Hawks keeping lid on rookie QB Wilson
RENTON, Wash. (AP) — For now, the Seattle Seahawks are perfectly content to keep a lid on an offense being run by rookie quarterback Russell Wilson.
That's not intended to be a knock on Wilson, who has looked impressive at times and shaky at others in his three NFL starts.
But Seattle head coach Pete Carroll is so fearful of committing turnovers that he'd rather call for his offense to be bland and basic for the early part of the season than ask Wilson to make dynamic plays and try to pass the Seahawks to victory.
So through the first three weeks, the Seahawks have done their best to not put Wilson in a position to make mistakes, even though they know eventually Wilson will need to show off the type of throwing ability that won him the starting job in the preseason.
"I'm overseeing all of that. What's most important to me is that we take care of the football," Carroll said. "What we're concerned about is that we have to convert on third down. We did a poor job on third down, particularly in the second half, but as it fits together, we're growing."
With Wilson not being asked to do much, the Seahawks have relied on the running of Marshawn Lynch and Seattle's stout defense, which leads the NFL in points allowed per game (13) and is second in yards rushing per game (58.7 yards). Lynch leads the NFC with 305 yards rushing through three weeks, but has also been burdened with 72 carries, the second-highest total in the league behind Houston's Arian Foster.
The lack of relying on a passing game is fine by Wilson and his receivers for now, who remain confident it will be there when needed.
"I think that we're doing a good job of handing the ball to Marshawn and letting him do his thing. When we get a chance to capitalize on explosive plays, we have to capitalize on those," Wilson said. "We just have to get a few more explosive plays, and on third down just make the throws and make the catches or whatever it is. We've just been a hair off. So that's fixable for sure."
The one area where Wilson has excelled is late-game drives. It happened in Week 1 when Wilson took the Seahawks 76 yards to the Arizona 4 on the final possession while trying for a game-winning touchdown. Wilson hit six of his first eight throws on that final drive, before missing his final five throws.
Against Green Bay last week, Wilson twice put together late drives, albeit with the help of a couple of questionable penalties against the Packers. On his final two drives, Wilson was a combined 5 of 10 including the now infamously disputed 24-yard TD pass to Golden Tate on the final play of the game.
"He threw the ball beautifully so he has the throws in him," Carroll said. "We're just going to emerge when we just feel good and confident about what we're doing."
An area of concern and focus this week for Wilson has been staying in the pocket longer and trusting his blocking. Wilson was officially hit just three times by the Packers, but was often quick to scramble away from the pocket.
"I know that I have the ability to make plays with my feet, too, but I would rather stay in there and make throws," Wilson said. "That's the first little note I made myself personally as soon as we watched the film. I just have to make sure that I stay in the pocket a little bit longer and trust it a little bit longer."
Notes: Seattle starting RT Breno Giacomini (pectoral) and RG John Moffitt (knee) did not participate in practice for the second straight day, while LB Leroy Hill (foot) also sat out Thursday's practice. WR Doug Baldwin (shoulder), who missed Monday's game vs. Green Bay was a full participant for the second straight day.
That's not intended to be a knock on Wilson, who has looked impressive at times and shaky at others in his three NFL starts.
But Seattle head coach Pete Carroll is so fearful of committing turnovers that he'd rather call for his offense to be bland and basic for the early part of the season than ask Wilson to make dynamic plays and try to pass the Seahawks to victory.
So through the first three weeks, the Seahawks have done their best to not put Wilson in a position to make mistakes, even though they know eventually Wilson will need to show off the type of throwing ability that won him the starting job in the preseason.
"I'm overseeing all of that. What's most important to me is that we take care of the football," Carroll said. "What we're concerned about is that we have to convert on third down. We did a poor job on third down, particularly in the second half, but as it fits together, we're growing."
