Seahawks’ Russell Wilson forces foes to pick their poison
RENTON, Wash. – The theatrics of Seahawks quarterback Russell Wilson have earned him a reputation as a football Houdini.
Here is Wilson, the handcuffs on, the key thrown away – only to suddenly, improbably, emerge uninhibited on stage left.
As Eagles coach Chip Kelly said after watching Wilson’s dark magic cripple his defense, “You thought you had him sacked, you could hear the crowd going crazy, you thought you had him down, then he comes out of it.”
But what Wilson did in Seattle’s convincing 31-17 win against the Panthers last Saturday was a different kind of magic. Wilson picked apart Carolina’s defense from the comforts of the pocket with quick, precise throws. It’s a rabbit he has only occasionally pulled out of his hat, and to far less acclaim.
“I think it really shows people around the league … that this guy can throw it from the pocket so we better get pressure on him,” Hall of Fame quarterback Warren Moon said. “But we still have to be leery that he can get outside of the pocket. In some ways, you try to rush him like a controlled rush to keep him in the pocket. But if he’s throwing this way, in rhythm like that, and you’re going to have a controlled rush, you won’t win because you won’t get to him.”
“So,” Moon concluded, “pick your poison.”
Wilson has wanted to release the ball quicker this season, and he produced his masterpiece against the Panthers.
According to the analytics site Pro Football Focus, Wilson averaged only 2.2 seconds between the snap and an attempted pass. That was his shortest average this season and more than half a second better than his season average.
In fact, quarterbacks coach Carl Smith struggled to recall a moment in which Wilson hung on to the ball for one of his characteristic scramble plays. (There was only one: a 33-yard pass to Jermaine Kearse in the first quarter in which Wilson bought time with his legs.)
“He’s only going to grow more confident in his ability to anticipate throws,” said former NFL quarterback Brady Quinn, who spent a training camp with Wilson two years ago. “Even being able to throw the football when he can’t necessarily see the window. He’s a smaller guy, and sometimes it’s harder for him to see over the line. But he’ll come to a point where he’ll be like Drew Brees and anticipate a throw into a window that he couldn’t even see. He’ll just know and trust it’s there.”
The Seahawks don’t want to eliminate Wilson’s playmaking – those long plays wreck defenses. They want him to mesh those moments of organized chaos with quicker, in-rhythm throws.
“To have that at each end of the spectrum working for us makes us as tough as we can make it,” coach Pete Carroll said. “We need more of the fast-rhythm stuff.”
The biggest benefit is the relief those quick passes give the offensive line and the pressure it puts on opposing pass rushes. Wilson averaged the longest time in the NFL between the snap and an attempted pass this season – 2.89 seconds, according to Pro Football Focus – but Moon and Carroll both said Wilson has been quicker in the past three or four games.
“It also puts less pressure on him,” receiver Doug Baldwin said. “He’s not sitting there trying to go through all the reads. He’s just reading the coverage, knows our guys are going to get open and trusts he can throw it there. And then it takes a lot of pressure off the offensive line. They don’t have to protect for a million seconds. They can just protect, he gets it out and we keep the ball rolling.”