How Wilson got to this position has everything to do with him and his strong arm, sharp mind, quick feet, tremendous confidence and — most of all — complete disregard for the notion hes too short to play in the NFL. Just as Wolf became convinced 20 years earlier that Brett Favre was his man, Schneider was sold on Wilson. He came back to Seattle and started telling anyone who would listen that Wilson was a legitimate NFL prospect. Wilson had background in a run-style offense at Wisconsin and a spread offense at North Carolina State, where he played for three seasons before transferring to UW. His athletic career spread to baseball — he was a fourth-round pick of the Colorado Rockies in 2010. shed him over in saying we need to take a chance on him. The amount of work the Seahawks did on Wilson before being certain they could win with a quarterback who wasnt much taller than the DePere native Schneider himself was intensive. They tapped into every resource they had to help make the decision. Carroll was connected professionally with former Minnesota Vikings coach Bud Grant, who had gone to three Super Bowls with Fran Tarkenton as his quarterback. Grant had a ton of insight on what kind of adjustments were necessary playing with a short quarterback. Pete talked to Coach Grant a lot about Fran Tarkenton and the way he played because Fran was only 5-10, Schneider said. Bevell said he and the scouts broke down all of Wilsons games dating to his time at North Carolina State, looking for flaws that might cause him to fail in the NFL. They cut up the tape so that they could see him in every type of situation and get a sense how they would have to structure their offense with him in it. We just watched him, Smith said. And I would tell Coach, hes not running plays the same way as these same plays look with other quarterbacks. And its like, hes terrific out of the pocket. He was at Wisconsin. He makes good decisions, makes good throws out there; hes explosive out there, so lets chill out. Lets watch it and (see) whats wrong when hes leaving prematurely. Is it better out there? Weve been able to figure it out. When hes protected, he sits in there. When hes not, he leaves. One physical aspect of Wilson that encouraged everybody was the size of his hands. Playing in the Northwest where its as likely to be wet and sloppy at CenturyLink Field as it is loud, a strong grip on the ball is necessary. Wilsons hand size — measured from extended pinkie to extended thumb — came in at a remarkable 10¼ inches. Compared to Favre, who had unusually large hands that measured 103/8 inches, and Aaron Rodgers, whose measure 9¾ inches, Wilson was in good company. Whats more, his 31-inch arm length allowed him to throw with a high release point, making up for the disadvantage a small quarterback has throwing over hulking linemen. When I saw him I didnt realize he was just a little bit taller than me, Schneider said. Its like, Whoa. But hes always played like that. He was throwing with anticipation, he has long arms, the ball comes out high. Once everyone in the Seahawks organization agreed Wilson could make it, the next step was figuring out where to draft him. To be safe, Schneider had signed Packers backup Matt Flynn in free agency, so not all the teams chips were on Wilson. Almost from the moment Wilson was drafted, he turned his attention to being the starting quarterback. He moved into a place close to the Seahawks facility and began grinding through the playbook. He came in with (knowledge of) the playbook, Schneider said. He ran the first rookie minicamp like he had everything down, like he ran the show. It was pretty impressive. We had him micd up. Its pretty cool to watch now. Wilson tied Mannings rookie record of 26 touchdown passes in 2012, leading the Seahawks within one game of the NFC Championship Game. This season, he threw for 26 touchdowns again and lowered his interceptions from 10 to nine. In the playoffs, he has not been all that productive, completing 25 of 43 passes for 318 yards and one touchdown, but the Seahawks dont ask him to be Manning or Rodgers. Wilson doesnt call plays at the line of scrimmage like the other two except in 2-minute situations and he doesnt carry the offense on his shoulders. On Sunday, the Seahawks will ask him just to be Russell Wilson. Its not going to always be pretty, Wilson said. Sometimes its going to be one of those games where you have to hand it off most of the time because of what the strength of your offensive line is. With the weakness of the defense, sometimes you have to throw over 400 yards. I think that for my legacy, I take one day at a time. I think thats my biggest focus. Hopefully, I play for 20 years. Hopefully, I can look back and say, Man, that was a great career. Obviously, I want to win this football game because its the next one that I have. It doesnt get any better than that.
Posted on: Sun, 02 Feb 2014 15:42:37 +0000
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