With Wilson not being asked to do much, the Seahawks have relied on the running of Marshawn Lynch and Seattle's stout defense, which leads the NFL in points allowed per game (13) and is second in yards rushing per game (58.7 yards). Lynch leads the NFC with 305 yards rushing through three weeks, but has also been burdened with 72 carries, the second-highest total in the league behind Houston's Arian Foster.
The lack of relying on a passing game is fine by Wilson and his receivers for now, who remain confident it will be there when needed.
"I think that we're doing a good job of handing the ball to Marshawn and letting him do his thing. When we get a chance to capitalize on explosive plays, we have to capitalize on those," Wilson said. "We just have to get a few more explosive plays, and on third down just make the throws and make the catches or whatever it is. We've just been a hair off. So that's fixable for sure."
The one area where Wilson has excelled is late-game drives. It happened in Week 1 when Wilson took the Seahawks 76 yards to the Arizona 4 on the final possession while trying for a game-winning touchdown. Wilson hit six of his first eight throws on that final drive, before missing his final five throws.
Against Green Bay last week, Wilson twice put together late drives, albeit with the help of a couple of questionable penalties against the Packers. On his final two drives, Wilson was a combined 5 of 10 including the now infamously disputed 24-yard TD pass to Golden Tate on the final play of the game.
"He threw the ball beautifully so he has the throws in him," Carroll said. "We're just going to emerge when we just feel good and confident about what we're doing."
An area of concern and focus this week for Wilson has been staying in the pocket longer and trusting his blocking. Wilson was officially hit just three times by the Packers, but was often quick to scramble away from the pocket.
"I know that I have the ability to make plays with my feet, too, but I would rather stay in there and make throws," Wilson said. "That's the first little note I made myself personally as soon as we watched the film. I just have to make sure that I stay in the pocket a little bit longer and trust it a little bit longer."
Notes: Seattle starting RT Breno Giacomini (pectoral) and RG John Moffitt (knee) did not participate in practice for the second straight day, while LB Leroy Hill (foot) also sat out Thursday's practice. WR Doug Baldwin (shoulder), who missed Monday's game vs. Green Bay was a full participant for the second straight day.
Hey Pete, instead of being overly protective of Wilson, how about working on the team's discipline. The number of penalties the Seahawks have received is ridiculous! In that aspect, I sure miss Holmgren. I have an EXCELLENT team. Now work on their sharpness!
This is the stupidest thing I have heard. He supposedly won the starting job because he picked up the offense quickly and was more dynamic than Flynn. Are we trying to win or not? I would rather lose games with Wilson trying to make plays than watching an anemic offense. If this is truly the case, then why are we not playing Flynn? This sounds like an excuse to me. An excuse that Carroll may have made a mistake and trying to keep it covered up. Perhaps Wilson being dynamic over second and third stringers in preseason wasn't the best evaluation to decide he should be a starting QB.
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In full disclosure, I am a Flynn guy. I believe Wilson is too short to be a starting QB in this league. From what I have seen so far this season out of Wilson, is that he has a hard time seeing over the line, he quickly bails out of solid pockets making work difficult for his tackle, and the rare times he stays in the pocket, he has to have a higher throwing trajectory to get the ball over the line, causing balls to sail higher.
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Again, with that all said, if Carroll is keeping the lid on Wilson, then unleash him so we all can see what he really can do. I for one am tired seeing an anemic offense continually going three and out and constantly putting our great defense back on the field to get worn out by the 4th quarter.
 @UWGrad_96 Please no one would rather lose games.  If we're 0-3 right now due to Wilson INTs you are on here calling for Flynn to be in there.  Keep on hating.
