Bobby Wagner giving to needy families for Halloween, while having to right his Seahawks

RENTON — His Seahawks are losing.

Yet Bobby Wagner is winning, off the field.

The Seahawks’ All-Pro linebacker, co-captain and 2019 nominee for the NFL’s Walter Payton Man of the Year award is teaming with Head Start, the nation’s federally funded child-development program to help low-income families in the Seattle area. Wagner’s help has a particular theme this weekend. Halloween is on Sunday, the day the Seahawks play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Lumen Field.

“Getting into the holiday spirit, I decided to team up with a program called Head Start. We’re going to offer about 200 kids the opportunity to buy some Halloween costumes,” Wagner said.

Wagner has bought shoppers’ Thanksgiving groceries for more than a half hour at a Seattle Safeway, partnered with the city’s Low Income Housing Institute’s project to house the homeless and led “Walk with Wagner” events to raise stroke awareness across Western Washington.

“I remember when I was a kid and I wanted to dress up as my favorite person or superhero,” he said. “I know there’s some families out there struggling, so I wanted to find a way to provide an opportunity for them, if they would like, to take advantage of buying a costume.”

That’s not all Wagner is providing this weekend.

“I also understand that not everybody celebrates this holiday, so also this Sunday, as well as with the costumes, I will be giving out some food for those who want to come and enjoy some food or see if they have some good costumes,” Wagner said. “I think it’ll be fun, interesting.”

And needed. Wagner calls it something we all should do, or at least try to do.

“I think it’s important to really focus on how you can apply random acts of kindness into your life,” he said. “This is my personal way of trying to do it.

“But I also feel that people have many other ways to do it. This is my version.

“I encourage people to try to figure out what their version of random acts of kindness looks like.”

Wagner is 31 now, 10 years into an NFL and Seahawks career that has made the Super Bowl champion, six-time All-Pro and seven-time Pro Bowl selection one of the best, most-accomplished players of his era.

He doesn’t often think about how long he’s been in the middle of Seattle’s defense. And he’s certainly not spending much time dwelling on his career right now. He’s got other, more pressing worries.

Seattle is 2-5 for the first time in Wagner’s career. The team is already five games out of the lead in the NFC West, with his co-captain Russell Wilson out indefinitely following finger surgery on his throwing hand.

Yet Wagner gets reminded regularly how long he’s been excelling in the middle of the Seahawks defense — on the field during and after games.

“You know you’ve been playing in the league long enough when a guy from another team comes up and says, ‘Hey, I wore your jersey as a kid.’ I’m like, I don’t know if I should take that as a compliment, or what.”

Better defense, but…

Wagner’s defense has improved the last two games from being the NFL’s worst and most gained-upon unit through four games. The Seahawks had allowed at least 450 yards in four consecutive games, tying an NFL record, until holding Pittsburgh to 345 and New Orleans to 304 the last two games.

Seattle had been allowing foes to convert third downs as if no defenders were on the field in September: 6 for 14 by Tennessee, 9 for 14 by Minnesota in consecutive losses. Since then, the Seahawks are allowing teams to covert just 21% of the time on third downs the last four games.

Wagner, coach Pete Carroll and defensive coordinator Ken Norton Jr. said this week they believe the Seahawks have turned a corner to improvement on defense, particularly in pass coverage and tightening soft zones in the middle of the defense.

“Guys are just communicating better,” Norton said Wednesday. “People are really making a strong decision on trying to do things right. I think there’s a certain formula that everybody knows to win football games, or at least a chance to win football games, to be in the game and be competitive.

“We’ve been really emphasizing being more consistent first half to second half. So often we play an outstanding first half and give up points or give extra yards up in the second half. We’ve really emphasized being consistent, dominate on both halves. Those are things that we are all working to get better at.”

Wagner credits the man who was getting the blame last month, Norton. He was Wagner’s position coach when Seattle drafted the linebacker in the second round in 2012, one round before the team selected Wilson in the same draft.

“I think he deserves a lot of credit,” Wagner said of Norton. “His job is a very hard job. When we’re doing well, it’s the players. When we’re doing not so well, it’s him. He’s done a really good job of making adjustments, putting guys in different positions to try to make some plays. He’s been a big key to why we’ve been able to turn it around these last few games.”

Yet the bottom line is the Seahawks have won only one of those last four games. That was at San Francisco when Jimmy Garoppolo left the game injured and rookie Trey Lance struggling running Garoppolo’s game plan on the fly. Ben Roethlisberger threw ultra-quickly and short to help Seattle’s yards-allowed total in Pittsburgh. And the Saints are a shell of their former Drew Brees selves on offense right now in Brees’ first year of retirement.

James Robinson is key

Now the Seahawks (2-5) get the Jaguars (1-5). First-overall pick Trevor Lawrence has seven touchdown passes and eight interceptions through six games, not atypical of rookie quarterbacks who start in this league.

Lawrence with coach Urban Myer get all the attention for Jacksonville. Yet Wagner’s and Seattle’s first task is to limit running back James Robinson better than they did Alvin Kamara in losing 13-10 to New Orleans Monday night, the Seahawks’ second of at least three games without Wilson.

Robinson is seventh in the NFL in rushing (460 yards), third among regular rushers with 5.5 yards per carry and tied for third in the league with five rushing touchdowns.

Kamara was the Saints’ only threat, in run and pass, and he wrecked Seattle. He had 10 catches for 128 yards and was left all alone on his 13-yard touchdown pass from Jameis Winston late in the first half, New Orleans’ only and decisive touchdown.

Robinson is not the frequent or down-field threat catching the ball that Kamara is; Robinson has 17 catches for a 7-yard average in six games. But like Kamara was last game, Robinson is the one player the Seahawks must contain to win on defense.

The Seahawks are 30th in the NFL in rush defense, allowing 134.1 yards per game. Expect Myer to challenge Seattle with Robinson’s running on Sunday.

“He runs hard,” Wagner said. “They have a really good scheme on how they block up certain fronts, so when he hits the hole, he goes. You watch him break a lot of tackles. He’s driving his feet. He runs hungry.

“It’s going to be a good challenge for us.”

About those Halloween costumes: Wagner had go-to ones as a kid growing up in Ontario, California.

“It was either the Ninja turtle one (Raphael was his fave, because red is his favorite color) or the Batman one where you could have the fake abs, six pack,” Wagner said.

“I was fooled for many years. I really thought he had a six pack. I found out as I got older it was just the suit.”