
Dissly onto COVID list
The Seahawks put tight end Will Dissly onto the reserve/COVID-19 list. He was one of two Seattle vaccinated players the league randomly selected to test for the coronavirus Wednesday. That’s the NFL’s new protocol, as of last Thursday, with vaccinated players. No longer are they testing at least once per week.
Running back Alex Collins came off the COVID list. He and top wide receiver Tyler Lockett tested positive the same day last Thursday.
Carroll said Lockett is close to coming off the list. Vaccinated players on it have to have two negative tests to return to full team participation.
The Seahawks are the COVID list are: Dissly, Lockett, starting cornerback D.J. Reed, starting right tackle Brandon Shell, defensive end Kerry Hyder, defensive tackle Bryan Mone and running back Travis Homer — plus practice-squad players center Pier-Olivier Lestage, tight end Ryan Izzo and cornerback Mike Jackson.
This story was originally published December 22, 2021 at 4:34 PM.