I think you missed my point. You are correct, I would be wanting Flynn if the Seahawks were 0-3 right now. But I already fully disclosed that I wanted Flynn regardless. I am not hating on Wilson. I want him to do well, but I think he is limited against the big boys. I am just tired of seeing an anemic offense, especially when the defense is playing so well. and you are correct that I don't want to see the Seahawks lose. My point was that if Carroll is keeping a lid on Wilson, why? He was suppose to be electrifying this offense. That is what I want to see, not a bunch of three and outs. I want to see Wilson be dynamic and electrifying that we were told that he was. I rather him push the offense down the field and if he makes mistakes and the Seahawks lose, then so be it, at least they played all out. Right now, Brandon Weeden on a crappy Cleveland Browns team with WR talent much worse than Seattle's is much more electrifying than this Seattle offense with a rookie QB running it. The Seahawks are asking alot of their defense having the offense continually going three and out. You started to see it in the second half. They started getting tired having to go onto the field so often.
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And by the way, this team could easily be 0-3 and should be 1-2 right now. Seattle lost to Arizona because the offense couldn't do much and the defense got worn out. If it were not for the special teams and defense making plays in the Dallas game, I think there is a good chance Seattle would have lost that game, because they did not win because of the offense. And we all saw what happened on the Monday night game. The offense stunk up the joint and the defense kept them in that entire game.
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I just want to see some offense already. We were not told that this was suppose to be a rebuilding year. We went out and spent money on Flynn to be the man to compete against SF for this division, because we all know that T-Jack couldn't get it done. If Wilson is better than Flynn, then fine, but so far he hasn't shown much of anything this season. If that is because of Carroll, then unleash him!
 @UWGrad_96 A rookie needs to be dealt with very carefully or you can ruin a guy. Being tall means almost nothing it is the release point for a quarterback that makes the difference. Wilson played behind a super tall O line and did fine a Wisconsin. Finding a passing lane is key and there are tall quarterbacks in the league that have a low release point. Wilson has a very high release point. Drew Breese is barely taller than Wilson and has a lower release point. Your comments show a lack of football playing and knowledge like most folks in Washington. The hawks time to go for the superbowl is still a year or two off. They need more time.
My knowledge of football is quite fine. As I said in my post, his release point is very high to throw over his offensive line and thus his balls are sailing on him. I don't think we disagree with that based on your response. Can his mechanics be tweaked, sure it can. And there are exceptions to QBs being short and not doing well, as we see from Brees, Vick, and Flutie. But, height matters more times than not, and short quarterbacks tend to not perform well in the NFL moreso than the exceptions.Â
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I would normally agree with you about bringing a rookie QB along slowly, but in this case I do not. We were sold on Wilson as being a QB that picked up the offense quicker than Flynn and would be dynamic in this offense. So far the offense has been anemic and if the plan is to bring Wilson along slowly, then Flynn should be starting and Wilson learn from the bench like most QBs do when being brought along slowly. You throw a rookie QB into the fire and learn on the fly when you have no other viable option at QB. In this case we have another viable option. But, at no time during the offseason or preseason was the expectation for the Seahawks to still be rebuilding. The expectations were that we have a Top 5 Defense and we paid a lot of money to a free agent QB to actually compete against the 49ers in this division and be making a playoff run. Which we won't be doing if the offense continues to run this way.
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Also, I would buy the kid gloves approach in this situation only if there were not 4 other rookie QBs on teams that were suppose to be worse than the Seahawks that are performing much better than Wilson. Luck and RG3 are doing great. Tanehill is doing better with less talent, and eventhough the Browns haven't won a game, Weeden is playing much better with no talent around him. Therefore, I don't want to hear that we are bringing Wilson along slowly to learn. You learn by making mistakes. I rather the Seahawks be losing games with the offense trying to make plays rather than see them lean heavily on the defense to try and pitch shutouts.
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If Carroll is telling the truth, which I don't think he is, about holding Wilson back, then unleash him. But, my gut tells me that he made a mistake with his choice of starting QB and don't want to yet admit it. To date, Carroll has a horrible track record in the NFL regarding his personel decisions, especially on offense. So forgive me if I don't trust Carroll and his choice to go with Wilson.
Stupid. Let the kid play. He'll make mistakes but he'll learn from them.